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  • 1.  Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 10, 2012 09:58 AM

    Hello,

    I found a problem with Ghost Agent on a specified configuration. Here's the topo.

     

    I got a windows 7 x64 image. When building the image, I boot in audit mode from CD, build the computer in audit mode without ghost agent, then pull an image. Then, in the same image, I run a sysprep script I made (various configuration then run sysprep). Then, I pull another image. This one is the image that will get deployed on other computer (labs in my case).

    Now, after the computer is deployed and the sysprep is ran, the computer auto-log once in administrator to do various stuff, then install the ghost agent.

    This usualy work perfectly but I've come accross a problem with this computer configuration:

    HP 6200Pro
    I7-2600
    8gig ram

    With this computer, when virtual box is installed with the host only adapter, the ghost agent will take both NIC and report it to the ghost server. Problem is, each computer (let it be A3333-01 to A3333-20) will report 2 NIC, where 1 of them is the same host only adapter with same MAC. Because of that, ghost will only see 1 computer because it will think it's all the same computer since all of them have one NIC with the same MAC.

    I know it's the problem because if I use gss scripts and use clientname, then enter MAC adresse of the virtual NIC, I get 1 computer with 2 NIC. If I enter another NIC MAC, it won't show me the other computer. Then, If I remove the host only adapter, the computer magically appear in the ghost console.

    Like I said, for me it's specific to this configuration. I have the same image on a HP 6200Pro with a Intel 2 Core Quad and there's no problem with the host only adapter.

    Just to be sure we all are on the same level of understanding, the image is not deployed into a virtual box machine. Virtual Box is installed on the machine running windows 7 x64 enterprise. There's no VM in the virtual box, the software is simply installed for education purpose (working from a school).

     

    There's also another problem I've found with the installer. I installed ghost client manually (not from console) from a network share. Then, I removed it from add/remove. Then, I tried to install it locally from a command line. The installation seems to go well, it get added to add/remove but there's no program anywhere. When running only the client.msi locally, an error get throwned that it can't find the setup file from the first installation path. I have to manualy enter the new path (local path) then it will proceed to the repair/remove screen. If I try to remove it, it will say it successfully ended but in real, it did nothing since running the client.msi show me the same repair/remove screen. I must repair the installation, then remove it cause even after a repair, it's faulty, then install again. It's like if the client.msi was saving the installation path somewhere and this save wasn't removed on uninstall.

    In short, let's say I install ghost agent from \\srv\share\ghost\client.msi. Everything is fine. I then uninstall it cause I don't want the agent. Everything is fine. Then I copy the content from \\srv\share\ghost\ to c:\client. After, I run c:\client\client.msi. I then get an error that it cannot open \\srv\share\ghost\ to find file (assuming the network share is unavailable) instead of looking for the file in the folder it was ran from. Big problem since doing a silent install, it will say it has completed, put an entry in add/remove that does nothing (cannot remove it from there) and preventing any other installation if it's not repaired first.

     

    Thanks



  • 2.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 10, 2012 03:34 PM

    Suggest you read this thread:

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/computer-doesnt-appear-console

    With regard to your MSI installation woes, a lot of the behaviour you are seeing is not atypical of MSI installers used incorrectly, or not written perfectly.  I assume you are always running the MSI for install and not an exe version. You don't specify what exact command line you used for the MSI so did you specify a per-machine or per-user install ? (For example). As part of the MSI installation process, each component of the MSI is recorded in the registry and the sourcepath is recorded also. These components are reference counted so if the test machine has had multiple installs it is quite possible that the counting has been messed up, so the installer thinks a file is already present and does not reinstall it. Always test these things on a clean O/S install or a VM.  Rebooting after each install and each uninstall is also a good idea in case files are locked, as then they can only be removed when they are released during a reboot.



  • 3.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 10, 2012 04:54 PM

    As per the thread EdT linked, the primary identifier for machines is the SMBIOS UUID. There are still a tiny number of machines (mainly Dells) out there in the marketplace that have been incorrectly manufactured with duplicate UUIDs, but I have not seen any machine at all manufactured in the last 5 years that siomply doesn't have one. So, a good starting point is to determine the SMBIOS configuration of your machines.

    [ From memory, I left in a command-line option in the ngctw32.exe option, -uuid or something like that, which printed out the UUID it retrieved; from Windows XP on up, this should be being retrieved via a kernel-level WMI interface or via a similar API introduced in Vista and up. ]

    There is, internally to the management system code, a table used for known-bad manufacturers that do not play by the IEEE rules; the VirtualBox adapter definitely deserves to be there, See this; some random company's MAC OUI registration is used instead because basically they never bothered to follow the IEEE rules (or even better, use the specific "privately managed" part of the MAC address space).

    While that table of exeptions it's small I did add things over time to it - however, that was done on an as-needed basis and because of the SMBIOS UUID the number of customers affected by this was zero until some time after Symantec had cancelled the GSS product and laid off the original development team.

    So, while it's in principle easy to add to the blacklist, in practice you are far better off trying to determine whether your machines do in fact have SMBIOS support and whether their SMBIOS UUIDs are unique.



  • 4.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 13, 2012 10:35 AM

    Virtual Box is very messy with its networking components; Virtual Box creates a virtual nic in the host OS when it installs. You can actually see it if you go to Device Manager or run "ipconfig /all" in the command line. I've noticed it does like to go out and grab an IP address even when there's no vm running. The Ghost client is likely getting confused between the virtual nic and the actual nic.

    If you really want to confuse the snot out of the console, try installing it on both on a host and a guest os.

    I've actually never had reliable luck with msi installers. The console has a remote client install that works beautifully on domain machines, as well as a remote client uninstall. You could try the remote uninstall on the machines that you're having trouble with, to see if it clear your woes out.



  • 5.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 13, 2012 01:25 PM

    Thanks for replying.

    Virtual Box only cause this problem with my I7 system, all other system doesn't have this problem; ghost console effectively recognize the NIC as virtual and doesn't use it, like it should. I know where I can see them, like I stated, I did various test by removing them. Problem here isn't that the NIC get an IP, problem is ghost console using this NIC to identify the machine, although there's another one. At worst, at least, the ghost console should use both MAC of NIC to identify the machine and then allow all other computer to effectively report online.

    As for remote client, it won't solve anything cause the same problem happen. The msi isn't the problem (by the way, remote client install actually run the msi in silent mode, like I do). I can't do remote client uninstall on the client because the client doesn't register the console (looking for server) and the console report them ofline. Only way to do that is to remove the client manually.

    I succesfully, more then once, put the ghost agent on a virtual machine in virtual box where the host had a ghost agent. There's nothing to confuse the console there. The host machine only report physical card, so it get a unique MAC in the console. Then, the VM client sees the virtual card, which represent a physical card in it's context, and report that MAC. Even had multiple VM on same host without any trouble, unless you simply copied the disk, in those case you didn't regenerate the SSID and the MAC, which is why you must use clone.



  • 6.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 13, 2012 06:24 PM

    Virtual Box only cause this problem with my I7 system, all other system doesn't have this problem; ghost console effectively recognize the NIC as virtual and doesn't use it, like it should

    As explained above, this is because the primary key that the Ghost console uses is the SMBIOS unique machine id. As long as the host machine has a valid SMBIOS UUID present, then that will be used instead. As long as SMBIOS UUIDs are present and distinct, NIC MAC addresses are only used as a fallback.

    VirtualBox guests mainly cause problems in this respect because VirtualBox's default is to preserve UUIDs of created machines, whereas VMWare quite sensibly watches our for when guest VMs are no longer running on the original system when the guest VM was created, and by default will create a new SMBIOS UUID for the guest (this is the primary function of the "have you copied or moved the virtual machine" prompt when starting a VM in VMWare).

    [ Using VirtualBox, ensuring that guest UUIDs stay distinct in the presence of deployed images is awkward, unless you explicitly use the teleporting feature which ensures the -hardwareuuid setting doesn't need to be used or otherwise try and take care of UUID management yourself. ]



  • 7.  RE: Virtual Box Host Only Adapter, Windows 7 x64, HP 6200pro and ghost agent

    Posted Feb 17, 2012 09:12 AM

    UUID of guest aren't used since there's no guest. Only the program virtual box is installed, no vm actually exist.

     

    SMBIOS UUID for the computer are all unique. Those compute where all working fine before I installed virtual box, they already had the ghost client agent running on them and all had the same image of windows 7. The only difference was with installing virtual box. The second it got installed, it all bugged.