RIS, Novatech and comp names

[contink]

Bit of a unique one, well probably not but I can't find any reference to a simpler solution.

 

I've got a stack of Novatech laptops that I'm finally RIS deploying to but I've discovered that all the MAC addresses are exactly the same and BIOS has not been set properly so as far as the RIS server is concerned it's getting all these laptops as if they're just one.

 

So far I've dealt with the GUID issue by getting hold of NewSID and worked around the EULA silliness by applying the necessary reg key to the HKCU.

 

The problem however is that the GUID doesn't kick in until AFTER the system has joined the domain and thus kicked off the other machine.

 

So far the only solution I can think of is to stop the systems joining the domain immediately and adding them manually.

 

 

I'm not happy with this though as I made it clear I'd be RIS'ing everything... Not bothering to write a new SID to each macines BIOS is just plain lazy.

 

Anyway, suggestions welcome... this has just made my week...

[FN-GM]

Yep we have had the same with some desktops & ghost. We run something of a floppy that sorted the mac address

[contink]

We run something of a floppy that sorted the mac address

Well that provides a useful clue but any ideas what that thing was?

[FN-GM]

To be honest im not sure, I think it was a utility provided by the manufacturer of the motherboard

[Gatt]

Sounds a similar issue to what happened with Virtual PC (2007?)

They were getting duplicate MACs

 

I take it Pre-Staging in AD first doesn't help?

[powdarrmonkey]

I'm not happy with this though as I made it clear I'd be RIS'ing everything... Not bothering to write a new SID to each macines BIOS is just plain lazy.

 

And giving each machine the same MAC isn't only lazy, it's downright irresponsible. What if you hadn't noticed, and hooked them all up? your poor switches would have gone mad!

 

Pre-staging won't help, because it relies on either the UUID/GUID or MAC of the machine, which in this case are both identical on all machines.

[contink]

I take it Pre-Staging in AD first doesn't help?

 

As powdarrmonkey said, you can't do any pre-staging so that's no help either. I checked the BIOS and couldn't find any way to set or change the UID or MAC there.

 

I'll be on to the sales bod tomorrow for a utility or some work-around I guess...

[powdarrmonkey]

If you can find out exactly what adaptor it is (or motherboard if it's onboard) the manufacturer of that might be able to help you. Is the MAC printed on the bottom of the machine? because if those are different then at least you know it can be changed...

[srochford]

And giving each machine the same MAC isn't only lazy, it's downright irresponsible. What if you hadn't noticed, and hooked them all up? your poor switches would have gone mad!

 

Pre-staging won't help, because it relies on either the UUID/GUID or MAC of the machine, which in this case are both identical on all machines.

 

I've come across machines with UUID/GUIDs identical (until people started using deployment systems which used this it didn't really matter) - but I've never come across NICs with identical MACs - this really is critical for just about everything.

 

Given that I would have thought that most manufacturers must use some kind of network deployment to install machines before shipping, I can't see how even they could cope with duplicate MACs!

[SYNACK]

What kind of BIOS is in these systems, there are tools that can rewrite a lot of the machine variables in the SMBIOS. I did a blog post about them a while back that might be helpful.

 

The DMI Discontinuity and the Perils of Brand X Computing

 

If the MAC addresses are all hardware written to be the same they do not meet the hardware standard for network cards as each MAC is supposed to be globally unique and this is grounds for replacement. I'm sure that the network card manufacturers would also be interested in how their chips were being mishandled by an OEM.

[DSapseid]

Ive got a floppy with GUID resetting software on that resets on it boot. I had 65 machines arrive with the same guid and the manufacturer sent me the files to put on the floppy works nicely. I can upload it here if you like?

[contink]

Ive got a floppy with GUID resetting software on that resets on it boot. I had 65 machines arrive with the same guid and the manufacturer sent me the files to put on the floppy works nicely. I can upload it here if you like?

 

Oh {Deity} I love you... Please, please... please!!...

 

... and so's I know in advance, how many of my first born are you after for this?

[plexer]

I think there has been some confusion here about what was the same on all of these machines.

 

I doubt it was the nic mac address or the sid but rather the guid.

 

Ben

[contink]

Quick clarification here too...

 

After a head-clearing nights sleep I returned to this today and got a call from Novatech... The MAC address issue was highlighted straight away so I went back to all the laptops we've got, including a clean one and double checked... turned out that the MAC addresses weren't the same but I realised after a bit of thought that the confusion there was down to one thing.

 

Because the GUID was the same for the laptops and because I had used the FOO-%MAC naming structure, once the first laptop was installed using RIS it then accepted the same name so I then essentially assumed the MAC addresses must be the same too.

 

So, my bad in that regard but the GUID is still very much an issue and the utility (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) as mentioned above is going to be needed to sort that out.

 

RIS just won't care if the MAC is different it seems determined to go on the GUID. Or at least that's what's happening with WDS Legacy...

[DSapseid]

Oh {Deity} I love you... Please, please... please!!...

 

... and so's I know in advance, how many of my first born are you after for this?

 

lol

 

Here you go mate. Boot of it. it will then give you a dos style screen and type UUID /U and press enter it will then do some stuff and return to dos screen. Reboot and RIS!!!

GUID Disk.zip

[contink]

You sir... are a life saver... I had to create a boot disk, the use Nero to burn it as a Boot CD but it works like a charm...

 

Thanks for that VERY useful util..

 

 

Just out of interest are the extraneous BIOS utils, etc.. required?. I suspect not but I thought I'd ask..

[DSapseid]

You sir... are a life saver... I had to create a boot disk, the use Nero to burn it as a Boot CD but it works like a charm...

 

Thanks for that VERY useful util..

 

 

Just out of interest are the extraneous BIOS utils, etc.. required?. I suspect not but I thought I'd ask..

 

I'd never thought of doing it as a CD! ive always done it as a floppy.

 

Nope it have never had to use any of the other bios utils on there.

 

Glad it worked:)

[contink]

I'd never thought of doing it as a CD! ive always done it as a floppy.

Ah, well when you have a floppyless laptop it becomes essential... I'll sort an ISO I think and put that on here when I get a chance.

 

Nope it have never had to use any of the other bios utils on there.

 

Glad it worked:)

 

Cool, I'll strip them out to make that ISO a bit more efficient and you're not the only one glad.. I dread to think what a mess I'd have had to cope with otherwise..

[DSapseid]

Ah, well when you have a floppyless laptop it becomes essential... I'll sort an ISO I think and put that on here when I get a chance.

 

 

I have a USB FDD that i use, it also comes in handy when doing bios upgrades on laptops.

[contink]

Right... as promised here's a bootable ISO for this GGUID... All the ROM stuff has been removed and it's just a standard WinXP bootable disk with the GGUID.exe added in.

 

I've edited the autoexec.bat so that the CD will boot and then run the gguid.exe with the /u flag to set a new unique ID automatically.

 

...so you will NOT want to leave this in a server or other machine once you've burned it.

 

On your own head be it!

GUIDBootable.zip