DS 8.x Automation Logs

Products

• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

Where are the Automation logs found and what logs are there?

Resolution

When in DS Automation (PXE or Automation folder.  NOTE: It is common to hear automation referred to as WinPE) the logs are stored in the following location:

X:\Program Files\Symantec\Deployment\Logs (while in automation)

If there is a valid active drive on the local client system, DS will copy the files to the drive after any DS task runs.  The files get stored at:

For Capture and Deploy Tasks: <Windows Drive>:\Program Files\Altiris\Altiris Agent\Agents\Deployment\PreOS_Task_Logs

For SOI Tasks: <Windows Drive>:\DS_SOI\

Below is a brief review of automation logs:

Log File	Purpose	Relation to DSTasks.LOG
DSTasks	Tracks all DS Tasks executed in Automation.  Always set to verbose.	Same / Self.  Detailed information about the DSTasks.log file is in this KB.
SMP	Tracks all Agent activity (PECTAgent in Automation). This is the same as the Agent.LOG files in Production	Tracks incoming and outgoing statuses of tasks.  Task information is stored here first and THEN in the DSTasks.log file.  Final statuses of tasks are captured before sending back to the SMP. Verbose logging can be enabled by following this KB.
PECTAgent	Tracks the initialization of PECTAgent.exe in Automation.  This is unique from the Agent.LOG in that PECTAgent performs custom actions in Automation not needed in production.	Almost no interaction at all with DSTasks.  Once Pectagent initializes, the logging process is handed to the SMP logs. DSTasks.log comes in AFTER this point.
DA_Logs_date	Tracks all DA related activity, depending on log level selected.	DSTasks will show calling DA, but DA logs it's own activities and returns results to DSTasks.  This is similar to how SMP shows calling a DS related task, but DSTasks shows the activities of that task. Detailed DA (DeployAnywhere) information can be found in this KB.
Drivers_List	List of detected drivers that need to be copied to the system.	DSTasks will show this log being used by DriverManager, IF DeployAnywhere successfully created it during it's /Eval run. Detailed DA (DeployAnywhere) information can be found in this KB.
act_wnd	Active Windows Partition information collected/created by GHConfig	DSTasks will never have mention of this log, but every time you see DSTasks with GHConfiig running, it creates one of these. Detailed DA (DeployAnywhere) information can be found in this KB.
Ghosterr/Ghostwarn_date	Logs ghost errors	When Ghost64.exe terminates unexpectedly, these logs are created.
Drvtrans_date	Translates information from Ghconfig to x:x format	This log shows how ghconfig translates drive and partition information.

This is applicable for 8.x