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DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

  • 1.  DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 01, 2013 08:10 AM

    The release notes of DS6.9 SP6 does not mention on what server it can be installed. (DS6.9 SP5 used to be Windows 2003 or Windows 2008).

    Is it now Windows 2008 or Windows 2012 ??

    For WinPE 4.0 you have to download ADK 8.0 from Microsoft. This ADK is not supported on Windows 2003 (and 'ADKSETUP /list' will not list the WinPE on Windows 2003)



  • 2.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 01, 2013 08:41 AM

    Is it now Windows 2008 or Windows 2012 ??

    As per articles it's supported.

    11.JPG

     

    22.JPG

     



  • 3.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 01, 2013 12:44 PM

    DS 6.9 SP6 now supports Windows 8 and Windows 2012 computers. As clients... But DS 6.9 SP6 can now only run on Windows 2008 (or 2012, don't know, that's the question). And to have WinPE, you can no longer run DS 6.9 SP6 on a Windows 2003 server; no longer supported. That's how I read it. It should have been mentioned in the release notes or in a separate Supported platforms document.

    In contrast with the introduction of 7.5 which was presented as the next best thing after the invention of sliced bread, I find the focus on DS6.9 SP6 very weak to say the least.



  • 4.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 01, 2013 08:24 PM

    I'm curious about this as well. Our install is on Windows 2003 due to the sdk limitation but it sounds like we have no choice but to go with Server 2008 at the minimum. I wonder if the sdk is now compatible with 2008 x64. 



  • 5.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 02, 2013 12:58 AM

    Gompie,

    You are correct, ADK is not supported on Windows 2003 so if you want to use WinPE 4.0 then you cannot install DS 6.9 SP6  on 2003 server.

    ADK 8.0 is supported on below servers.

    • Windows Server® 2012 
    • Windows Server® 2008 R2 
    • Windows Server® 2008 

    So if user wants to use DS 6.9 SP6 then installation is supported on all the above server operating systems.

    For 2003 user need to stick with WinPE 2.1 instead of WinPE 4.0 (Limitation of ADK).



  • 6.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 02, 2013 10:28 AM

    RE: bstts32

    On the subject of of ASDK. We too invested heavely on ASDK. In the past in KB-articles Symantec enforced that ASDK was the way to go; no longer axSched, axImport etc.

    But ASDK for DS6.9 is v1.4 which uses .Net 1.1. Even though there is an article around how to get .Net 1.1 working on Windows 2008, as long as Microsoft does not support it (and they don't, we asked), we cannot support it.

    I even placed a call at Symantec. They came back saying they classify ASDK (now) as freeware, not something they really support and definetely not something you can put a call on. So they simply changed the status and that's it.

    Symantec, If you really classify it as freeware, why don't they put it in the public domain so we can have a go at ourselves converting it to a higher version of .Net. 



  • 7.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 02, 2013 11:21 AM

    Yeah it's really unfortunate.

     

    We've been using Workflow to schedule jobs via the ASDK. We should be able to get around this by calling stored procedures directly, which I believe is what the web services are calling. 

     

    It should work for us with no issue, just don't like being forced this route just to use WinPE 4.0. 



  • 8.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 03, 2013 03:16 AM

    Note, WinPE 4.0 will not run on VMs on ESX 4.1, it will boot in WinPE, very shortly display a message, see  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2814803, then reboots.

    At least ESX 5.1 is required.



  • 9.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted Dec 17, 2013 07:51 AM

    I'll add to this that for VMWare workstation users, you'll need a minimum of VMWare version 8 to boot WinPE4 without these HAL errors.

    For DS6.9SP4 running on a Windows 2003 Server, the only solution I'm aware of is hardwiring in your own hand-edited WIM. Whilst this is a pain, it helps to get you moving whilst the gurus in Symantec figure out whether the Microsoft limitation can be worked around in some way.

    Kind Regards,

    Ian./



  • 10.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 17, 2013 12:56 PM

    Ian,

    There is a workaround; look at https://communities.vmware.com/thread/394669. There a jmattson posted a modified bios.440.rom which you can store together with the VMWare VM files. It is supposed to fix this problem on a ESX 4.1 host.

    However, if you google further on this, VMWare will not support this workaround. Hence, I will not bring it into our production environment.



  • 11.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 19, 2013 11:06 AM

    It works on Win 2003 R2 x86.

    I did the upgrade 2 days ago and it threw couple of errors during the installation. I was not able to build WinPE 4.0 at first on Win 2003 system. I also tried to install it on Win 2008 x86 and it worked just fine.

    What I did to make it work was - backup of Bootwiz and WAIK folders (just for sure), delete original Bootwiz folder (on Win 2003), copy Bootwiz and WAIK folders from Win 2008 server replacing all existing files/folders (I did not delete WAIK folder on Win 2003). Cleaner solution would be probably to delete WAIK folder on Win 2003 but I did not try that.

    After that I was able to create WinPE 4.0 boot image.

    DS_WinPE4.JPG

    DS_WinPE4_2.JPG

    What I tried at first was just to copy over Bootwiz folder and I was able to get into WinPE 4.0 build process but it threw some error about missing files in WAIK folder and after seving changes in PXE utility it was updating forever so I had to updates some records in DB following this article: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO3913

    Regards,

    Vlastik



  • 12.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 20, 2013 05:17 AM

    Today I got feedback from my college in remote location (where Win 2003 with DS 6.9 SP6 is located) that PXE-booted computers doesn't show up in DS console and Dagent do not show computer name and MAC address.
    This was caused by missing WMI package (WinPE-WMI.cab) in WinPE. One way to fix it is just add package manually using dism (/add-package).

    For some reason no packages are listed in Boot disk creator on Win 2003 server:

    PE_Components_issue.JPG

    This is how it should looks like:
    PE_Components.JPG

    I'll try to find out how to make packages listed.

    Vlastik



  • 13.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 21, 2013 04:09 AM
    Vlastik, Or use DISM to add WMI (and other packages you want) to the default winpe.wim. See https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/powershell-winpe-40 how it was done to include Powershell. Xaveer


  • 14.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Dec 24, 2013 06:05 AM

    Follow below steps to use WinPE 4.0 PXE images using SP6 on win 2003 Server.

     

    1. Install DS 6.9 SP6 build without pre-boot on Windows 2003 x86 Server (Without ADK)
    2. Install ADK 8.0 setup on Windows 2008 R2 server.
    3. Then install DS 6.9 SP6 setup on Windows 2008 R2 server (Where ADK 8.0 can be installed).
    4. Create WinPE 4.0 PXE images on 2008 R2 server using Indentity of Win 2003 server (IP address and and Computer Name). You can also make changes to default.cfg file to keep the changes permanent. Create and save the WinPE 4.0 images.
    5. Now go to the Windows 2003 Server and Open PXE configuration Utility wizard, click on “New” tab then provide a new name for image, select User Supplied option and Click on “Manual Boot Image “ it will ask the path of image, here you need to provide network path of Windows 2008 R2 server where Windows boot images created (/express\PXE\Images\MenuOption163\X86PC) for x86 and (/express\PXE\Images\MenuOption163\X64). Click ok and Save images. 
    • Menu Option folder can be a different.
    • Need not to add pre-boot file on Windows server 2003
    • Now you can boot BIOS clients successfully into WinPE 4.0 PXE images using Win 2003 server.
    • For UEFI clients you need to make futher change in order to boot into WinPE 4.0 images .
    • On windows server 2003 got to \eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\Images\MenuOption161\X64 and rename file name as “MenuOption161.efi”  (Menu Option can be different name like MenuOption130 , MenuOption131, MenuOption161 so you have to rename file with same menu option name )
    • After this chnage you will be able to boot UEFI clients.

     

     



  • 15.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Jan 08, 2014 06:11 AM

    Thanks symdon for your feedback. But could you be more specific about the renaming of efi file? For let’s say MenuOption161 you have file  MenuOption161.0 and MenuOption161.efi files in MenuOption161\x64 folder (UEFI boot for 32-bit doesn't seems to be supported by DS 6.9 SP6 or SMP 7.5) so what exactly I need to rename?
    Could you please also share with us you DHCP settings if you do not use IP helpers? If I set option 67 to BStrap\x64\BStrap.efi I get error PXE-E16: No offer received. I tried to use option 43 for PXE force mode but without success.



  • 16.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Jan 08, 2014 08:51 AM

    Here the basic idea is to create PXE images on other server (Where ADK 8.0 installation is supported) beacuse you cannot install ADK 8.0 on Win 2003 server.

    Execute below step to understand it in better way.

    1. Go to PXE configuration utility on Win 2003 server and create new PXE image using User Supplied option

    2. Note down the Menuoption for the PXe image you are going to create on Win 2003 server (In my case its menuoption161)

    3. When you select USer Supplied option, it will ask the path for PXE boot files (X86 and X64).

    Here you have to provide the path of  /express\PXE\Images\MenuOption163\X86PC) for x86 and /express\PXE\Images\MenuOption163\X64) from server where you have created PXE images. [In my case I have setup Win 2008 R2 server and created PXE image with MenuOption163 ]

    4. Click ok and Save images.

    5. Go to path /express\PXE\Images on Win 2003 server and open menuoption folder for images that you have created. [In my case it is menuoption161]

    6. Now if you can see it has both the files menuoption161.0[This shows the correct number as 161] and menuoption163.efi [This shows 163 instead of 161 which will failed to boot UEFI clients , So just change its name to menuoption161.efi]

    >>>>>>

    Could you please also share with us you DHCP settings if you do not use IP helpers? If I set option 67 to BStrap\x64\BStrap.efi I get error PXE-E16: No offer received. I tried to use option 43 for PXE force mode but without success.

    <Answer> : We are not using PXE forced mode.

     



  • 17.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Jan 09, 2014 05:26 AM

    OK, now it is clear.

    How your DHCP settings looks like for option 67? Do you use only option 66 and 67 or do you use also option 60? I know that option 60 PXEClient should be used only when DHCP server is running on the same machine as boot services but in my experience it is sometimes needed to be set even if it is not the same machine.



  • 18.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Jan 14, 2014 05:45 AM

    I finally make boot for UEFI device to work.
    I suspect that there is something wrong with our DHCP server but I’ll share DHCP setting which works for me anyway: Option 060 – needs to be set to PXEClient (with other values it doesn’t work)

    Option 66 – IP address of PXE server

    Option 67 - needs to be active but can be empty. Used file is BStrap\x64\BStrap.efi no matter what value is set for this option.

    DHCP.JPG

    UEFI boot is supported (by DS 6.9 SP6, SMP 7.5) only for 64-bit devices so it doesn’t work on 32-bit devices (like my test device tablet Dell Latitude 10 ST2).



  • 19.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?

    Posted Feb 07, 2014 03:18 AM

    I still do not see the original question being answered here, which is "Can DS 6.9 SP6 now only be installed on Win 2008/2008R2 or can it also be installed on Win 2012"?



  • 20.  RE: DS 6.9 SP6 Supported Platforms ?
    Best Answer

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted Jul 15, 2014 06:46 AM

    For those still looking for this data, the DS6.9 Platform support matrix (created this April) is here,

    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC7340

    This states that Windows 2012 server is supported as the server platform for the DS installation.

    Kind Regards,
    Ian./