Long and Short of OSD

system · July 17, 2012, 3:20am

(imported comment written by SamuelMak)

Hello Tim,

I did play around with the upload maintenance settings and tried restarting everything.

I guess the most significant change was the deletion of temp file.

system · July 19, 2012, 5:52pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

See now I am having a problem similar to SamuelMak.

Image uploaded overnight, the temp folder was empty, but I have the yellow triangle with the “file upload in progress”

I tried it again this morning, watched the temp folder grow to the size of the image and then disappear.

I can see the WIM file sitting in

\Server\L$\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\wwwrootbes\Uploads\FA6F58B74E56AE2DCCA6AC88B7E18D354B4436C2\Win7x64_Test.WIM.BFOSD

But I cannot deploy it because it does not think it is fully uploaded.

SIDE NOTE: Is there a way to have these BFOSD files be stored somewhere else. My L$ drive is only 80 static GB. I made an R$ Drive that is 250 Dynamic GB that I have the image captured to.

system · July 19, 2012, 6:54pm

(imported comment written by SamuelMak)

Hi Pgill,

So your image doesn’t appear in “re-image” dashboard?

i didn’t notice my uploads folder, however can you check the downloads\sha1 folder for the file?

you should find something of that wim size.

Also, do check the logs folder, the fact that the file disappeared, it should have gone somewhere.

I can check it again when i’m back in office tomorrow afternoon.

Regards,

Samuel Mak

system · July 19, 2012, 7:24pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Samuel,

My issue is that the WIM file does show up where it is supposed to in \Server\L$\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Server\wwwrootbes\Uploads\FA6F58B74E56AE2DCCA6AC88B7E18D354B4436C2\Win7x64_Test.WIM.BFOSD after it disappears from the TEMP folder, but they yellow triangle never goes away and because of this, I cannot re-image because it still thinks it is uploading and no available for reimage. No where else besides the capture folder have the WIM.

jhonda · July 19, 2012, 9:05pm

(imported comment written by JasonHonda)

Have you checked the health checks dashboard to see that everything is passing. The most likely culprit is that the Upload Maintenance Service is not set up or not set up for OSD. This is what runs on the server and monitors uploaded files, and what the dashboard is checking with to verify the upload is ready to be used.

system · July 19, 2012, 9:35pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Yup. Everything is green.

system · July 19, 2012, 9:52pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

However, when looking into it, I am missing the BFS.exe file and cannot start the plugin service.

system · July 19, 2012, 11:13pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Figured it out. The MFS.exe file was missing. I couldn’t remove the service, I couldn’t reinstall the service.

So I wrote a custom action script to do it without relevance.

prefetch MFS.exe sha1:b5d25a78b962776a895dedb4d2e626ec75201461 size:393216 http:
//software.bigfix.com/download/bes/util/mfs-1.0.0.11.exe   delete __createfile delete move.bat   createfile until _end_ @ECHO OFF mkdir 
"{ value "EnterpriseServerFolder
" of key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Enterprise Server
" of registry as string & "Applications
" }" > NUL 2>NUL   move 
"{pathname of client folder of current site & "\__Download\MFS.exe
"}" 
"{value "EnterpriseServerFolder
" of key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Enterprise Server
" of registry as string & "Applications\MFS.exe
"}" > NUL 2>NUL _end_ move __createfile move.bat   wait 
"{pathname of client folder of site "BESSupport
" & "\RunQuiet.exe
"}" move.bat   waithidden 
"{ value "EnterpriseServerFolder
" of key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Enterprise Server
" of registry as string & "Applications\MFS.exe
" }" -install   waithidden 
"{ value "EnterpriseServerFolder
" of key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Enterprise Server
" of registry as string & "Applications\MFS.exe
" }" -start   regset 
"[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BigFix\Enterprise Server\BESReports]" 
"WRHTTP"=
""

This forced it back in there after the Fixlets failed.

system · July 20, 2012, 12:09am

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

So I am not having much luck with this

Currently I have a 40GB (C:), 80GB (L:) and 250GB (R:)

BigFix is installed on the L:, Images are captured to the (R:)

So why is C: filling up when I attempt to push and image, as well as L:?

system · July 20, 2012, 12:28am

(imported comment written by kevin_friedheim)

Hi pgill,

We have opened an enhancement bug to resolve future issues around the Master Framework Service (MFS.exe) not running when it should be… Thanks.

In regards to your issues with C:\ growing - we utilize temporary scratch space on the windows drive when uploading and/or manipulating files that are to be uploaded. This is why you may see some fluctuation on your C:.

system · July 20, 2012, 9:56pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

I called the IBM Helpdesk and they were unsure of how to answer this question. Since this keeps filling up my 40GB C: drive attempting to deploy a 24.5GB image, is there a way to have the scratch drive be somewhere else? I have an 80GB drive, that has the TEM server installed on it, and that has 35GB free with the image sitting on it and I also created a 250GB R: drive for using as storage and scratch. I would perfer to have stuff uploaded to the R: drive instead of the C: or L:.

Is there an easy way to accomplish this without rebuilding the server?

jhonda · July 20, 2012, 10:23pm

(imported comment written by JasonHonda)

The first thing to note is that your image appears to be extremely large. 24GB definitely sets of red flags in my head that something is not right, or way too much stuff was included in the reference system. Simple Windows 7 images are maybe 3-5 GB after compressed in a WIM. In general, you may want to look into what was included, software/data, and not include in your vanilla image, and load the software and data on to the system after it has been imaged.

The second thing to note is if you plan on doing OS Deployment, a lot of setup and configuration considerations should be taken into account when setting up your server. Storing and deploying large images, especially 24GB in size, is a large strain on the server. There should definitely be adequate space on all drives that will be affected, not to mention performance so that regular server functions are not affected while serving up these large files. There are many configuration options that experts in deployment can help with. You can set things up so that the wwwrootbes directory exists on a separate drive, but I’m not sure how to configure after the fact. Also, if certain protocols are being used on your machine, downloads will be cached in the Temporary Internet Files folder which in your case is probably on C:. Proper cache settings on servers and relays need to be adjusted based on expected load, etc.

system · July 20, 2012, 11:27pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

JasonHonda,

The way that we currently do things is with a Thick image. We have 1 image for the 2000+ machines we have here so that we do not have to have the helpdesk install new software on the fly when an instuctor randomly decides to change rooms and complains that the room does not have the software they need on it and they need is ASAP or else they cannot do training. Thus over time, what used to be a Thin, Medium, and Thick image has become one Thick image.

When I first set up the server, OSD was not a priority. Now we are looking at getting rid of Ghost and Ghost PXE and moving into TEMOSD and TPMfOSD.

Our problem with the thick image is that helpdesk wants to have more stuff in the image to do less work, the main reason I as as SysAdmin have been moving on the OSD is because then they have less touch time with the systems.

So that is where I am at. Trying to not rebuild the system, while moving forward.

system · July 20, 2012, 11:55pm

(imported comment written by kevin_friedheim)

A 24GB WIM is gigantic. Have you considered software distribution (see http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v26r1/topic/com.ibm.tem.doc_8.2/SWD_Users_Guide_PDF.pdf)?

If you insist on using the 24GB wim, you will need to adjust your environment - as Jason has recommended.

system · August 10, 2012, 9:35pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

So I rebuilt everything on a physical box. Now I have gotten back to the point of uploading images, but I have again ran into this Yellow Triangle telling me “File uploads in process” I have removed, replace, upgrade, updated anything that had to do with MFS, UploadManger, UploadMaintenanceService, etc. The image shows up in temp, grows to proper size, and moves to the hashed folder in uploads with no issue, but this triangle will not go away and I cannot reimage because of it.

Suggestions?

system · August 10, 2012, 9:46pm

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

This is from the OSD_UMS.log file

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:45:09 -0400