Deployment Solution

Hello all!

Some time back I created a new PE file for the HP Compaq 4000 pro machine that I recently got. I added the driver through the Driver Management Tool under Settings->Deployment. After creating the file I got the error PXE Pre 0 Invalid List while booting to PXE. I was unsure of what had happened so I used an older backup image that I had, added the network driver to it and it worked fine.

However, since then I am unable to create any new PE file from the Create Preboot Configuration option. When I navigate to the following location,

  "C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Task Handler\SBS\Images

I can see the name "Test" that I type in while creating a new Preboot configuration. I go into the folder marked "Test", then X86PC, then I see a Dummy.0 file which is exactly 0 bytes in size.

I have run the Delta Resource membership update, and updated the agent on the server. I see the bootwiz.exe proess come up, hog a considerable amount of CPU for some time and then disappear. Still the Dummy.0 file is not renamed. This is happening with every new PE file that I try to create.

I have looked through a few KB articles with Symantec. I was unable to find a fix for this issue. Any ideas?

TECH140957 - PXE-E77: Bad or missing discovery server list

TECH157601 - DS7.1 "PXEPreZero: Invalid PXE Server List Format" error

TECH166350 - PXE-E74 , PXE-M0F:PXE not pushing down PE image

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH157601 certainly seems to apply.  Did you follow the resolution steps exactly?  Others have posted the same issue on Connect and this has resolved it for them.

Did you recently update to SP2?  Are all solutions on SP2?

Are there any post-upgrade errors in the Altiris Log Viewer?

recreate the image and it should be good to go.

PXE COnfiguration | highlight the image you created | and select recreate (click once)

update resource membership 

PXE server do update configuration, It iwill create the PXE image again and it should fix itself (rememove the dummy.0)

NOTE. Make sure the SBS services are up and running first.

Nelo

Hey Guys!

Thanks for the quick response! Much appreciated.

I have tried the steps that you have mentioned, as well as the steps mentioned in the KB articles. However, they have not resolved my problem. The error occurs only when I am trying to boot the client using a new PE file.

I have restored an older PE file and have added the driver to it, so as of now my setup is fine.

But I am concerned about why I am unable to create a new PE file and get it to work with my PXE.

I just tried the steps that you have mentioned, but the dummy.0 file is still there.

Any ideas?

When u create a PXE Image the following happens: as best of my knowledge :)

1. Create a new configuration. Click save. It saves it to the database

2. Upon a membership update the PXE handler initiates a process where boot disk creator is invoked.

3. Once BDC creates the pxe image a message is sent to SBSNSInterface (receipt of it is the sbs file under sbsstore)

4. The message contains the following:

Status=NewImage

Image=test1

Desc=test1

Arch=x86

where Image=test1 is the name of the pxe configuration and arch is x86 or x64

5. SBSNSInterface  passes the info to the SBS PXE Server and the SBS PXE server check for the NewImage identifier and it executes the batch file fixup.bat within the image to get it ready (dummy.0 is removed after fixup runs). status=update bypasses the fixup batch file as the pxe image is ready.

somewhere in there is the problem.

I would restart the SBS services from top to bottom and try creating a new PXE image wait a couple of minutes after restart for the server to get ready.

Check with process explorer if fixup batch file ever runs right after BDC is done creating the PXE image.

Nelo

Thanks again for the response Nelo. You're a Super Star!

Will try out the steps you've mentioned and let you know how it works out. Thanks again

Hey guys!

How you doin!

I tried out the steps mentioned, but alas, they still did not fix the problem

I do not see any errors in the log files. and I haven't updated to SP2 yet.

Here's a brief idea about my environment. Hope it helps.

Server Operating System: Windows Server 2008 R2

Client Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 7

Number of Server : 1

Number of Clients: about 150

Notification Server Version: 7.1 MR3

Deployment Solution Version: 7.1 MR3

Number of Site Servers : 1

Number of Package Server (If Any) : 1

Any other pointers that I can use? It seems that I am unable to create any new PE file. Older PE files work fine. But every new PE file that I have created has got the Dummy.0 file instead of the actual file. All services are up and running. I even restarted the services again, waited for about 5 minutes, ran the resource membership updates. Still the same issue remains.

Thanks for all the help so far guys. Much appreciated

Just a small update. I tried to recreate the PE file and it appears to be fixed. Thanks a bunch folks!