snap deploy eval going badly, help?

Started off pretty well, downloaded and installed the eval components (license server, management console, deploy server, pxe server). All installed on same windows 2003 server (sp1). All seemed to be working ok to the point where we installed the client agent remotely on a "client" server, and made a master image file.

Then it falls apart: we swap put the drives in the server we made an image of, replace them with identical models. We boot the server up via PXE, get the snap deploy agent running, go to the server and select the template and this is the result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<log build="2064" product="Acronis*OS*Deploy*Server" uuid="594E0675-4A10-46E1-8399-5A725BA52559" version="2.0">
<event code="0" id="1" message="Deploy server started" module="100" time="1151352029" type="2" />
<event code="0" id="2" message="Host '10.104.177.212' query for deploy" module="100" time="1151352740" type="2" />
<event code="0" id="3" message="Session 'Default': Join client '10.104.177.212'" module="100" time="1151352740" type="2" />
<event code="0" id="4" message="New script session 'Session 1' was added" module="100" time="1151352886" type="2" />
<event code="0" id="5" message="File 'D:\acronis\images\hqadirnd04.tib' is accepted to download from FileServer as 'tcp://3269531573869'" module="100" time="1151352886" type="2" />
<event code="0" id="6" message="Session 'Deployment template 6/26/2006 3:21 PM': Join client '10.104.177.212'" module="100" time="1151352886" type="2" />
<event code="262151" id="7" message="Unable to set security context. Deployment may be failed if Master Image is on network share." module="100" time="1151352889" type="3" />
<event code="0" id="8" message="Remove client '10.104.177.212' from session 'Deployment template 6/26/2006 3:21 PM'" module="100" time="1151352900" type="2" />
<event code="1" id="9" message="Host '10.104.177.212' failed to deploy (0x340001)
Tag = 0x9C5A16066A60D39A
Failed to create partitions structure [8]. (0x330004)
Tag = 0xE3394061D0E3A2E7" module="52" time="1151352900" type="4" />
<event code="103" id="10" message="Failed to create directory &quot;data&quot; in &quot;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent\&quot; with error code: 262,164" module="1" time="1151352900" type="3" />
<event code="103" id="11" message="Access to the file is denied. (0x40014)
function = &quot;CreateDirectoryW&quot;,
filename = &quot;\\?\C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent\data\Configs&quot;
Tag = 0xF35F747B3B21F974
Access is denied. (0xFFF0)
code = FFFFFFFF80070005
Tag = 0xBD28FDBD64EDB821" module="1" time="1151352900" type="3" />
<event code="103" id="12" message="Failed to create directory &quot;data&quot; in &quot;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent\&quot; with error code: 262,164" module="1" time="1151352900" type="3" />
<event code="103" id="13" message="Access to the file is denied. (0x40014)
function = &quot;CreateDirectoryW&quot;,
filename = &quot;\\?\C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Agent\data\Drivers&quot;
Tag = 0xF35F747B3B21F974
Access is denied. (0xFFF0)
code = FFFFFFFF80070005
Tag = 0xBD28FDBD64EDB821" module="1" time="1151352900" type="3" />
<event code="0" id="14" message="Session 'Deployment template 6/26/2006 3:21 PM' is removed" module="100" time="1151352900" type="2" />
<event code="3407873" id="15" message="Failed to notify client/clients about Session termination" module="100" time="1151353171" type="5" />
<event code="0" id="16" message="Session 'Default' is removed" module="100" time="1151353171" type="2" />
</log>

The cleint system then restarts and it appears something got to the disk as there is now MBR failure.

So, we move on and try the bootable cd option; create a cd, boot and then load the master image creator. All seems ok until we try to point to a share, the server hosting a share logs a successful login from the client server, but the master image creator continues to promt and never gets beyond that point.

So, so far we can install the software, create an image from the console and a system with the agent running, but we can't restore that image.

 

Hello rportch,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Complete System Deployment Software.

Could you please do the following in order to create Acronis Snap Deploy Agent logs so that we could continue investigation on this issue (this should be done on a target computer)?

- When the client side of Acronis Snap Deploy is starting up, wait for boot menu to appear and press F11. As you get the "Linux kernel settings" prompt, remove the "quiet" parameter and press OK.
- Select Acronis Snap Deploy Agent.
- After you get the command prompt enter:

product /mode:demon /log-level:verbose /log:../tmp/problem.log

and press enter.

- Reproduce the problem.
- After you get the command prompt again insert a diskette into the floppy drive and enter:

mkdir /mnt/t
mount -t vfat /devfs/floppy/0 /mnt/t
cp /tmp/problem.log /mnt/t
umount /mnt/t

- Collect the problem.log file from the diskette.

Then, please, continue with the following in order to create Acronis OS Deploy Server logs:

- Launch Acronis Snap Deploy Management Console;
- Select the "Manage Deployment" option;
- Specify the credentials for connecting to the machine with Acronis OS Deploy Server and click "OK";
- Click on the "Show operations log" button on the icon bar;
- Select the date you need the log from (this should be the last one, which was created when creating Acronis Snap Deploy Agent logs) and click on the "Save log entry to file" (diskette) button;
- Specify the path and the filename for the log file and click "Save".
- Collect this log file.

Please create an account, then log in and submit a request for technical support. Attach all the collected files to your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

tried that, but the init of the floppy fails to some extent, then the copy of the log file doesn't put anything on the floppy (there is activity). Will go through the steps again and post the error that is generated for you to look at. Also, Customer Service has responded with a few questions about version and if the license server has free licenses, will post that info also.

I can add one more comment at this point: I booted off a 2003 install cd, to look at the state of the drive, and the "c:" partion did get created, matching the size of the image, however, there is only 1 byte used. Thats likely the source of the MBR failure.

 

For those who look through the forums, I was able to get a problem.log file from the client, in spite of the errors. I deleted all the files off the floppy, prior to using it this time. It logs a problem creating the partitions (blank drives were put in the server to test the deploy, they are the same size/brand and have been initialized a one logical array, just as in the image):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<log uuid="F9855F71-8714-C66D-FE4B-2A00E1C59796" product="Acronis*Snap*Deploy*Agent" version="2.0" build="2064">
<event id="1" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Network subsystem initialized succesfully"/>
<event id="2" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Connecting to DeployServer..."/>
<event id="3" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Have started looking for Deploy Server"/>
<event id="4" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Have completed looking for Deploy Server"/>
<event id="5" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Have selected Deploy Server: 10.104.177.254"/>
<event id="6" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Check available network interfaces"/>
<event id="7" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Have connected to the Deploy Server: 001438BD56010000"/>
<event id="8" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662601" message="Have requested deploy script from the Deploy Server"/>
<event id="9" type="2" module="51" code="27" time="1151662741" message="Address of Acronis License Server is not specified. Try to use address of Acronis Deploy Server instead. (0x33001B)
Tag = 0xD87BF4C1112C07D8"/>
<event id="10" type="2" module="51" code="14" time="1151662741" message="License for Acronis*Snap*Deploy*Agent 2.0 (English) successfully acquired from 10.104.177.254. (0x33000E)
Tag = 0xD87BF4C1112C07B7"/>
<event id="11" type="2" module="1" code="503" time="1151662741" message="Analyzing partition 0-0..."/>
<event id="12" type="2" module="1" code="503" time="1151662742" message="Analyzing partition C:..."/>
<event id="13" type="2" module="100" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Map BIOS disk 128:1"/>
<event id="14" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have initialized cleanup operation for disk 1"/>
<event id="15" type="2" module="1" code="506" time="1151662742" message="Locking partition C:..."/>
<event id="16" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have saved clanup operation for disk 1"/>
<event id="17" type="2" module="1" code="504" time="1151662742" message="Pending operation 40 started: &quot;Clearing disk&quot;"/>
<event id="18" type="2" module="100" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Map BIOS disk 128:1"/>
<event id="19" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have opened disk 1 as target"/>
<event id="20" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have opened server 10.104.177.254:4,541 as source"/>
<event id="21" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have opened image tcp://1916155626289 as source"/>
<event id="22" type="2" module="100" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Map BIOS disk 128:1"/>
<event id="23" type="4" module="51" code="0" time="1151662742" message="Have change MBR on disk 1: signature - 662,120,311."/>
<event id="24" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Have initialized partition:&lt;endl/>&lt;indent value=4>Start - 63, Size - 62942607, Resize enabled - false"/>
<event id="25" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Have initialized partition:&lt;endl/>&lt;indent value=4>Start - 62942670, Size - 510529635, Resize enabled - false"/>
<event id="26" type="4" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Failed to create partitions structure [8]."/>
<event id="27" type="5" module="100" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Tcp::Receive: Execution terminated [-1]"/>
<event id="28" type="4" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Image download failed: -1"/>
<event id="29" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Have selected Deploy Server: 10.104.177.254"/>
<event id="30" type="2" module="51" code="0" time="1151662744" message="Check available network interfaces"/>
</log>

I have sent this and screen shots of the process as best I could to support. If there is a resolution, I will post some information.

 

Hello rportch,

Could you please let us know your Acronis request # (e.g. [Acronis #123456]) which was sent to you in autoreply to your letter? We will find out how the investigation of your issue is going. If you have not received an autoreply then please send me a Private Message containing your e-mail address.

Please create Windows System Information on the machine where you have Acronis OS Depoly Server installed as it is described in Acronis Help Post and send it as a reply to the answer on your request.

Thank you.
--
Kirill Omelchenko

 

#623695

I have gotten a second request for more diagnostic information. There may be some focus on the raid controller of the hp dl380 g4 system (a 6i model).

 

just to keep sharing a little. I was asked to download the newest version of the acronis server product and run basic diagnositic gathering with that.

Then I was asked to try to use that product to take an image, and restore it. Unfortunately, I get even less success with this over the snapdeploy.

We are a windows 2000 Active Directory sub-domain, and the attempts by the client to authenticate to a share consistently fail. I have tried a domain account that has admnin rights on the servers, and a local adminstrator account. Both fail to authenticate, and even more so, I can't now take an image when using the remote agent. This process also fails to authenticate (the server, console and the share are on the same system).

 

just sharing.

Current verison of product is unable to get past the authentication to a windows share. Previous version does authenticate properly, however, image made by snap deploy is incompatible with older version.

Security logs on server with share on it show many attempts to use guest account, and several successful authentications, however, acronis client does not appear to be able to make a connection.

Have been asked to change several local security settings, only to find that those setting are already set as requested, which brings me back to the same logic: old version works (except it is incompatible), new version doesn't. If the old version works, why would any setting need to be changed.

I get the same results when I try to use the current enterprise version to make an image with the agent installed: when the software asks where to store the image, it can't authenticate to a share.

To an extent this is confusing to me: If I install all the software on one server, then install the agent on a server to make an image of that server, why can't I directly access the local drive on the "host" server? When I make a connection to the client server (the one we want an image of), the server seems to redirect it's drives to the remote server, and no longer shows the local drives. If the software could "see" the local drives there would be no need to authenticate to a share (that is on the same server that the acronis software is on). Oh, well, this doesn't really matter since the same authentication problem would be present if we ever tried to use the image.

I must comment that this is still not going well, and even with tech support involved, little progress is being made. This appears to be why the production side of the house is using a 2 year old verison, it works and they can't get the new version to work.

 

Rportch,

I have seen the very same problems you are seeing. I boot up my client machine with the PXE boot, the acronis snap deploy "client" software loads succesfully..

I proceed through the steps to create my image. And when I get to the image name and location section, I can never, ever get it to place the image on the SnapDeploy server!!! WTF?!?! It can connect via PXE, bring down the client software, but then can't connect BACK to the snap deploy server to drop the image files on?!?! It's really kind of funny.

The ONLY machine that I can connect to on the network is my desktop machine. I am able to create the image on an external hard drive hanging off my desktop but not to the snap deploy server. Once the image is on my external HD, I then have to copy it up to the server at which time I am able to deploy that image to my desktops.

As with you, I really don't know nor can I explain why it is doing this. It's almost like it is not using normal CIFS\SMB. When I try to connect to a share on the snap depoy server, it keeps giving me the authentication window, which i then enter domain\username and rejects it with the "location or file name is incorrect, blah blah blah."

But as I stated above, I can authenticate to my desktop machine that sits on the same LAN. On both the server and desktop I tried to eliminate as much NTFS security as possible. Both share and NTFS permissions were set to "Everyone" - Full Control.

I dunno, I am using an older version of snap deploy and don't see myself renewing, and once Vista comes out, I will be able to thankfully move to the new MS imaging product.

BTW, I have found a bug in the software where it will corrupt the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\S-1-5-18\ key located in this directory upon imaging.

Any scheduled tasks that you have already configured in scheduled tasks when the image was created will fail to run until you delete that key and recreate the scheduled task.

Thanks,

Michael

 

support has provided 2 "custom" cd (iso) images, asked me to try to create/restore an image. Both failed, they don't appear to be able to interact with the "network": nothing shows up in the browse lists and if you enter a url, and click the ok button, the failure is "file name, location or format is invalid". In these tests there were no authentication events on the target server so it appeared that there was not a valid network established (to me anyway).

AT this point the tech support staff has told me they are forwarding the issue to the responsible party and will contact me soon with the result.

 

last entry. The customer has decided to discontiune the effort to get the product to work. We were sent a 3rd custome image which did exactly the same thing, then asked to revert to the snap deploy product and run sysinfo. This is where started, not enough progress being made to continue the eval. Sorry, thanks for trying.

 

Well - has anyone ever resolved this issue? Its happening to us as well.
Compaq DL380 G4 with Smart Array 6i controller.