Ghost Solution Suite

I have been using GSS 2.5 for a few months now and recently it has not been able to change the IP address of any of my Windows 7 x64 machines. I change the TCP/IP settings in the individual machine's configuration to either DHCP or a static address and run a configuration task, but it does not change the IP address on the host machine. The computer seems to go through the steps of restarting itself and booting into WinPE. After it boots into Windows there has been no change. I was able to do this previously with Win 7 but cannot now. Please let me know if Microsoft made some sort of change that is preventing this ability.

Can I ask the obvious question - were you previously able to change the IP address on Windows 7 x64 machines, or were your previous successful attempts on Windows 7 32 bit machines?  Are you able to change IP addresses on Win 7 32 bit machines now? Or has this ability stopped also?

What I am trying to establish is whether this issue affects 64 bit machines only, and whether you can state categorically that it worked with 64 bit machines in the past.

Are you running build 2266 or 2269 of GSS 2.5.1 ??

-I only use the 64 bit version of Windows 7 Enterprise for this process mixed with Windows XP. 

-I currently have Windows XP images mixed with Windows 7, due to systems that do not meet minimum requirements for Win 7.

-I am currently running build 2266 as the fixes for 2269 did not seem to be applicable to my situation.

-All PC's are Dell OptiPlex 700 and 900 series systems.

-I image around 75 computers 3-4 times per year and on the previous server, this worked without issue.

-The server or install seems to be the issue with this error as it does not work with Win XP either.

-This install of GSS sits on a virtual server run by Hyper-V.

-I was forced by the lead system admin to switch to running GSS in a virtual environment, which it does not appear to like, and I believe this was the start of the problems.

-Previously with a different GSS server, I had been making Windows XP images and testing Windows 7 x64 images that worked perfectly fine for this process.

-I want to know if Hyper-V and virtualization is causing my issues, or if there’s a setting wrong with the GSS console.

Sorry for not being specific enough previously.

I've done some more testing and the old hardware based server with GSS 2.5.1 build 2266 and it appears to be having the same issue with Windows XP. I do not have a Win 7 x64 machine hooked up to this server, so I cannot test that portion. I know for fact that the other GSS install that I tested with was working properly when last I used it witn Win XP. I have tried simply setting the TCP/IP settings to DHCP and doing a configuration and config refresh task. I also tried deleting all the static information from the TCP/IP Settings submenu and setting everything to DHCP. After running the config task the PC has exactally the same configuration as before the task was started.

Have there been other changes in your network configuration in line with the move to server virtualisation?  Are you able to test with a simple switch between the virtual server's hardware and the machine you are testing with?

The problem could be in the network infrastructure rather than the server itself, if there have been multiple changes.

I have been doing more testing with this issue. It appears as though the configuration task works as it should when it is preceded by an image push. As part of my image push task, I also run the configuration directly after. This seems to make the appropriate IP changes as specified in the individual computer's configuration. I have tested this multiple times and it seems to work. The issue comes from trying to run the configuration task by itself without first having to push a new image to the PC just to get the IP information to change. I hope this brings a little more clarity to the issue.