FATAL ERROR: Boot Parameter 'WinPEFile' is not defined !!!

Products

• CA Client Automation - IT Client Manager
• CA Client Automation

Issue/Introduction

When deploying a Windows OS Image via Operating System Installation Manager (OSIM) in share mode, the WinPE boots but the process fails with the following on screen:

Partition 1 is now the selected partition
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DiskPart marked the current partition as active

Leaving DiskPart?
Access is denied.
Access is denied.
?.\xxxxxxx.cmd is not recognized as an internal or external command,
Operable program or batch file.
FATAL ERROR: Boot Parameter 'WinPEFile' is not defined !!!
Press any key to continue. . .

Environment

Client Automation - All versions

Cause

In share mode, once the WinPE has booted and partitioned the HD, it needs to connect to the image share to download the OS Image files. If the server has undergone hardening and the permissions have been removed from the boot servers' shares then this will fail.

Resolution

Ensure the local user "canonprv" has read access to the "camenu" and "images\imagename\imagename" shares

the simplest way to ensure this is to run the commands:

 

sdbsswitch -t

sdbsswitch -s

 

-t will set the boot server to TFTP mode which removes all the shares. 

-s then sets the boot server back to share mode and recreates all the shares with the required permissions.

Additional Information

If the local user "canonprv" has been removed follow the ref. art. to restore this user and recreate the shares:

How to recreate the user canonprv if it is deleted from the OS by mistake.