So I'm sitting in my office, waiting for the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard update to show up in my Software Update, and it just isn't happening. And at some point I realize, "Hey, maybe it just hasn't been downloaded to our Software Update Server yet." Yes, we run our very own Software Update Server under Mac OS X Server 10.4. It's super cool. It downloads all Apple updates to itself, and then any Mac in our lab can get all the Software Updates from our own internal server, rather than Apple's, which just saves gobs of time and bandwidth. Oh, we love it. But there appears to be a catch: Tiger Server will not download Leopard updates.
So I'm sitting there waiting, like, forever. And the 10.5.2 update never shows. Nor does the Leopard Graphics Update, or the HP Printer Drivers Update, and I'm all like, "Dude, what the fuck?" When all of a sudden the iLife Support Update does show up.
And that's when it hits me: Tiger totally hates Leopard.
But that's okay, 'cause Tiger's a total bitch.
In any case, I'm not sure if the converse is true — if Leopard Server will fail to download and serve Tiger updates — but if it is, good luck running a Software Update Server in a mixed Tiger/Leopard environment. Geez! You'd think Apple's software would be more compatible with, um... itself!
Highly annoying.
Oh, and by the way, after removing my Leopard box from the SUServer client list, these commands got me back in business without a restart:
sudo killall DirectoryService
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
Just so you know.
UPDATE:
It would appear that Leopard's Software Update Server is a bit less finicky when it comes to older updates, for previous versions of the OS. Hmmm... Do you get the feeling Apple's trying to tell us something? (You know, like, "Upgrade your server." Or something.)
Leopard Software Update Server: Backwards Compatible
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