Allright techies, have a neat and complex problem for you. Its a little long winded. I will list the enviroment and then the problem.
Enviroment:
- One compaq HP ProLiant 710 for image server
- Windows 2003 R2 W SP1 for O/S
- Image files on a Winchester external SCSI drive array setup with RAID 5
- GSS 1.0
- Booting client computer through the WDS to WinPE 2.0
- Using Ghost32.exe with Windows Deployment Services to connect client computers to Mulitcast server (since Symantec PXE services will not work with Server 2003)
- Usint GhostCast.exe to serve the Multicast session
Switches:
- Cisco catalist 3500 (Sever is connected to this one)
- Cisco is fibered to Cisco 6509 (core switch)
- Next swicth in path to client computers is 48 port Cisco 3750 which is fibered up to the 6509 core switch
- The Cisco 3750 is then connecting our User Farm switches via Cat 5 which are 3com superstack II 4226t 24 port switches
Duplex settings
- Server NIC is set to 100mb FD as well as the port on the 3500 its connected to.
- 3750 user aggregated switch has all ports hard set to 100mb FD
- Ports that uplink the 3com 4226ts are set to 100mb FD
- The 24 ports the computers are connected to on the 4226ts are set to auto negotiation
Software settings on 3com 4226t switches
- Spanning tree enabled with hispeed
- Storm control set to off
- All other settings set to factory default
Now for the problem
We have about 1500 plus computers on our network and have been able to multicast with PQI deployment with ease at an average speed of 250+ mb a second to about 300 computers at a time with the above setup but the server was windows XP due to software licening issues. When we upgraded to Server 2003, we had to change the way the computers booted to a PXE boot. We were using Symanted PXE services, but according to manufactures website, and also some troubleshooting, Symantec PXE services is no longer compatable with Server 2003. So we started to use WDS for out PXE booting platform. The machine can boot to WinPE 2.0 in about 90 seconds from client machine post to useable state. PQcast.exe will not launch in the WinPE 2.0 enviorment, nor will ghost.exe, only Ghost32.exe. So with many experiments on switches, and Duplex setting alterations on clients computer NICS, Server NICs, Switches, the above setup described has gotten the most efficeient imaging speed. I am able to UNICAST one machine at a time, MULTICAST one mahcine at a time, and create an image and save the .gho file on the image server with the average speed of 350 + with the above setup. The mode of the image push is set by user options in GhostCast.exe. When an attempt is made to connect more then 2 computers to a MULTICAST or UNICAST session in ghost32.exe, the first client computer connects and displays connection with the gcast session. When the second client connects, the ghost32.exe never fully gets "displayed" on the client mahcine. When looking at GhostCast.exe session on the server, it shows both computers connected, and processiong the image push, but no performance is being displaed on the progress bar, and no imformation is displayed on the stats that are displaed below the progress bar. After a few moments, the second client computer that connected will disconnect and display the error message: Error Number: (502) Message: Connection reset by server with GhostCode 19922. Disablement of the WinPE firewall and stoping the base filtering engine as described in the post: https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=109&message.id=1562&query.id=93558#M1562 has not solved this issue. The firewall on the server is also disabled, and not antiviurs is installed since Mcaffe has shown issues with allowing clients to connect to Multicast sessions in the past. .
I am at a loss at this point as to what could be causing this issue. I tried to be thurough and to the point to show what troubleshooting and how much brain racking I have dont to fix this issue. Anyone that has any insight into this please feel free to comment. Below is the error log of the client machine when a disconnect occurs.
*********************************
Date : Wed Apr 18 10:10:13 2007
Error Number: (502)
Message: Connection reset by server with GhostCode 19922
Version: 8.2.0.1117 (Aug 26 2004, Build=1117)
OS Version: Professional (Build 6000)
Command line arguments: -BUFFERSIZE=32 -clone,mode=restore,src=@mcbd2000d,dst=1 -sure
Active Switches :
AutoName
PathName :
DumpFile : @MCBD2000D
DumpPos : 2560
FlagImplode : 0
FlagExplode : 3
CloneSrc : @MCBD2000D
BatchPartSrc : 0
BatchPartMSrc :
CloneDst : 1
BatchPartDst : 0
Operation Details :
Total size.........0
MB copied..........0
MB remaining.......0
Percent complete...0%
Speed..............0MB/min
Time elapsed.......0:00
Time remaining.....0:00
Program Call Stack
AbortLog
Generic_Abort
MCastAbort
MCastRecv
MCastRemoteComm::recvBuffer
remoteComm::internalRecvData
remoteComm::recvCommand 2
remoteMasterDeviceCommand::DoOpen
deviceCommand::Open
MCastRemoteComm::switchReadModes
remoteMasterDeviceCommand::SwitchReadModes
CopyFileToDisk
CopyMainline
AttemptOperation
sub_main
main
Call Stack
Address Frame Logical Addr Module
0x0000000077490f34 0x000000000012dc2c 0x0001:0x000000000005ff34 X:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll
0x000000000012df1c 0x000000000012dc30 0x0000:0x0000000000000000
0x00000000004ca209 0x000000000012df1c 0x0001:0x00000000000c9209 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000469b20 0x000000000012e000 0x0001:0x0000000000068b20 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000469f03 0x000000000012f0a0 0x0001:0x0000000000068f03 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000046a111 0x000000000012f718 0x0001:0x0000000000069111 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000046a650 0x000000000012f934 0x0001:0x0000000000069650 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000046a80f 0x000000000012f954 0x0001:0x000000000006980f f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000046b15d 0x000000000012f97c 0x0001:0x000000000006a15d f:\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004a706a 0x000000000012f9a0 0x0001:0x00000000000a606a f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000450d32 0x000000000012f9c8 0x0001:0x000000000004fd32 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000450fd7 0x000000000012f9f4 0x0001:0x000000000004ffd7 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000451a71 0x000000000012fb1c 0x0001:0x0000000000050a71 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000046b923 0x000000000012fb48 0x0001:0x000000000006a923 f:\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004a7142 0x000000000012fb70 0x0001:0x00000000000a6142 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000045251f 0x000000000012fb8c 0x0001:0x000000000005151f f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000045c611 0x000000000012fc98 0x0001:0x000000000005b611 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000402262 0x000000000012fcb8 0x0001:0x0000000000001262 f:\ghost32.exe
0x00000000004023b1 0x000000000012fcd8 0x0001:0x00000000000013b1 f:\ghost32.exe
0x000000000040553c 0x000000000012fdd0 0x0001:0x000000000000453c f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000405b72 0x000000000012fec4 0x0001:0x0000000000004b72 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000000419ca1 0x000000000012ffa0 0x0001:0x0000000000018ca1 f:\ghost32.exe
0x0000000076eb3833 0x000000000012ffac 0x0001:0x0000000000042833 X:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
0x000000007746a9bd 0x000000000012ffec 0x0001:0x00000000000399bd X:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll
End Call Stack
Start heap available: 775778304
Cur heap available: 773922816
Total Memory: 1063518208
Conventional Memory
Inital Conventional Memory Size = 0
Current Conventional Memory Size = 0
Allocated
33500 ghost.cpp:1268
Free
Fat details:
NTFS details:
----------------
NTFS Global Flags:
----------------
contiguousWrite=1 forceDiskClusterMapping=0
inhibitCHKDSK=1 ignoreBadLog=0 ignoreCHKDSKBit=0
enable_cache=0 xfrbuflen=0
last_attr_type = 0
loadExact = 0
----------------
Disk Info :
remote.............0
drive..............0
sectors_used.......78140097
estimated_used.....13099145
pemax..............1
Version............820
# Ord Boot Id Ext First Num Last Used NTFS
0 0 80 7 No 00000063 78140097 78140160 13861000 Yes
Disk Info :
remote.............0
drive..............0
sectors_used.......80276805
estimated_used.....0
pemax..............1
Version............0
# Ord Boot Id Ext First Num Last Used NTFS
0 0 80 7 No 00000063 80276742 80276805 13861000 Yes
Fixed Drives
Drive 0 Maxtor 6E040L0 E1NBPZBE
WinNT (Active)
Total Sectors 80293248
Bytes per Sector 512
MB 39205
Cylinders 4998
Heads 255
Sectors per Track 63
Successful IO Count 29
Floppy Drives
Remote Drives
AsyncIo : 0
*********************************
Message Edited by Adrian on 04-18-200701:09 PM
Message Edited by Adrian on 04-18-200701:10 PM