Cannot see Ghost client computer in Machine Groups in Ghost Console
search cancel

Cannot see Ghost client computer in Machine Groups in Ghost Console

book

Article ID: 151708

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

You installed the Ghost Client on the client computers. Although the Ghost Client appears to be running, the Ghost Console, which is installed at the Ghost server computer, does not list the client computer.
 

Resolution

There are a number of possible causes to this problem. 

  • If an existing machine entry in any machine group has the same MAC address of the new client, the new machine will not show up. Because the MAC address is a feature of the Network Adapter, this should only happen if you have removed the NIC from the old client and put it in another computer. If this is the case delete the old entry from all machine groups. If the client does not appear relatively quickly try restarting the agent service, or reinstalling the client. In some configurations all virtual machines on the same server host will have the same MAC address, which will cause new machines to not create new entries in the console because it matches the MAC address and thinks it is the same machine. To resolve this, in the Ghost Console go to Tools - Options - Global tab. Check all the boxes in the "Primary Lookup Keys" section, then click OK. To get more detail about the MAC addresses for machines on your network go to the command prompt and type:
    nbtstat -A <ip address> 
    Enter the ip address of the client you are trying to connect. This will give you the MAC address for the machine with the given IP address. 
  • The client computer may have multiple network interface cards (NICs). Either remove or disable one of the NICs to fix this problem.
  • The Ghost services or the console may not recognize the Ghost client computer. To fix this problem, restart the Ghost services or reboot the Ghost console computer.
  • If you have just installed the client or redirected it, wait a few minutes and see if this corrects the problem. In rare cases it has taken over an hour for a client to populated in the console.
  • You may need to disable Windows Firewall on both the server and the client, or create a Firewall Rule to enable communication on the Agent port. Try the following command (refer to KB 268876 "Ghost Solution Suite DAgents not showing up in console") to disable the windows fireall as a test:
    netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off
    You need both inbound and outbound TCP and UDP on the agent port, by default port 402. This would apply to any firewall that appears between the client and the Ghost server.
  • If the client computer has anti-spyware software installed, this can sometimes interfere with communication between the client and the console. Disabling the anti-spyware application temporarily will allow the client to appear in the ghost console in these instances.
  • Disable encrypted agent communication. This should be done in two places.
    In the console go to Tools - Options - Agent settings. Check the box "Force new agent to take these default settings", click Change Default Settings. Click on the Security tab then uncheck "Encrypt Session communication with Ghost Solution Suite Server"
    Right click on the agent in the systray, choose Properties. Go to the Security tab. Uncheck  "Encrypt Session communication with Ghost Solution Suite Server", then restart the agent communication service. 
  • Update Network Adapter driver. It may be necessary to update the network adapter driver for the automation environment. Look at the Agent Status screen on the client - if the MAC address is not populated on the Symantec Agent screen it will be unable to match the incoming agent to a particular PC record in the database.  Updating the network adapter driver may resolve this issue.
  • Check the Image State of the machine with the agent installed. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\State) If the Windows State is not "IMAGE_STATE_COMPLETE" the Symantec Agent thinks that sysprep is still running. In this case the agent will not connect to the GSS server, it pause and then check the image state again after a few minutes. The agent is expecting that when when sysprep completes it should update the image state... it checks the Windows state repeatedly waiting for sysprep to finish.  If sysprep has failed and the image state never updates, the Symantec Automation Agent will never connect. For more information about agent state please see the Windows Setup States article from Microsoft:
    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824815.aspx