Applies to:  All versions of Centrify DirectControl on Mac OSX 10.4 - 10.6

Question:

Why does the group policy Software Update Server automatically appends “/” forward slash to the end of my URL which causes server URL http://someserver.company.com:8080/CatalogURL/ to fail?

You can easily test out the Group Policy in Computer Configuration -> Centrify Settings -> Mac OSX Settings -> Software Update Settings -> Enable Specify Software Update Server.  Enter the URL for your software update server.  Once you’ve set up the GP, enter the software server URL http://someserver.company.com:8080/CatalogURL. Viewing com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist, you can see it adds the “ / “ to the end of the URL causing the link http://someserver.company.com:8080/CatalogURL/ which causes the software update to fail on the Mac client.

Note: If the trailing “ / “  removed from the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist file, then the Mac client machine will be about to connect to the update server without any issues.

Answer:

This is because our Group Policy uses http://someserver.company.com:8088/ format. Therefore, the solution is to use http://someserver.company.com:8080/ instead of http://someserver.company.com:8080/CatalogURL. Mac OSX 10.4/10.5 uses http://someserver.company.com:8088/ as software update server, and the last " / " is mandatory, so our Group Policy will add " / " at the end.  Mac OSX 10.6 uses http://someserver.comapny.com:8088/CatalogURL, but catalogURL is not necessary.   

Resolution:

This is fixed in CDC 5.0.1