DS 7.1: Imaging Jobs fail randomly at some point during the tasks that follow the deploy image task. (configservice.exe issue)

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

If you have a job that contains a deploy image task, reboot to production, and then a set of tasks to continue the configuration of the workstation (we'll refer to these as the "follow-up" tasks), these jobs often fail during the follow-up tasks.  Sometimes, you may as well see odd failures in Minisetup that, because MiniSetup doesn't complete, may as well fail the tasks/job.

 

 

For instance, we've seen at least the following results:

1. MiniSetup fails in a job with Apply System Configuration running immediately after the Deploy Image and Reboot To Production tasks because it runs during MiniSetup and breaks MiniSetup.
2. Tasks begin to run in production and fail when MiniSetup forces a reboot and "kills" the task.
3. Systems rolled into a new time zone may "fail" the tasks when the time changes in the middle of job/task execution.

Tasks fail while executing if a policy "fires" at the same time and forces some conflicting behavior (e.g. reboot)

There are varying errors that occur depending on the timing of Windows setup:

1) The tasks designed to execute in production don't complete because something running in the background interrupts them..  This is the case for #2 and #3 above.

2) Portions of the unattend.xml file that Windows is using to complete Windows setup aren't processed correctly because a task (e.g. an apply system configuration task) modified the workstation configuration and makes Windows believe setup is complete, or confuses it, or something.  Often MiniSetup will simply skip sections.  

For instance, if the OOBESystem, audituser, and auditsystem passes are skipped, users commonly report things like:

• an inability to login to windows
• MiniSetup running every reboot
• Ghost user account still present or even logged in
• DA drivers not processed (which happens during those passes).

Cause

The cause of the issue is that the Symantec Management Agent is connecting up to the Notification Server, selecting a task server, and running tasks before Windows setup / MiniSetup is complete.  The issue is more pronounced in MP1 most likely due to improved performance in the Symantec Management Agent communication to the Notification Server.

Resolution

Development has made a change to the 'configservice.exe' file. The 'configservice.exe' file now starts the Symantec Management Agent after Windows setup is complete.

 

Follow the steps below to install the fix:

 

 

For Win 7 x86 systems:

Note: There are multiple methods to install / use this fix. Each method can be used independent ot the other methods.

 

1. Update an Existing Captured Image:

1. Download the 32-bit config service attached to this KB.
2. Open the Ghost image with Ghost Explorer
   1. Expand the NTFS partition to 'program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
   2. Right click and select 'add'
   3. Select the 'configservice.exe' file you downloaded in step 1. Click on 'Open'
   4. Click on 'Yes' to replace the existing file3) Deploy the image

 

 

2. Update the 'source' machine before creating an image:

1. Download the 32-bit config service attached to this KB.
2. On the 'source' system browse to '<drive>:\program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
   1. Save the 'configservice.exe' download in step one to this directory
3. Capture and Deploy the image

 

 

 

3. Deploy using a 'copy file to' task:

1. Download the 32-bit config service attached to the NS.
2. Create 'copy file to ' task
   1. Copy 'configservice.exe' to '<drive>:\program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
3. Create a 'Deploy Image Job' that contains three tasks:
   1. Deploy Image
   2. Copy file to task created in step 2
   3. Reboot to Prod

 

 

For Win 7 x64 systems:

Note: There are multiple methods to install / use this fix. Each method can be used independent ot the other methods.

 

1. Update an Existing Captured Image:

1. Download the 64-bit config service attached to this KB.
2. Open the Ghost image with Ghost Explorer
   1. Expand the NTFS partition to 'program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
   2. Right click and select 'add'
   3. Select the 'configservice.exe' file you downloaded in step 1. Click on 'Open'
   4. Click on 'Yes' to replace the existing file
3. Deploy the image

 

 

2. Update the 'source' machine before creating the image:

 

 

1. Download the 64-bit config service attached to this KB.
2. On the 'source' system browse to '<drive>:\program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
   1. Save the 'configservice.exe' download in step one to this directory
3. Capture and Deploy the image

 

3. Deploy using a 'copy file to' task:

1. Download the 64-bit config service attached to the NS.
2. Create 'copy file to ' task
   1. Copy 'configservice.exe' to '<drive>:\program files\altiris\altiris agent\agents\deployment\agent'
3. Create a 'Deploy Image Job' that contains three tasks:
   1. Deploy Image
   2. Copy file to task created in step 2
   3. Reboot to Prod

 

Applies To

 All builds of DS 7.1 up to SP2 MP1