Deployment Solution

Hi,

I am trying to capture the image of Windows 7 32 bit OS through Altiris Depoyment Solution 7.1.  Currently i am using Windows server 2008 R2 OS. And the machine which i am using for the image capture process is a Virtual Machine having Windows 7 32 bit OS.But when i run my job on the VM i get the below mentioned error.

Restarting DHCP clilent service:  retry 1....

Restarting DHCP clilent service:  retry 2....

Restarting DHCP clilent service:  retry 3....

Restarting DHCP clilent service:  retry 4....

and so on.

 I realized that this is a driver issue and i need the NIC driver for my machine model (Dell Optiplex 740). I downloaded the required driver and added it to the Driver database management through Boot Disk Creator(BDC), because when i tried to add the driver through console from Setting->Deployment->Driver Management->preboot, i got the error message "driver could not be added to pre boot OS". Then i followed the undermentioned process and the driver was added successfully.

1.Run BootWiz.exe.
2. In Boot Disk Creator, choose the option to create a new configuration.
3. Enter a name for the configuration.
4. Select the type of preboot operation system that you want to add a driver to. and click Next.
5. Click Have Disk and browse the driver folder and select the new driver
to add.
The driver is added.
7 Click Cancel.

It got added successfully as i can see the custom folder containing all the newly added drivers.

But after that when i tried the image capture process i recieved the same error again.

Kindly help. Any suggestions or help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Nitin

Hello Nitin,

As you rightly found that this is a drivers issue!! However please check the version of driver! It should be a Vista based driver , if you have downloaded a Windows 7 or Windows XP based it will not work as the WinPE 2.1 is based on Vista based operating system.

I hope this will help you.

Best Regards,

Mkoka.

Yes i have downloaded the vista based driver only. I couldn't find the NIC driver in the dell's official website for Dell Optiplex 740. So i downloaded that from some other web resources.

I am not sure whether dell provides the NIC driver for this particular model or it is inbuilt in the system. If the driver is in-built then it might be the case that after adding other network driversalso i am getting the same issue again.(I think that this might also be a reason, please correct me if i am wrong...).

Thanks

Nitin 

I did a quick look on Dell's website and was able to find the nic driver right away.  Make sure when you go to this link that you change the OS drop down to the correct Vista (32 vs. 64 bit).

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/555/Product/optiplex-740

Also, make sure you do a rebuild of the PXE / Preboot configuration that you're using to boot the computer to.  Adding the driver to BootWiz is only step 1.  That is then re-compiled into a WIM that is sent to the computer via PXE.  If the WIM is not rebuilt, then the driver is not present.  Also, if you have site servers, it has to be replicated to the site servers and THEN the WIM / preboot config rebuilt on that site server for it to take.

If that is totally unclear, take a look at our dataflow and architecture doc.  There's a page near the end that actually shows an outline of how drivers are added.  It's the first article listed in the following KB which is really just a list of good KB's:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO55859

Good luck

If it's a VM you need the NIC driver for the VM, not the host.

Hi Thomas,

Still getting the same error. After trying the following things.

I reffered the link http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO55859 and i found a KB in that titled "Adding NIC/mass storage drivers" i followed the steps given in it by adding the driver through console by going in Setting->Driver Management->Preboot tab. After that recreating the preboot environment by going into Settings->Driver Management->Create Preboot configuration,updating the symantec management agent after that i saw that Bootwiz.exe was running in the task manager and the custom folder was created inside  ".\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\Bootwiz\platforms\winpe2\x86\drivers".

Currently i am using Automation Folders as my preboot environment. From the article titled "Managing Automation Folders: Create, Upgrade, Remove, etc.(HOWTO83910 )" i came to know that

• The default set (package) of automation folders is rarely if ever successfully updated. This causes issues for rolling out upgrades when you add drivers. It is therefore recommended to create a new automation folder, and replace the original with the one we created.

So i followed that document and created a new new automation folder. In the process i followed the below steps.

• Added the driver to the Settings->Driver management->Preboot tab
• Created the new automation folder through console method as given in article HOWTO83910. It got created successfully.
• Rebuilding the Automation folder as i have added the network driver. It got rebuild as i could see the Bootwiz.exe was running and the EXE in the new automation folder was updated to the new date/time.
• Updated the site servers for Deployment Automation Folder by going to Manage->all resourcesand then under Default->all resources->package.
• Now as given in the article that your own automation folder package  will not, by default, be used with the policy that rolls out the automation folder so i used the copy file task and followed all the steps mentioned in article HOWTO83910. When i run that job i got the EXE which was created during the creation of my own custom automation folder. I extracted that and it contained all the folders and files and inside the sources folders boot.wim was also present. I believe that this boot.wim should contain that NIC driver which i added to the preboot driver database.

But after that when i run the job then again i got the same error

Restarting dhcp client service: retry1....

and so on

Please see what i am doing wrong beacuse after following all the steps still i am getting the same error. Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Niitn

First, find a thumb drive to test with if you're using Automation Folders.

Second, you've still the same problem - it's a driver issue.  Remember this is Vista, not Windows 7, so you need Vista X86 / X64 drivers.

In the KB about managing automation folders there are suggestions on testing this process using a thumb drive and you're a classic candidate for this.  Using BootWiz, generate thumb drive images and use them to test with.  OR, find a single workstation, a custom build, and simply manually install the automation folder / uninstall / as needed via the EXE that is generated in the console.

This allows you to add and/or remove drivers far more quickly.

You may even need to remove competing drivers (rarely seen anymore) to ensure that while in WinPE, Windows chooses the driver you want it to choose.

Though the testing process is a little more tedius than normal, it's essentially the same thing as finding a driver for Windows.  it works, or it doesn't, and you keep looking.

Try another hardware set to be sure you're on the right track, such as a virtual.  Translation: make sure it's only this model and not something else (e.g. a network problem, but I strongly doubt that based on the message).

Hi,

I have tried to manually add the driver to the boot.wim file which was created when i installed the automation folder on my client machine.

I did it using imagex. The driver got added successfully but while unmounting the image i was not able to commit the changes made to that boot.wim file. I got the following error;

Unmount Error: Changes to the image could not be commited.

More Info:

The data is invalid.

I read in one of the threads that after this error message also, the changes in the wim file are saved and the drivers are added. So i tried with that boot.wim file but after that also i am getting the same "Restarting DHCP client service: retry 1..." error.

Hi Nitin,

1. As Andy stated, if it's a VM (depending on what kind of VM) you need drivers or if this is VMware, change the NIC setting in the VMX file to use an Intel one.

2. About the error with unmounting a WIM, it turned out (at least for me) that it is always better to:

- Capture the mounted WIM into a new file as the compression there is available again

- Discarding the changes to the mounted WIM after that as the described error shows up every now and then.

-BBC