Power Control | Restart tasks trigger a reboot loop

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

A Power Control | Restart task causes a node to enter a reboot loop; specifically, each time the node reboots and the agent checks-in with the DS engine, it is issued another reboot command.  In the case of sequenced tasks, this prevents later tasks from being run.

Cause

Before reboot, DAgent serializes and saves the Schedule-ID in the agent state to the file dagent.dat.  This file is created within the %windir%\Temp (Windows Temp) folder.  If a process is preventing this file from being written prior to reboot, or if the file is deleted at any point prior to the agent checking-in to the engine to update its job status, the agent will submit a Schedule-ID of "none" and the task will be repeated.

Resolution

The following is a simple test to determine whether the dagent.dat file is being saved properly to the Windows Temp directory:

1. Create a Network Boot automation environment (PXE or CD).
2. Issue the Power Control | Restart task to the node.
3. Manually boot the node using the Network Boot environment.
4. Run a dir command against the Windows Temp folder on the hard disk and check for the presence of the dagent.dat file.

If the file is missing, more exhaustive troubleshooting will be necessary.  Because of the various ways in which the dagent.dat file can be manipulated, there is no universal solution to this problem.  The following is a shortlist of possible solutions:

• Confirm file permissions and ACLs are correct for the credentials used by the DAgent service.
• Check for the presence of any system restorative applications, such as Deep Freeze.
• Ensure there are no utilities running which automatically clear the Windows Temp directory (%windir%\Temp).

Applies To

Deployment Solution 6.9.430 (SP3)
DAgent 6.9.430
Windows XP Professional SP3

*Confirmed in this environment.  Other environments may also be affected.