Philadelphia Security User Group

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  • 1.  XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted May 23, 2011 02:15 PM

    We are migrating to mostly win7 and CMS/DS 7.1 and will be using sysprep for win7 images.

    We have a few legacy XP images from our DS 6.x that will be staying around another year or so.  We would prefer to not deal with sysprep on those images since they work great as is and have a ton of customized software/default user settings, and we don't want to keep 2 DS environments active.

    Is there a way to image an XP machine without using sysprep in 7.1?  Restoring as a backup image works (boots), but I'm not sure how to make the machine get a new GUID (shows up as duplicate machine in console)... and I assume this isn't best practice anyway.

    Someone must be doing this?



  • 2.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Posted May 23, 2011 02:47 PM

    You can import the existing images using the ImageImporterTool.exe (or maybe just ImporterTool.exe) on your NS.  They will get created as images and you can then deploy them.  If it works great as is this should be the ticket for you.



  • 3.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted May 23, 2011 02:57 PM

    Thanks for responding.  I don't have problems getting the images into 7.1... but when I go to deploy them as the options are to "Generate Sysprep configuration file using inventory data" or "use a custom sysprep file". 

    I am now trying to test what using the built in sysprep file does to existing images (I'm guessing it wipes default user profile, resets local admin password, etc)... but I was wondering if there's an obvious way I'm missing to bypass sysprep all together for XP.



  • 4.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Posted May 23, 2011 03:09 PM

    You could import it as a backup image in that case.  If it works perfectly and you just want to deploy it, import it using ResourceImporterTool.exe as a backup image.  If you sysprepped it previously then import it as a sysprepped image ("Disk Image" image type) and then supply the sysprep answer file that you were using before ("use a custom sysprep file") in 6.x.

    Does this make sense?  These KBs may help:
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO10520
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO36082



  • 5.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted May 23, 2011 03:54 PM

    I'll try that next.  I think I already tried it actually, but had issues because I had loaded the 7.1 client on the base machine before the import which caused duplicates in the 7.1 interface. 

    Maybe in order for this to work, I need to load the agent as a post image task so it gets its own GUID?



  • 6.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Posted May 23, 2011 03:56 PM

    I assumed the original image just had aclient.  What agents did it have?  Post-image is going to be easiest if you're using old images.



  • 7.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted May 24, 2011 11:00 AM

    Thanks again for replying, I appreciate it.  I've tried a few different things (these images were never sysprep'd).

    The base images do have aclient, but they also need various updates applied, so I was applying those and uninstalling aclient.  It'd be great to get the 7.x client on the base image, but I can't figure out how to get the 7.x client on them and deploy the image (as backup image) without the 7.x client not having GUID issues.  I tried following steps here to delete GUID references prior to upload http://news.support.veritas.com/connect/pt-br/forums/altiris-agent-7x-image but had same issues.  Is there a more formal connect article on removing all GUID reference in 7.x?

    Also tried aexagentutil.exe /ResetGuid but it just keeps restoring GUID to what the base image GUID is.

    It would be ideal if I could get the agent on the machines prior to upload because most of these machines will be in labs with deepfreeze installed post image.  Deepfreeze is a software that saves a machine in a known good state and restores to good state on reboot - works great in schools.  So, installing 7.x client post install, techs would have to wait around all aspects of the symantec agent to get installed before deploying deepfreeze which takes a random amount of time it seems.

    I saw in another post you referenced a KB article with a vbscript to generate new GUID, but not sure how I'd push this out if the client doesn't show in the console properly (I see 1 computer in console which represents the base image and the client I restored to).

    I'm assuming editing my image and adding 7.x client and uploading to 6.x and importing to 7.x doesn't do anything regarding GUIDs ?  If it does, that may be my answer.  Otherwise, unless I'm missing something, installing client post install may be the only option.

    Which leaves me with what's the best way to install the 7.x client, assuming we're doing 100 machines or so?  Can I inject the installer on the image (or copy from share), and run following script somehow, I am not understanding how CMS would be able to send the script if agent is on the machine and i'm not sysprep'ing so can't send a script that way?

    msiexec /i c:\source\AeXNSCInstSvc.msi NS="NS-ServerName" /qn

    thanks again for your time.



  • 8.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?
    Best Answer

    Posted May 24, 2011 03:43 PM

    If you don't have the agent and are importing old images, just make them backup images so that sysprep isn't involved.  If they have the agent, you'll want to use the Prepare for image capture job to sysprep them before imaging and remove GUIDs.  I wouldn't try to strip GUIDs manually, always goes wrong.

    Sounds like sysprepping is your answer if you want the 7.x stuff installed as part of the image so that you can follow up with Deep Freeze.  Alternatively do post-install using a backup image, but post-install will have problems if you're immediately freezing using Deep Freeze.



  • 9.  RE: XP images in DS 7.1 - no sysprep possible?

    Trusted Advisor
    Posted Jun 15, 2011 07:01 PM

    thanks for replying, after playing around I think you're right I'll need to look into sysprepping our old images (sigh).