invalid pxe server list format - Altiris

I restarted our Altiris server and our PXE services wouldn't come up. Trying to start them resulted in:

File not found

I then checked the path listed in the service and found that, indeed, our PXE files where not in the location that the service was trying to start them in:

F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE

The missing files were:

PXEService.exe

PXEmtftp.exe

PXEMgr.exe

PXECfgService.exe

They were located here:

F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\MasterImages\UpSrv\51

I don't know why it wasn't looking for them in the longer path, but I copied those files to the directory it wanted (\PXE)

I then attempted to start the services and they all started correctly.

Then I attempted to PXE boot one of my VM's. This failed with an error stating:

"invalid pxe server list format"

Attempting to troubleshoot this, I used procmon and saw that it was downloading bstrap.0 successfully then generating the error. I enabled logging for the PXE Server in Altiris and set the logging level for "Errors". I then restarted all the Altiris services. When I restarted the PXE Server service, I got this error message:

E [11:32:26 05/03] (3480): Enter: SetupDHCP(...)

E [11:32:26 05/03] (3480): SetupDHCP: Auto Detect, configure option 60.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

(3480)Failed to load Dll Library.

I then fired up Process Monitor and did a file trace while restarting PXE Server. It informed me it could not find the following files:

I then copied those missing DLL's from the F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE\MasterImages\UpSrv\51 directory to the F:\Program Files\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\PXE directory and restarted the PXE Server Service.

I then attempted to PXE boot my VM and lo and behold, it worked again.

Configure Local Group Policy via the command line

Apply a security policy using an .inf file

[Unicode]Unicode=yes
[Version]signature="$CHICAGO$"
Revision=1
[Profile Description]
Description=profile description
[System Access]
MinimumPasswordAge = 10
MaximumPasswordAge = 30
MinimumPasswordLength = 6
RequireLogonToChangePassword = 0
NewAdministratorName = "NewAdminAccountName"
NewGuestName = "NewGuestAccountName"

Simple to apply from a cmd line

secedit /configure /db %windir%\security\database\localdb.sdb /cfg %systemdrive%\install\local\policy\policyname.inf /verbose

Maya and rendering priorities

I have a small farm of computers at home that I want to use as a render farm. Some of them are used by my family though and starting Maya renderings on them greatly diminishes their usability during that time. What needs to be done is force the priority lower on the rendering app (mayabatch.exe). 3D Studio Max has a script called "serverpriority.ms" that does this and it's essentially one line that, upon startup, sets the priority to low. I've been unable to find one like that for Maya but have found an acceptable workaround.

If you start the Backburner server.exe app as low priority all threads that the apps server.exe starts (like cmdjob and mayabatch.exe) will start in the same priority. Start the server.exe as low and your rendering threads will be low. To start server.exe in a low priority mode via command-line it looks like this:

START "" /LOW "\path\to\server.exe"

Done!

Windows Backup Error 0x81000019

Recently, I've been getting an error from Windows Backup:

Error Code: 0x81000019

Event Viewer lists the following additional information:

Shadow copy creation failed because of error reported by ASR Writer. More info: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3).

Volume Shadow Copy Service warning: ASR writer Error 0x80073bc3. hr = 0x00000000, The operation completed successfully.

.

Operation:

PrepareForBackup event

Context:

Execution Context: ASR Writer

Execution Context: Writer

Writer Class Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}

Writer Name: ASR Writer

Writer Instance ID: {5c8b67a8-a665-45e5-9f5c-45382f136693}

Error-specific details:

ASR Writer: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3)

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine Check OnIdentifyError. hr = 0x80073bc3, The requested system device cannot be found.

.

Operation:

PrepareForBackup event

Context:

Execution Context: ASR Writer

Execution Context: Writer

Writer Class Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}

Writer Name: ASR Writer

Writer Instance ID: {5c8b67a8-a665-45e5-9f5c-45382f136693}

Error-specific details:

ASR Writer: The requested system device cannot be found. (0x80073BC3)

Fault bucket 668258104, type 5

Event Name: WindowsBackupFailure

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: Backup

P2: 6.1.7600

P3: 0x81000019

P4: 7

P5:

P6:

P7:

P8:

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

C:\Windows\Logs\WindowsBackup\WindowsBackup.1.etl

These files may be available here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\NonCritical_Backup_7a9178ddfcd376c581a8653b09ae5e2464735bf_100ef6dc

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 8b57e781-0633-11e0-a042-90e6ba2d22c8

Report Status: 0

Backup did not complete successfully because a shadow copy could not be created. Free up disk space on the drive that you are backing up by deleting unnecessary files and then try again.

And what does it all mean? Well, I just recently installed a new hard disk and installed an alternative OS onto it. This new hard disk is appearing as "Disk 0" in Disk Management and it *is* the boot device. When I boot off it and then select my Windows partition I get these error messages. It appears VSS attempts to access/lock the drive that booted the OS and it fails. If I attempt to take "Disk 0" offline, I get the following error message:

---------------------------

Virtual Disk Manager

---------------------------

Disk attributes may not be changed on the current system disk or BIOS disk 0.

---------------------------

OK

---------------------------

Using Procmon I can see that VSSVC.exe attempts to access a filesystem that it cannot... Well, the only disk that it can't access is the lone "Alternative OS" disk. I suspect removing that disk or forcing my BIOS to boot directly to the Windows partition will resolve my issues. If you're in a similar situation as me, I would suggest checking your boot order, removing any extraneous disks or ensuring your boot drive is appearing as "Disk 0" in disk management.

I've just tested and confirmed that forcing my BIOS to boot directly to my OS drive without going through an alternative drive has enabled the backup program to operate without any errors.

This blogpost is for anyone else that my experience a similar issue.

DataRAM RAM Disk Review (part 2)

I've purchased some RAM to replace my 1GB sticks. This new RAM allows my system to operate at 1333MHz DRAM speed without issues. So, I've set my RAM to this new bandwidth speed and my memory went to:

14099MB/s Read, 12034MB/s Write, 16901MB/s Copy.

This represents an improvement of:

23% Read, 0% Write, 10% Copy.

With a 23% Read performance improvement will DataRAM's RAMDrive solution improve?

It does not.

It appears something else is holding the performance of the RAMDrive software down. IOMeter *did* see some improvement (from 5000Mb/s to 5094MB/s... a 1.9% improvement) but pretty insignificant from what it *should* be, if it was hardware being the hold up.

The "bandwidth" of the RAMDrive is 40Gbps, a pretty large leap from the maximum you could get from SATA at it's best (6Gbps), but I hope DataRAM investigates what the performance ceiling is of their software and can explain or correct what's causing it.

Overall though, I'm still happy with the software and for a free 4GB RAM disk or $10 for a maximum of ~64GB, I think it's a great value. I have 18GB of RAM in my system and utilize this software for programs like StarCraft or VMWare machines and the loading speeds are great.