Nevyn ([info]devnevyn) wrote,
@ 2007-01-22 00:06:00
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Current mood: FRUSTRATED
Current music:Space DJz - Track 2
Entry tags:ard, bug, frustration, mac, osx

build_hd_index is evil.
/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/build_hd_index seems to build an index of my harddrives. At midnight. Every night. Of *all* my harddrives (I have quite a few...). When I'm trying to sleep.

Not only is this very annoying by itself, but the big question is: WHY, GOD, WHY?! The machine already has Spotlight! There's a complete index of my entire harddrive right there. Not only THAT, most unix systems -- including Mac OS X -- comes with a utility to do exactly what build_hd_index seems to be doing: /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb.

So, every night, every mac in my room builds a harddrive index. Just in case locate fails. Which you would only use in case Spotlight fails. Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department.

Disable build_hd_index, with no apparent loss of functionality:


sudo chmod 000 /System/Library/\
CoreServices/RemoteManagement/\
ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/build_hd_index


You probably have to redo that every time you do a system update or repair permissions.

WARNING! Don't use ACLs! In an attempt to prevent system updates from restoring build_hd_index, I used Access Control Lists to completely remove all permissions from it for all users. However, Apple's Software Updater can't handle this, and will fail fatally! This completely destroyed my 10.5.1 Server system when trying to update to 10.5.2.

You can also move the file, instead of chmodding it. Either will work, but both will be "repaired" with the next system update.

(20 comments) - (Post a new comment)

build_hd_index is evil
(Anonymous)
2007-02-02 11:53 pm UTC (link)
Yea, die you evil daemon!

I monitored it yesterday and found your note that it seamed fine to lock it down. Instead I took it out since I will forget it was chmod:ed as 755 or, like you say, an update will let it out again. I find it is a better idea to have it altered only if Apple put a well behaved daemon there with an update.

I think it's the Task server feature of ARD that triger the daemon and it's so strange you can't select to NOT have a Task server at all. Only either your local Mac or a remote server and with the local Mac selected you get an anoying computer that is hogged for ~20 min every night.

Cheers!

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Re: build_hd_index is evil
(Anonymous)
2009-03-12 04:11 pm UTC (link)
So true, that bugger is the death of at least a quarter or my server's CPU, not at midnight but during the day when availability is crucial .. It was forcing TM to take hours to do the smallest backup. Which I have set to run at 2 hr intervals

The fix ...

cd into the /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/ directory
then mv build_hd_index build_hd_index.evil or whatever alternate extension you choose

Made my TM complete in a few minutes compared to a couple of hours .. won't know if an update reverses this but 10.5.7 will tell ..

Cheers
Speedbuggy

(Reply to this) (Parent)
build_hd_index is eveil
(Anonymous)
2007-04-24 02:46 pm UTC (link)
build_hd_index takes metadata and other extra data into account that locate.updatedb doesn't. Also it was designed to work on Panther systems, which lack Spotlight.

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Re: build_hd_index is eveil
(Anonymous)
2007-04-24 04:11 pm UTC (link)
Sure, but there's still no sane reason for it to run on Tiger systems.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: build_hd_index is eveil
(Anonymous)
2007-07-07 07:10 am UTC (link)
There's a problem with it keeps on asking me for the password and i have no idea what it means since the computer passowrd does not seem to work

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Re: build_hd_index is eveil
[info]devnevyn
2007-07-07 10:19 am UTC (link)
Read up on 'sudo' on macosxhints. Basically, your user needs to be an administrator, and what you enter is that account's password. If you get another "Password: " prompt, you just mistyped it (capslock?), if you get an error message, I can't help you if you don't give me that message.

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(Anonymous)
2008-01-06 02:07 pm UTC (link)
If you turn off the option "generate reports" in the Sharing/Remote Management panel, build_hd_index won't run.

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Not true
(Anonymous)
2008-02-05 12:20 am UTC (link)
Turning off the "generate reports" option has no effect on my system. build_hd_index still kicks into life and sucks 50% CPU. This is on Leopard.

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Re: Not true
(Anonymous)
2008-03-02 10:34 am UTC (link)
I can confirm, having stumbled upon this forum, that build_hd_index cranks away at night, whether "generate reports" is turned on or off (and yes, I rebooted between changes to be sure).

Don Montalvo, NYC
Curmudgeon at large

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Not true
[info]tizzyd.myopenid.com
2008-10-21 04:01 pm UTC (link)
Apple recommends that in addition to turning off the generation of reports, you must also remove the plist file so that it is rebuilt.

rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.ARDAgent.plist

I killed the running build_hd_index process, and all is now quiet.

Apple Support Doc --> Apple Remote Desktop: How to disable build_hd_index (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1088)

Note: They did add the caveat to also make sure that EACH admin user changes their settings, as the settings on the ARDAgent plist are set tied to each admin user (?!!?).

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Solved!
(Anonymous)
2008-06-08 07:17 am UTC (link)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1522185&tstart=60

So:

* go to Remote Desktop.app.

* Go to "Preferences..."

* Click on "Task Server" tab

* Uncheck bottom three checkboxes.

That should turn off build_hd_index.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Solved!
(Anonymous)
2008-06-22 05:26 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for solve this for me! You're god!

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Solved!
(Anonymous)
2008-07-15 07:25 am UTC (link)
NOT solved. I have all three unchecked for a long time, and build_hd_index still runs. grrr.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Solved!
(Anonymous)
2008-08-22 10:29 pm UTC (link)
NOT SOLVED. I also have unchecked these checkboxes since a longer time, and build_hd_index runs every night at 0:00. this is an 10.4.11 on a iMac G4.

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NOT SOLVED
[info]http://mijnopenid.nl/is/buijs
2008-08-28 10:53 pm UTC (link)
And I run Leopard 10.5.4

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: NOT SOLVED
[info]chealion
2008-09-27 06:35 am UTC (link)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1088 <- Apple KBase article on how to turn it off permanently. It's a setting in Apple Remote Desktop, but there is a workaround for disabling it locally. Go /Library/Preferences and remove com.apple.ARDAgent.plist

Hope that helps anyone else who shows up here via Google.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: NOT SOLVED
(Anonymous)
2008-10-11 10:24 pm UTC (link)
I'm running behind this problem about a year now. I never found a working solution to shut it down for sure. I am an IT System Engineer and use ARD in my daily tasks. I know Mac OS X really well. Turning off the checkboxes in ARD Admin has no effect. Not on any of the 2000 Macs in 40 Networks, that I help to manage. Removing the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.ARDAgent.plist has also no effect (1 Minute before midnight - boom - the file is again there from magic with creation and modification date of 23:59 of that day).
Interesting: Looking inside /Library/Preferences/com.apple.ARDAgent.plist shows many ARD Admin stations (IP, MAC-Address and more) that once have managed this particular Computer. If you delete the file and it shows up again 1 Minute before midnight, the contents are exactly as they were before deleting. Including old ARD Admin stations that weren't used anymore!
If there is a way to stop this unneeded indexing, I really appreciate to know it.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: NOT SOLVED
(Anonymous)
2008-12-18 06:12 am UTC (link)
I'm wondering if you have to delete the computers from the "All Computers" list from every Remote Desktop Admin station, then add them back in by connecting to them under the scanner, but when you connect either check or uncheck "Apply default data upload schedule".

I'm thinking that if you uncheck this, then it won't add any data upload schedule. Either that or checking it will apply the Preferences (Just make sure you've uncheck the three checkboxes at the bottom of the task server preference page.

I actually created a ksh (shell script) and scheduled it to run four times per hour which removes the ARDAgent plist file. It runs at 14,29,44 & 59 minutes after the hour.

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