Unable to install PXE on device no longer targeted by CEM policy.

[deemacgee]

Hi all,

Very strange issue on 8.5 RU3: we're trying to add Network Boot Services to an endpoint but the checkbox (in the Site Servers config panel) is greyed out. The device already hosts Package Services, and both Monitor and Task Services are available for installation, but NBS is not.

We've removed all CEM policies from the machine and confirmed their removal in Agent diagnostics; we've disabled the CEM gateway policy, we've stopped the endpoint's Altiris Agent and cleared the existing policy XMLs, but the Cloud-enabled Management mode is enabled but inactive message remains, and the Console refuses to allow us to deploy NBS.

This is the second machine we've seen demonstrate this behaviour; our solution the first time around was to uninstall the Agent (with /clean), then reinstall, and ensure CEM policy was never applied before deploying NBS. Eventually the checkbox became available - but we had to re-replicate the entirety of the package library to that machine, so I can't call it a workable solution.

I've not seen this behaviour before and I can't find any reference to it online or in the known issues reports, unless I've missed something.

As per this thread, prior versions up to and including 8.1 RU7 (our previous platform level) allowed machines to choose between CEM and non-CEM connections based on a single registry entry. We would use policy to switch between the two during the late after-hours to help expedite package replication over the public internet and not our extremely slow WAN links, but that stopped working after upgrading to 8.5 RU3, and I can't help but think these two issues are related.

Has anyone encountered a similar circumstance? Was it fixable without blowing away the Agent and starting again?

Cheers
DMcG

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Tech Monkey/IT Primate
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[deemacgee]

Hi folks,

A brief addendum to the above. After enabling Agent Diagnostics, clearing the list of servers in Server profiles, and restarting the Altiris Agent, CEM Mode finally reads "Cloud-enabled Management mode is disabled" - as we'd have expected it to immediately after being excluded from CEM policy the other day as part of our troubleshooting. NBS is now being pushed to that machine.

Clearing an entire diagnostic panel's worth of servers seems a drastic step, but it worked.

Smells a bit like a bug to me.

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Tech Monkey/IT Primate
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[Sergei Zjaikin]

There are two conditions that have to be met for agent to switch CEM mode off:
1. CEM policy must not be assigned to the agent anymore
2. Agent should be able connect to NS server directly at least once after CEM policy removal. Once that happens the agent switches CEM mode off.

Hard to tell why servers removal helps. Have you got the agent logs for your problem? I might be able to tell what's going on then, this is definitely not normal at all. Please send me the logs privately if you can.

thanks!
sergei

[deemacgee]

Thanks Sergei, it definitely doesn't seem like the behaviour we became accustomed to after our CEM implementation went live.
I'll be running a series of diagnostics against similar devices in the near future, will keep an eye out for any displaying this problem and flick you the logs.

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Tech Monkey/IT Primate
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[deemacgee]

I've been watching this since my last post and CEM is definitely having more issues than just interrupting PXE service installs.

Which logs would you like sent through, Sergei? From which directory?

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Tech Monkey/IT Primate
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[Sergei Zjaikin]

There is 8.6 release coming shortly in February where we've fixed number of issue connected to switching CEM policy on and off and updating the basic inventory accordingly. Your problem should go away hopefully. There will be another change that affects your environment - "Prefer gateway connection" option is now part of CEM policy. You can still change the same registry entry to change how connection goes but if policy arrives on the client then it will override the registry entry according to the policy settings.

>>I've been watching this since my last post and CEM is definitely having more issues
If you could juts list them please, some of them could be fixed in 8.6 as well.