Recovery Solution Snapshots and SVS Agent Tool

Steve Stoddard, one of the guys in Altiris' Lifecycle Management Lab, found a conflict between SVS and the Altiris Client Recovery Solution. He created this cool utility that checks to see if Recovery Solution is installed and, if so, makes changes to the SVS configuration to prevent any problems.

Details

Here's the Problem:
Recovery Solution (RS) is unable to successfully complete a full snapshot on machines running Software Virtualization Solution (SVS).

And the Cause:
SVS creates a new key under HKEY_USERS that is called USER_TEMPLATE. When RS attempts a snapshot it is unable to gain access into this key and therefore fails to complete a successful snapshot. This is a problem with SVS that will be fixed in a future service pack or hot fix.

Resolution
Add an exclusion to the ProgramIgnoreList value in the registry for the RS Agent. You can either run the svsrsfix.exe that is provided or manually create the entry.

• Manual Creation:
  Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Altiris\FSL create a new Multi-String Value (In later builds this value may already exist). Add the full path to the RS Agent in the value data. You will then need to reboot in order for the changes to take effect. Snapshots should now work properly.
• Automatic Creation:
  You can choose to deploy svsrsfix.exe to all computers running SVS and RS. This utility will look for the installed location of the RS Agent (AeXRSAgt.exe) and then create or update the ProgramIgnoreList data with the full path to the RS Agent. Even if the RS Agent has been installed to a non-default path the svsrsfix.exe utility will dynamically grab that location and make the proper update to the registry. After running, you will need to reboot the computer in order for the changes to take place. The svsrsfix.exe will not rewrite the entry if it already exists so you don't need to worry about only running it more than once.