Ghost Solution Suite

Hi Running gss 2,5 on server 2008r2, mixed mode AD, both 2003 and 2008r2 dom ctrl. Imaging win7 32bit, syspreped. In the task log I get warnings when the task creates the machine account: Unable to create administrative connection to domain controler xxxxx etc. The error shows up in a random number. Ex. Imaging 20 machines, 8 will fail. Trying again now 6 machines will fail and not the same machines. If I run a configuration job to join the machines individually with the same configuration setup as obove,no errors. Does anyone have any suggestions Regards Steffen DK

Do your switches have IGMP snooping enabled?  If not, multicast imaging is going to fail at some point.

Thanks for the quick response. I have enabled the IGMP on all my HP switches. I have been running GSS 2.0 for some years without problems, on server 2003 and xp clients.

Yeah I get this sometimes, its due to AD being busy.. just do a re-config, and it will join again. 

It's quite annoying at times when about 30% fail, but doing the task again to all 100%, they all join the 2nd time. 

When I get back on Monday i will try with a two job model. One with the hole classrom 20 PC s, imaging and configuration and see how many fails The second job only configuration on all 20 Pc's. I am planing on imaging 300 Pc's more, so i hope i will run with out to many problems.

Hello Steffen, We have tested more than 20 PC's with mixed mode domain controllers configured on 2k3 and 2k8r2 and found to be working fine. It looks like the network connectivity issue or highly utilization on DC as Peter mentioned. Do you have any test DC where there is subtentially less load (or no load) to test with?

I dont have a test DC, but i have been working after hours, when the load i minimal.

I wonder if it is related to, that the Console server is running on the DC it self.

 

Thanks for this information.

A Domain Controller running Ghost software may experience considerable latency of communication with other computers. It looks like a 'denial of service' attack. Users on the network could experience delays and seeming interruptions of services that require the Domain Controller.

Please go through the link for more details http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH110061

 

 

Thanks.

Thats simple and clear.

I will move the console to another machine. I will post an update when it is done and tested.

By the way, is there a guide to move the database ?

Regards Steffen

 

Hello Seffen,

There are couple of link on Symantec knowledge base, I am copying them below.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH110251

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH110341&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1359371842674

I hope this would help to solve your issue. 

 

Few more links

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH131820&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1359371842674

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH131820&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1359372473474

Hm.. 

I have the ghost console on 2008 FSMO DC... 
I might move it to a standalone machine (or another server that will be retired) 

But, I dont think it's success for machines to join domain. 

Why? 
Well, how many DC's you got for that domain? 

I have 4 DC's, and about 500 machines on ghost console. 

If I do a join domain confirm to all 500, and at the same time, the DC's are replication data from 1 to another, etc, which happens by default every 15 minutes, it may get extremely busy, so if you do move console off the server, it may still cause the issue. 

So, when you testing about moving the console, tell us about it when its success and working. :) 

Hi Peter I have 2 locations connected by 100mbit/s wan. Remote site, 2 DC one 2003 and one 2008r2, also running Console and 90 clients. This site have the same problems. Mostly we image about 15-20 machines, depending on the size of classrooms. The remote site is psysical servers. Local site 400 clients, 3 DC, two 2003 and one 2008r2. Now as virtuel servers. It is all the same domain. The console for GSS 2.0 in my local site was running on a nonDC, psysical and had never had these problems. In the remote site, the GSS 2.0 was running on the DC, and with out problems. So maybe you will be right. I am almost ready to test on a new server 2008r2, just need to create new boot images and get the clients ready.

I have now setup a new non dc 2008r2 virtuel server, running the Console. Imaging 19 clients. 12 success and 7 failed They still fails in the task, create machine account. All clients connects or try to connect to the same DC, in this test they connected to a 2003DC. I then did an only configuration task, with the same 19 clients, 17 succes and 2 failed. I tryed to monitor LDAP activity on the DC while the configuration task was running, i found nothing, mostly because i am not sure what to look for.