Deployment Solution

I am in the process of upgrading form Altiris 6.9 to Management Console 7.1 and I have been trying to get my clients to boot into automation. It keeps telling me:

Restarting DHCP client service: retry 1...

Restarting DHCP client service: retry 2...

Restarting DHCP client service: retry 3...

Restarting DHCP client service: retry 4...

I realize this is a driver issue, I have tried installing the proper driver using both bootwiz.exe and going through and adding the driver via the Web console (settings > diver management). I have then recreated the preboot environment. None of this has seemed to work. 

Any suggestions or ideas on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

There were two other threads that are reporting the same issue, try adding the drivers through BDC instead of the NS console.

Nelo

Thank you for your response. I have tried using BDC as well as the NS console and it still didn't work. Are there any other ideas?

Hi Sethku,

What is the make/model of the client's NIC card?

-Sachin

It is an NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet. I have tried installing the proper driver but it just doesn't show up in the list.

Sethku,

Can you check if the newly added drive is appearing in the Preboot driver database , to check this Go to NS Console: Settings -> Deployment -> Driver management -> open tab Preboot , from the list check if the driver is present ; 

You can also verify if the driver is present at the location : \\<NS Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\Platforms\Winpe2\x86\Drivers\CUSTOM\Drivers , if the driver is successfully added then it should present at this location.

Once you added the driver in to the preboot driver database in to the DS 7.1 you need to reconfigure the preboot environment , Go to settings -> Deployment -> Create Preboot configuration select PEinstall configuration which is the default Preboot configuration (Assuming you are using Windows PE, if you are using LinuxPE then select Linux default preboot configuration) click on 'Recreate Preboot Environment' ; Ans save changes;

Also verify if the driver of correct architecture is added , X86 driver may not be applicable for X64

If you didn't find the driver in the driver database then add the driver form Preboot UI interface from : NS Console: Settings -> Deployment -> Driver management -> open tab Preboot -> Add drivers.

If you find the driver is added properly then , when you boot the client in to Automation , Go to X:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository which will have all the drivers source applied in to WinPE.

Also can you provide the link / attache the NVIDIA driver which you are using , so that we will test that in our environment.

Please check and update your findings..

I added the drivers and they showed up in both Settings > Deployment > Driver Management > Preboot and in \\<NS Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\Platforms\Winpe2\x86\Drivers\CUSTOM\Drivers. Then I Recreated the Preboot Environment. However, when I booted into automation I didn't get an ip address and the drivers didn't show up in the FIleRepository.

I have also noticed that now when I go into Settings > Deployment > Driver Management > Preboot it tells me there is "No Data to display" and before there was a decent sized list of drivers.

I have attatched the driver I have been trying to install.

Thanks for your help.

Attachment(s)

Ethernet.zip   569 KB 1 version

Sethku,

Thanks for the information and the driver , I am seeing the issue in importing the driver in to the Preboot driver database . And we need to fix this;

Mean while can you check one more think , in the driver folder at : \\<NS Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\Platforms\Winpe2\x86\Drivers\CUSTOM\Drivers did you see all the driver files are copied are not?

Also if possible provide following log files:

C:\programdata\Symantec\SMP\Logs\a.log and a1.log

\\<NS Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\bootwiz.log

For the issue of not displaying any driver in the UI , try refreshing the driver list or close and reopen the driver management UI page.

Sethku,

The driver which you have provided is for the  X64 version; By default the architecture x86 is selected on the Driver manager page , Initially i added the driver using the default selection i.e. x86 and it was not added properly , But when i selected the correct version i.e. x64 the driver is added properly in the driver database and also can be seen at FileRepository; unfortunately i dint have the NVIDIA network card to test;

If you have selected the x86 verison , then can you correct it with x64 and verify booting the client to automation.Update your findings.

I have tried re-adding both the x86 and x64 driver, with the correct architecture. Both of them show up in \\<NS Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\Platforms\Winpe2\<x86 or x64>\Drivers\CUSTOM\Drivers or in the FileRepository

I recreated the pre-boot environment, and tried to boot into automation. Still no luck.

I have attached the logs.

Attachment(s)

logs_14.zip   231 KB 1 version

Then they'll be in the preboot configuration.  If you're still having problems getting to the network, there is another issue.

For instance, we may be trying to load another driver we find as a match first.

or

The drivers may not be compatible with WinPE 2.1.

Unfortunately, we don't have the same tools to detect what IS being loaded for WinPE, so the only other thing I can think of, IF you're 100% positive you have the right driver, you could go into BootWiz, and them move the driver up the list to the top to see if you can ensure it's actually the one being loaded.  We do a sequential search through the list for a driver match, and IF another driver matches first, that could be the problem.

GL.

Sethku,

Thanks for the update & Log file; 

We are still investigating this issue , mean while check one thing , when you boot the client machine in to Automation (Preboot) ; go to the driver location (i.e. at X:\Windows\system32\drivers ) and install the driver manually;

CD to driver directory and Execute command : drvload <driver_inf file name>

If driver applies correctly to the device then you should get the network enabled and should get the IP , And then In this case we need to investigate more what is the reason for not working using DS console.

Unfortunately as we didnt have this network card we are not able to see the issue ; Please update your findings.

Sethku,

If you are not seeing the complete driver at the Automation driver location , then copy the driver folder manually and execute drvload to install the driver , this will verify if the driver is correct for WinPE

I have loaded the driver manually. The x86 driver wouldn't load but it said the x64 driver did, however it still wasn't able to get an ip address. Thanks for your help.

Sethku,

I have missed one more thing to update you , that is when you import any new driver in to the Preboot driver database and recreated the preboot configuration (as indicated above) so as to add / modify this driver in to the automation folder of the client machine you have to apply the Automation folder upgrade policy.

Go to NS console -> Settings -> Agents/Plug-in-> All Agents/Plug-in : Select the windows (x64) [or applicable] Enable 'Deployment Automation folder for Windows - Upgrade'

We are still investigation at our end , will update you.

Sethku,

If you have the drivers for 32 bit architeture then please provide those also.

I tried creating a bootdisk and it was able to load the drivers and get a network connection. I still can't get the automation boot to work without the disk, and now it doesn't even boot into automation.

I have attached the 32-bit drivers.

Attachment(s)

Ethernet_0.zip   510 KB 1 version

Sethku,

Thanks for the drivers.

It is an important update that when you create a bootdisk and it loads the driver and get a network connection.

For not booting in to automation , can you try this manually to just check it is booting in to automation.

Check on the client machine for the boot folder (it will be present at C: / D:) Go to C:\boot\altiris\iso\ and execute a command 'autoutil.exe -a' ; this will boot the client machine to Autoamtion when you reboot the machine;

To investigate more we need the log file from : C:\programdata\Symantec\SMP\Logs\a.log and a1.log

After running autoutil.exe -a I have found that [129=EXIT_ERR_AUTOMATION_NOT_INSTALLED]. So I have try to re-install the automation, both manually (using PEInstall_x64) and using DS and they all claim the install is successful but then it still tells me the automation is not installed.

I have attached the logs a.log and a1.log.

Thanks.

Attachment(s)

logsaa1.zip   195 KB 1 version

Thomas,

How do you "move a driver up the list to the top"? I don't see any way of accomplishing this, not through Bootwiz, not through the SMC, etc. What am I doing wrong?