ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition Readme

                                                              
  IBM(R) ServerGuide(TM) Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition      
                                                              
  (C) Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2014.    
      All rights reserved.                           
                                                              
  US Government Users Restricted Rights  Use, duplication       
  or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with   
  IBM Corp.                                                     
                                                              
  Notes:                                                        
  o  Before using this information and the product it supports,    
     read the general information under Notices and trademarks
     for more information.                                          
                                                              
  o  Check the ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit Web site for the      
     latest version of this readme. See Support Web sites for 
     more information.                                          
                                                             
  Updated Feb, 2014                                       
                                                             

Table of contents

System Enablement Pack Support

System Enablement Packs add additional support to the ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition. When a new System Enablement Pack is available for download consult the ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition User Guide for information on how to download and install the System Enablement Pack into the ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition.

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Supported Deployment Scenarios

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The ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit, Windows Edition supports the following deployment scenarios:

Solving ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit Problems

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This section contains updates to information on solving ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit Problems developed since the publication of the IBM ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit Users Guide. Please consult the Users Guide for a full list of known solutions to ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit problems.

Reboot may be required to finish device installation and/or to remove yellow exclamation mark(s) in the Device Manager

One final reboot is recommended after the Windows installation completes to finish the hardware installation. For instance, yellow exclamation marks may be present on the Intel(R) Ethernet Mezzanine Adapter due to the device driver being unable to start. This issue is resolved by a reboot.

The Toolkit will not work on a network share drive or any drive that is not formatted using NTFS

The Toolkit uses the Microsoft Windows Imagex.exe utility during the generation of the Windows PE ISO. The Imagex.exe utility will fail during the creation of the deployment scenario if the Toolkit is installed to a mapped network drive or a USB device if it is formatted with anything other than the NTFS file system.

PRAID fails with return code 11 when configuring an IBM SAS HBA controller

PRAID is only supported for the IBM SAS HBA when it is connected to internal drives. This error is caused when the cfggen utility is unable to create a configuration.

To avoid this problem, update the firmware on the IBM SAS HBA controller to 1.25.10.07 or higher.

If the problem persists remove any logical volumes including RAID arrays on the adapters using the Ctrl+C menu on system POST before using ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit.

PRAID fails with return code 7 or 11 when configuring LSI SAS controllers

When using PRAID.exe to reset or configure a LSI 1064/1064e/1078 SAS controller or an IBM SAS HBA controller, you might receive error code 7 or 11. This error is caused when the cfggen utility is unable to remove or create a configuration.

To avoid this problem, remove any logical volumes including RAID arrays on the adapters using the Ctrl+C menu on system POST prior to using ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit.

Deployments fail on BladeCenter LS21 and LS41 with BIOS 1.05 and 1.06

On BladeCenter systems LS21 type 7971 and LS41 type 7972 with BIOS levels 1.05 and 1.06, local and network deployments will fail. This is a limitation of these BIOS levels.

To avoid this problem, use BIOS level 1.04, or a BIOS level higher than 1.06 on these systems.

"Setup cannot continue" during Windows 2008 installation

This problem can occur when installing to a system with multiple storage adapters. Please see "Installing an operating system on a multi-adapter system" in Appendix D of the User's Guide for more information.

UXSPInstaller returns errors when supported hardware is not installed

Toolkit deployment tasks that include installation of UXSPs can return errors if the UXSPI attempts to install updates for hardware that is not present in the target system.

For Standalone Toolkit Scenarios

Look in the C:\IBM_Support\deployment\IBM_WinPEToolkit.log and C:\UXLOG\UX.LOG files on the target server. These files contain additional information on what updates the UXSP Installer attempted to apply to the target system. Return codes 171 and 172 in the file UX.LOG indicate an update that could not be installed because the applicable hardware was not present.

For Altiris Scenarios

Altiris jobs might show an error after attempting to deploy UXSPs if the applicable hardware is not present in the target server. To determine whether this is the cause of the error, follow these steps:

If there is a line below

Performing IBM UXSP Installation with a yellow triangle listing return code 60 or 61, one or more of the included updates failed to install. The status detail window will refer you to the file ToolkitProcess.log, which contains more information on updates that the Toolkit attempted to apply to the target system.

If the target server is accessible, check C:\UXLOG\UX.LOG on the target server. Return codes 171 and 172 in this file indicate an update that could not be installed because the applicable hardware was not present on the target server.

xSeries 206m/xSeries 226: Latest UXSP Updates should not be run on these systems

Some system updates may result in boot issues, or may fail and require user intervention during automated Toolkit installs. Running the latest system updates acquired by UXSPI is not recommended on xSeries 206m or xSeries 226.

"Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer file's <ImageInstall> setting" message during Windows Server 2008 installation

While performing a Windows installation you might encounter the following error message: "Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer file's <ImageInstall> setting". This error can occur for different reasons including the installation drive having previously been formatted as a GPT drive or having a different OS previously installed on the system.

To resolve this issue, first restart the system and retry the Windows installation. If this does not resolve the issue then delete all partitions and formatting on the drives in the system and retry the Windows installation. If this does not resolve the issue and the system has multiple storage adapters, please see "Installing an operating system on a multi-adapter system" in Appendix D of the User's Guide and the readme note for Windows Server 2008 Install with multiple RAID controllers for more information.

Windows Server 2008 Install with multiple RAID controllers: "Windows cannot locate the disk and partition specified in the unattend answer file's <ImageInstall> setting"

When performing a Windows installation, ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit attempts to install Windows on the first disk of the system presented by Microsoft's diskpart utility. Due to the limitations of the system, when multiple storage adapters are present on the system, the first disk presented by the diskpart utility is not always the the first disk on the system.

To avoid this problem, please remove all storage adapters and/or disks that are not required for the Windows installation.

DISM fails with return code 126 when running SGTKWinPE.cmd

While creating a deployment scenario with SGTKWinPE.cmd, the DISM utility may fail with a return code of 126. DISM fails if the path to the mounted Windows PE image is too long.

To resolve this issue, the path to the TK_Build_ScenarioOutputDirectory directory must be less then 120 characters. The TK_Build_ScenarioOutputDirectory directory is located at \sgdeploy\WinPE_ScenarioOutput\.

"Windows could not parse or process the unattended answer file" message during Windows installation

The computer name used for Windows installations must comply to Windows restrictions. If it does not, you will receive an error during unattended Windows 2008 installations saying: Windows could not parse or process the unattended answer file for pass (specialize). The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup].

Clicking the browse button in Scripting Toolkit Configuration Utility (TKConfig) gives a blank window without a folder browser

Clicking the broswe button when using the Scripting Toolkit Configuration Utility to copy files to the Toolkit source server may give a blank window without a folder browser. If this occurs, the source path of the files to copy must be typed directly into the source path input box.

Deployment via IMM/AMM/RSA-II may hang if it remains idle at a prompt for an extended period of time

If a deployment done through an IMM, AMM, or RSA-II remote module is left idle for an extended period of time, the remote system may hang after the next keyboard or mouse interaction. At this time unmount/remove the deployment media if instructed to do so in the command window. If the Toolkit deployment process is hung at a point where it is waiting for a key press to restart the system, reboot the remote system using the remote console and the install will proceed successfully. At any other point, the system must be rebooted via the remote console, and the deploymented restarted from the beginnning.

Running a UXSP containing Intel package(s) with TK_UXSP_ApplyLatest=Yes or --latest flag may result in UXSPI failure

After the UpdateXpress System Pack Installer (UXSPI) runs on your system, the Toolkit log or UXSP log may reveal that UXSPI exited unexpectedly while installing an Intel chipset update. This is due to the package reporting completion while subprocesseses are still running. Those subprocess may utilize your system's resource at a level that causes other updates to fail. To avoid this issue, you may utilize the UXSPI exclude flag via the TK_UXSP_UXSPIUpdateFlags variable to remove any Intel packages by filename from the UXSP installation. To install the remaining hardware devices run your UXSP installation again without the exclusions, and the Intel package(s) will install successfully. If this error has already occurred, please re-run the UXSP installation, and the rest of the updates should complete successfully.

Installation of Windows 2008 fails to a drive formerly partitioned using GPT partitioning

When installing to a drive that previously used GPT partitioning the operating system installation may fail. This failure is caused by an incomplete cleanup of the drive by Diskpart. To resolve this issue restart the system and retry the Windows installation or use Windows Preinstallation Environment 3.0, available in the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7, to perform the installation.

Installation of a non-English version of Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 prompts the user for which language and keyboard to install

When performing an installation of Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2 using a non-English version of the OS, the unattended installation may be interrupted with a prompt to select the language and keyboard layout to use in the installed OS. To prevent this from happening set the TK_NOS_Win2008_UILanguage variable in your Scenario INI file to the correct setting for the installation. The value for TK_NOS_Win2008_UILanguage is used to populate the UILanguage node in the unattend.xml file. Possible values for this variable can be found in the 'culture' column at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722435(WS.10).aspx

Certain RAID levels may fail if not using the correct number of drives

When specifying to include all the physical drives for a RAID level, you must ensure that the number of physical drives in the system is correct for the RAID level you are specifying.

Best Practice for RAID configuration

When performing RAID configuration, a best practice is to ensure that all the disks connected to the RAID controller are the same size.

Windows 2008 installation may fail if using SeverRAID M5015

When installing Windows 2008 to a ServeRAID M5015, the installation may fail if the previous RAID level was RAID 5 or 60. To fix this issue, perform the installation again.

Popup displayed while running a Toolkit scenario stating "You must restart your computer"

A popup may be displayed while running a Toolkit scenario stating "You must restart your computer to apply these changes. Before restarting, save any open files and close all programs." If this occurs, click the button labeled "Restart Later" and continue the Toolkit scenario.

Installing an Agent for Director version 6 or higher may fail without Windows Installer 4.5

This is often indicated in the log or onscreen by a return code of 400 the first time the Toolkit attempts to launch the Director Agent, then a return code of 101 on the second attempt. To fix this issue please obtain and install the newer Windows Installer from the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288.
After the installer is updated, either run the Director Agent installer manually on your system, or run the 'IBM Director Agent for Windows Install' job if your installation was performed via Altiris DS.

BladeCenter HX5 may fail to boot a Windows PE USB Key in Legacy mode when plugged into the local media tray

When using a USB Key to perform a deployment scenario, the USB Key might not boot in Legacy mode. This is usually indicated by a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner of the screen.

To work around this issue, use one of the following alternatives:

DScan may appear to hang during installation.

DScan can hang if a driver is injected that has section names in the txtsetup.oem file that differ from eachother in case. To fix this condition, ensure that all the section names are identical, including in case.

Popup displayed while installing Windows 2008 with Director Agent 6

A popup may be displayed while installing Windows 2008 with Director Agent 6 as "wscancfg.exe has stopped working". This error can occur when any service program needed by Director Agent 6 is not active. At that time, you can close the error message box directly to coutinue installing Windows 2008 & Director Agent 6.

Warning "administrator pwd needs to be modified" in the dash board after the Windows 2011 SBS deployment finished

A warning might be shown "administrator pwd needs to be modified" in the dash board after the Windows 2011 SBS deployment finished. It won't affect the usage because the Windows 2011 SNS will ask the user to create a new administrator account during the installation.

OS installation may fail when deploying on Windows OS in legacy mode to external storage device connected via Broadcade 16Gb Fibre Channel Mezz card

When deploying Windows OS in legacy boot mode to external storage device connected via Broadcade 16Gb Fibre Channel Mezz card, you might need to change the Lun discovery at Brocade bios (Ctrl+b or Alt+b) to "Flash Values" or "FirstLUN" first.

OS installation may fail when deploying on Windows OS to external storage which is presented with multiple paths to one or more hosts

For the installation of Microsoft Windows for Storage Area Network (SAN) boot, there can be unexpected results when the storage, which the Windows Operating System (OS) will be installed, is presented with multiple paths to one or more hosts.
To avoid this problem, configure only one path to the storage that is used for the installation of Windows OS and disconnect all other active paths. For more information, refer to Retain Tip H207009.

Error "can not find hard disk..." may occur when using ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit for Altiris to deploy Windows Server 2012 on systems with software RAID adapter

It is a permanent limitation.

Deploying Windows 2008 series maybe run into a blue screen on x3250 M5 system with or without ServeRAID C100 enabled

To avoid this problem, complete the following steps: 1. Enter into UEFI settings 2. Open the "Device and I/O Ports" setting 3. If the ServeRAID C100 is enabled, change the "onboard SATA ports as" into RAID or IDE. 4. If the ServeRAID C100 is not enabled, change the "onboard SATA ports as" into IDE. 5. Save settings, then the system will work normal when reboot from ServerGuide.

WTK may fail to create the Windows 2012 installation key, if the source server is Windows Server 2008 family OS with Windows ADK

If you want to add extra device drivers for Windows 2012 to the folder "sgdeploy\drvs" on the source server which is Windows Server 2008 with Windows ADK, WTK may fail to create the Windows 2012 installation key. To sovle this problem, user can add extra device drivers for Windows 2012 to the folder "sgdeploy\SGTKWinPE\CustomerDrvs\WinPE40".

SeverGuide can't configure the onboard ServeRAID C100 on JinHu

To avoid this problem, complete the following steps: 1. Enter into UEFI settings 2. Open the "Device and I/O Ports" setting, change the "onboard SATA ports as" into RAID. 3. Configure the RAID logical disk in the UEFI settings: "System Settings"->"Storage"->"LSI Software RAID Configuration Utility" 4. Save settings and boot from ServerGuide, ServerGuide can use the configured RAID logical disk to deploy OS.


Additional Files, Utilities, And Information

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This section contains information that is not documented in the IBM ServerGuide Scripting Toolkit User's Reference.

Electronic Service Agent (ESA)

The Electronic Service Agent is a no-charge software tool that resides on your IBM System xTM systems to monitor hardware events and transmit system inventory information to IBM. With these functions, this software can proactively monitor, track and capture system inventory and hardware errors. Follow this link to download the IBM xSeries Electronic Service Agent: http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic

Support Web Sites

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The following Web pages provide resources for understanding, using, and troubleshooting IBM deployment and systems management software:

Notices And Trademarks

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This Program is licensed under the terms of the agreement located in the directory named ...\sgdeploy\SGTKWinPE\Docs\license. By installing, copying, accessing, or using the Program, you agree to the terms of this agreement. If you do not agree to the terms, please uninstall the software and return it to IBM or the reseller from whom you acquired the software for a refund, if any.

Additional licenses are included with each System Enablement Pack located in the ...\sgdeploy\updates\uxsp\ibm_utl_tsep*.zip.

Some jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you. This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice.

The following terms are trademarks of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both:

BladeCenter

eServer

ServeRAID

ServerGuide

ServerProven

System x

TotalStorage

xSeries

IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Intel is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the united states, other countries, or both.

Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.