Symantec Management Agent service is disabled after finishing deployed imaging job

Products

Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

The customer reported that after the deployment of computers, the Symantec Management Agent (SMA aka Altiris Agent) service is being disabled.

The customer says that after the client machine is done re-imaging, he has to go to services and change the service from Disabled to Automatic (Delayed Start).

While looking at DSTasks.log, we see:

[2022/03/31 10:48:50.220 1344:752 INFO] Deploy Image Task: Starting application 'X:\Program Files\Symantec\Deployment\Ghost\GhRegEdit64.exe' with command-line ' addvalue C:\Windows "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services\AeXNSClient" "Start" REG_DWORD 4' in 'x:\program files\Symantec\Deployment'

then

[2022/03/31 10:48:50.613 1344:752 <TRC>] Deploy Image Task: Read production OS registry value 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services\AeXNSClient\Start': dword:00000004
[2022/03/31 10:48:50.613 1344:752 INFO] Deploy Image Task: AeXNSAgent.exe location found: C:Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent

which the code means:
dword:00000001=boot
dword:00000002=automatic
dword:00000003=manual
dword:00000004=disabled

Environment

ITMS 8.5, 8.6

Cause

DSAgent plug-in (Deployment Plug-in for Windows) was not installed on the client machine where the image was taken from.

DSTasks.log looks fine. That 00000004 is correct - means the disabled service state.
There was something in their environment or process that leads to missing DSAgent plug-in and ConfgiService.exe on the machine.

If there is no DSAgent plug-in, then there is no ConfigService.exe in the image.

What's happening after the image restore is:

the latest aexnsc.exe is downloaded from server
the latest configservice.exe is downloaded from server
aexnsclient service gets disabled
configservice service gets enabled

Then machine reboot should follow and the following thins should occur during the boot:

configservice.exe starts
configservice.exe runs the downloaded aexnsc.exe and upgrades SMA
aexnsclient.exe service gets enabled again and started

Resolution

Install DSAgent plugin on the machine where the image is taken from:

1. Go to Settings>All Settings>Agent/Plug-ins>Deployment>Windows(x64) and either enable or target this plug-in to the machine that you are using to capture your image.

2. and after the DSAgent plug-in is installed then capture the image again and see if the issue persists or not.

Note:

The following is provided as a guidance on what to consider while troubleshooting an issue like this:

Check that the file below exists after the image deployment is done: C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\ConfigService.exe
If ConfigService.exe started but then failed, then its log can be found at C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\Logs\ConfigService.log
ConfigService.log is created only if ConfigService.exe service is started. There is no log if service does not start.
If you use "prepare image" task before creating a ghost image then that task disables SMA service and enables ConfigService.exe
System Event logs should contain any indication of ConfigService.exe start or failure. This Windows Event log should be collected after the deployment. Wait few minutes after the boot to give time all the services including Automatic (Delayed) to start. Delayed service start about 3 minutes after the machine startup.
Check the following registry key after the boot to production:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services\ConfigService

This key should be the same as this one:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ConfigService

Those should have a key like this:
"Start" =dword:00000002
Run command-line from the command console while in C:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment folder:
ConfigService install

and Try starting the service:

net start configservice

Check if ConfigService.log created. There should be a failure at some step.