Deployment and Imaging Group

Hello all,

     We are running Altiris 7.1 and were having issues loading drivers for newer machines for PXE preboot.  We aren't ready to move to 7.5 yet so we upgraded our Windows PE environment to a newer version.  Once we had that set we were able to load new drivers for the new systems and we can now Reboot those guys into PXE x64.  However i'm having an issue when it comes to creating images.

     I have the following job:

PREPARE FOR IMAGE CAPTURE using PXE x64
CAPTURE IMAGE
REBOOT TO PRODUCTION

     When it runs step one and reboots into PXE the drivers load just fine but the step where Ghost would normally kick in i get our Initial Deployment list menu.  Not sure why this is coming up rather then Ghost.  Am I missing a step?  Thanks for the help.

What version of 7.1?  There were known issues in 7.1 where a PC would boot into automation an NOT be recognized as the same computer.  Most of those issues have been patched in later releases / patches of 7.1 though.  Sounds like this is what's happening to you.  My guess is they go into automation and send up a new computer name with essentially all the same information.  Check.

And let us know what version of 7.1 you have, incluing Hot Fixes.  Thanks!

I'm running Version 7.1.8400

I don't know the hotfixes by the build numbers, but again, I'd recommend getting a later HF for 7.1 sp2 mp1.  You may be able to verify that the computer is coming in as a "new" computer by looking to see if a new MiniNT record is being created after rebooting into automation.  A close look at the automation logs will show the information being sent up to find a match and to find the GUID.  In an older release, the UUID was being sent up incorectly that caused some issues, but again, that's seen in the logs.  And, again, you need to get at least post HF8 (e.g. HF9 or later) for the DS fixes I know of to be in place.

Second reason why this happens alot is.

WMI package missing from the boot.wim of PXE

Check the automation logs if it gathers all the HW information about the client if that is all blank then you are missing the WMI package from the PXE boot.wim file