Ghost Solution Suite

I'm trying to deploy an image (XP SP3) with Deploy Anywhere to a HP dc5800 machine.  I've already added HP's Intel NIC driver to the driver database, that was my first problem.  Now, after the client loads the image, it sits for about an hour, then the only error I get is "Exception caught".  I've checked the error file on the client machine as well, it contains no additional information.  I have been able to deploy the same image to about 12 other platforms with no problem.  The only other post I've seen [with this error] suggests that the client machine doesn't have enough RAM, but this machine has 2GB, so I know that is not the case.  Does anyone have some insight?

Hi Ken,

 

Someone in our QA department found something similar last night.  We haven't got to the bottom of it yet but I do have a suggestion for you to try:

 

• try removing all unecessary drivers from the WinPe you are using and try again.

 

• If DA doesn't complete in about its normal time  its not going to work and there is no point waiting.  To confirm this, you could run taskmgr and see if the amount of memory in use is just going up.

 

Can you tell me how you are booting into the PreOs?  Is it via a Ghost Boot Partition, a Virtual Partition, or bootable  media?

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

Michael,

 

I will try removing all the other drivers later today.  Do you intend for me to remove just unnecessary NIC drivers, mass storage, or both?

 

I have booted this client from PXE with the ghost console client, as well as from a boot partition with the console client.

 

Thanks,

 

Ken

Michael,

 

I removed all unnecessary NIC drivers and mass storage drivers from my console boot partition, and it did not fix the issue.  Also, maybe of some importance, the ghDplyAw32.exe process is consuming 50% of the CPU time.  (This is a Core2 processor, so it is using 100% of the first processor core.)  There is plenty of available memory, and memory usage does not seem to be increasing.  The ghDplyAw32.exe process is using 101,352K for itself.

 

Try removing some of the NIC drivers, the wireless drivers for example.  It may also be a good idea to remove those drivers you added yourself but which you know aren't necessary.  To be clear, I am talking about editing the WinPe you are using in the Ghost Boot Wizard, not removing the drivers from the driver library.

 

We have only seen this issue in one case related to the Ghost Boot Partition.  If the above doesn't work, try using another booting mechanism - that should work even with the original WinPe.

Michael,

 

I have tried this already.  I have booted using both the Console Boot Partition and the TCP/IP Network Ghost Client Boot Image with PXE.  These are the only options that I have that will work with WinPE and the Deploy Anywhere feature.  I have removed from the WinPE image all drivers, both NIC and mass storage.  The only driver I left in place was HP's Intel PRO/1000 driver, which is different from the included driver.  I have 45 of these machines to deploy by Friday, so If I'd be better off calling for support, please let me know.

Ken,

 

There are no guarantees about if or when your problem will be solved using this forum so contacting support is definitely an option.  Please tell them about this thread if you do so.

 

Can you please provide me with some more  information:

 

Did you get the new Intel Pro 1000 drivers from sp39763.exe?

 

What is the PCI id of the NIC on the dc5800? [if possible, the one that is reported by DA - should be in the server or client logs]

 

What OS is it? SP3 and XP32 or XP64?

 

Are you sure that the memory consumption on the machine doesn't increase over time once DA is past it's 'normal'  time?

 

Can you try one machine with a  standard Ghost boot disk [USB or CD] or a Virtual Parition and tell me if that works?

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

Ken,

 

Rebuild your Ghost Boot Partition in the Ghost Boot Wizard.  When you get to the Review page please remove the line below that contains the /setosdrives command.  Then try again with the problem machine and please let me know how it goes.

 

Michael

 

 

START.BAT:
set path=%path%;x:\ghost

x:
cd \ghost
rem --- This will remove any traces of virtual partition from hard drive ---
gdisk32.exe /revert  >> x:\ghost\startlog.txt

rem --- This will create primary OS drive configuration ---
ghost32.exe /setosdrives /blind >> x:\ghost\startlog.txt
start ngctw32.exe -console
 

Michael,

 

The suggestion to remove the following line: ghost32.exe /setosdrives /blind >> x:\ghost\startlog.txt did not work.

 

-Yes, I did get the driver from sp39763.exe. 

-The PCI ID is: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10BD&SUBSYS_281E103C.

-The OS is SP3, 32-bit.

-If the memory usage is increasing, it is so slow that I haven't noticed it, but truthfully, I haven't been able to watch that too closely.

-I am trying a standard boot disk (USB), I will let you know what happens.  This machine has no OS on it at all, so a virtual partition is not an option.

Michael,

 

The USB boot disk didn't work either.

 

I have another issue, and I know it would be best to start a new thread, but if you or anyone else can answer this one...  I'm getting an error about a missing driver on another platform, but this doesn't make any sense to me, as the device is the hard drive itself, not the mass storage controller:

 

Details for: Evaluate Deploy Anywhere

Required driver(s) missing from Driver Database.

type = RETARGET_STORAGE_DEVICE

PCI ID = IDE\DiskHDS722412VLSA80_____V33OA63A

Desc = HDS722412VLSA80 ATA Device

 

This is an Intel D865GLC board, 1GB RAM, and an 80GB SATA drive.  I tried a search for this problem, but I cannot find anything.  I also tried updating to the latest BIOS.  Is there any way to force Deploy Anywhere to continue, and ignore this error?

---

Ken E wrote:

 

The USB boot disk didn't work either.

 

---

Ok Ken, we don't have an answer for you on this.  We are trying to reproduce it and I will post back to this thread when we have an answer.

You  said in an earlier post that you have 45 machines to image.  The best way to do that given the current problems you are facing with DA is to build an image on one of the targets and then clone it to the remaining 44 - if they are the same type of machine then you won't need to run DA.

 

As for the second issue that you raise, please open another thread for this.  The short answer is that there isn't a way to tell DA to ignore this problem, and I'm not sure why it is occuring in the first place.

 Michael

We think we have a work-around for this issue:

 

1. Go to the installed windrivers directory and navigate to the Intel.Pro100+1000\PRO1000\Win32 directory  [typically that will be: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Ghost\Template\common\windrivers\Intel.Pro100+1000\PRO1000\Win32 ]
2. open the e1q6032.inf file
3. search for the following sections [NO_DRV] and [NO_DRV.Services]
4. comment out the Needs= line as shown below

[NO_DRV]
Include=machine.inf
;Needs=NO_DRV
Characteristics=1

[NO_DRV.Services]
Include=machine.inf
;Needs=NO_DRV.Services

Now go to the Ghost Boot Wizard and edit the WinPE that you are using.

 

Add or remove a driver

 

Recompile the PreOS and repeat the boot, clone[optional] and DA operations.

 

Let us know how it goes...  

 

Michael,

 

Before I try this, I need to clarify a couple of things.

 

1) The driver for this NIC is not included in the GSS driver database, I had to load HP's Vista driver to get this to work, so should I make this modification to the HP driver I added?  (HP has it's own PCI ID SUBSYS for this NIC.) 

 

2) The .inf for this NIC is actually e1e6032.inf, so should I make this change to that .inf?

Hi Ken,

 

I believe the problem comes when the newer Intel driver is loaded into the PreOS.  If you boot into the PreOs after doing so and grep the x:\windows\inf directory for NO_DRV you should find a .inf file with the sections outlined above.  So in my test systems, it was in x:\windows\inf\oem102.inf

 

For this to be a problem for DA a second condition has to be present: that C:\Windows\inf is not a valid path - typically it is. 

 

If both of those conditions are present it doesn't matter what the PCI ID of the target device is: DA is going to parse the PreOS inf folder and will run into the problem.

 

The newer Intel driver was sent out in LU2 last week.  It isn't present in the default WIM used as the PreOs by Ghost but it will get loaded if you modify that WIM via the Ghost Boot Wizard  [and don't explicity exclude the Intel Pro1000 driver]

Okay,  I have already installed that update, so I'll modify and rebuild my WinPE images and see what happens...  I'll try this out tomorrow.

This got me further than before, but only after I modified the Symantec e1e6032.inf to contain the following:

 

%E10BDNC.DeviceDesc%            = E10BD,       PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10BD&SUBSYS_2818103C
%E10BDNC.DeviceDesc%            = E10BD,       PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10BD&SUBSYS_281E103C

 

Prior to this, I had no network connectivity.

 

Now I need to locate the Intel ICH9 mass storage driver and load that in.