Changing the Ghost Solution Suite service account password

Products

• Deployment Solution
• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

 When it is necessary to change a password used for Ghost Solution Suite, what needs to be changed and updated and where?

Environment

Ghost Solution Suite 3.x

Resolution

Question
When it is necessary to change a password used in or for the Ghost Solution Suite server, what needs to be changed and updated?

Answer
Company policies sometime require regular password changes which can affect the different accounts used by Ghost Solution Suite services. When a GSS admin or user account experiences a password change, the following changes will need to be made:

For Ghost Solution Suite server and SQL, the following items have to be checked and/or changed to make sure that the new password will work.

1. From the Ghost Solution Suite server, navigate to > Control Panel > Altiris Deployment Server. Click on the Account button and enter the new password if the service account password has changed. Once changed, and services restart, verify all services have been updated. It is sometimes necessary to update one or more manually by right clicking on the service and selecting 'properties'.
2. The ODBC settings may also have to be changed so that the server can access the database. Access this via 'ODBC Data Sources (32-bit) application on the server.
3. If you use a PXE server, the PXE account information will have to be updated in each PXE configuration for access to the eXpress share. To make this change, choose the PXE Configuration utility from the Tools pull-down menu in the GSS console. Highlight a PXE configuration and click the Edit button. Then click the "Edit Boot Image..." button to enter the PXE configuration wizard for that configuration. Since the wizard will start you somewhere in the middle (such as "Step 9 of 12") you will need to click on the Edit button at the bottom of the window to start at step #1. Progress through each step until you reach the screen showing the User Name and Password entries. Enter the new password before continuing to the end of the wizard when the configuration will be rebuilt using the updated password information. Be sure to click on the Save button at the main PXE configuration window to have this updated configuration saved to the PXE server(s).  
4. If you are using Boot Disk configurations, choose the Boot Disk Creator utility from the Tools pull-down menu in the GSS console. Then right-click on the Bootwiz configuration you wish to update, click Edit and redo progress through the wizard to the User Name and Password entry. Enter the new password before continuing to the end of the wizard when the configuration will be rebuilt. Automation folders built with any changed configuration will need to be reinstalled on endpoints to update the password.
5. If the Altiris Deployment Server Data Manager/DB Management services will not start, right-click on these services, choose Properties and then the Log On tab to make account password changes.
6. Under Tools > Options > Domain Accounts > Properties, you can set the account used to add/remove users from domains automatically. This account does not control access to the console and it does not change any accounts you've set in individual jobs.
7. Individual jobs—If you've set up any jobs to have specific user account settings when deploying software or running scripts, you'll need to modify those jobs individually.
8. Console Security—If you've implemented DS console security and your system is not integrated with NT or AD security groups, then you can modify your account information manually by going to Tools > Security.
9. Jobs and Tasks - To update user account passwords for jobs and tasks, go to Tools > Options > Task Password.  Here you will be able to update the password for any account used in Capture Personality, Copy File to, Distribute Software, Distribute Personality and Run Script Tasks.