No system disk is involved in imaging operation. So not running DeployAnywhere

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

Customer deploys an image and notices that the active Windows drive (usually d:\windows in automation) is not detected.  DeployAnywhere doesn't run because there isn't an active Windows drive.

In the DStasks.log file the error 'No system disk is involved in imaging operation.  So not running DeployAnywhere' is displayed

Cause

With newer hardware there are situations where the command 'ghconfig64.exe /findactivewindows' doesn't return the active Windows drive. 

Environment

All versions of DS 7.x/8.x up to and including DS 8.1 RU7

Resolution

The issue was scheduled to be addressed in RU7 but due to an unforseen side effect of the code change the issue was not properly resolved.  A pointfix has been attached to this KB

To install the pointfix do the following:

1. Download '8.1_RU7_Pointfix.zip' to the Notification Server.
2. Extract the file
3. Right click on 'PFInstaller2.exe' and select 'Run as Administrator'
4. Check 'log.txt' to ensure that installation completed
5. Wait for the BDC package to update on all site servers.  (This process can be assisted by running the 'NS.Package...' scheduled tasks on the NS and running 'update configuration' task on package servers')
6. Recreate the PXE and/or Automation folder preboots.

 

In DS 8.5- due to ship 2nd half 2k18- the following changes will be made:
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1.  A backup method has been added to detect the active Windows drive should Ghconfig fail.  (getwindowsdrive.bat).
2. Logging enhancements to clarify the cause of any future issues.
   1. If DeployAnywhere is not selected in the Deploy Image task the log will state, "DeployAnywhere is not selected in the task XML. Not running DeployAnywhere"
   2. If the active Windows drive is not found the log will state, "Not deploying to a Windows system drive, or active Windows drive not found. Not running DeployAnywhere"
   3. Results from GetWindowsdrive.bat will show as "Result of calling GetWindowsDrive.bat is...."
   4. If GetWindowsdrive.bat is missing "Could not find GetWindowsDrive.bat. Verify that this file is in the WinPE filesystem"