timmangan
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:17 pm

16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:53 pm

Am using 16.2 release on new machines (I have previously repackaged using older AdvancedInstaller versions). Two domain joined VMs running Windows 10 1903 on a domain joined Windows 10 1903 Hyper-V host, a "controller" with the full AI software and a "worker" with the repackaging tools installed.

The Hyper-V virtual switch is set up as external and management OS is allowed to share the adapter. Both VMs have all integrations enabled, and for good measure I've also disabled "enhanced mode". The firewall on the "controller" has even been disabled. The worker VM has a snapshot with the domain user logged on.

On the controller, logged on as the same domain user, I attempt to repackage an exe that is located on the desktop of the "controller" (thus not at the root of a drive). The worker is reverted and I see progress through the logon. The process fails with the message "Error during virtual machine configuration: shared folders".

I log onto the worker VM, open up the Repackager (from the tray icon)and look at the log messages there. There is only one message, "Adding network share connection for \\IPADDRESSOFCONTROLLER"

I verify that this is the address of the controller. From the worker I can ping that IP address. I can make a share on controller and give domain users access, and I can view that share from the worker using the IPAddress. If I look at the shares on the controller during the process I can use the control panel applet to see a share is created (for C:\Program FIles (x86)\Caphyon\Advanced Installer 16.2") briefly just before the error occurs. It's a manual refresh to see the shares on a host, but sometimes I can see it was created.

I am at a loss of what to do at this point. I have been unable to find any additional logging on either VM. Is there additional debugging that can be added anywhere? An option to have more debugging in the Remote Tools, or at least to keep the share up on the controller side after the failure, would help.

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: 16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:10 am

Hello Tim,

It seems you already checked the main aspects in your environment that could have gone wrong and everything seems configured fine.

However, maybe there really is an issue with the sharing operation we try to apply on the controller machine. The only noticeable thing during the share operation is that we create a local (not domain joined) user account on the controller machine and give read/write permissions on the controller share location only to that user account. After the repackaging operation finishes we delete the related user account from the controller machine.

So, for testing purposes only, could you please proceed like this:

1. create a local user account (with a password set) on your controller machine
2. create a share on your controller machine with permissions set only for the above local user account
3. try to access the controller shared location from your worker machine

and see let us know this goes?
Is there additional debugging that can be added anywhere? An option to have more debugging in the Remote Tools, or at least to keep the share up on the controller side after the failure, would help.
There are not any additional debugging options in the Remote Tools, but we can deliver to you a debug version of our Repackager tool if we cannot get to a resolution in this matter.

Also, to keep the share up on the controller side you can use this trick:

1. on the "Options" tab of your repackager project check the "Detect issues that may interfere with the scanning operation" option
2. run the repackage operation and when the "Check Machine State" dialog is displayed just do not close it; as far as this dialog is up the share should be available too

Let us know if this helped.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
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timmangan
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:17 pm

Re: 16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Wed Sep 04, 2019 8:43 pm

Also, to keep the share up on the controller side you can use this trick:

1. on the "Options" tab of your repackager project check the "Detect issues that may interfere with the scanning operation" option
2. run the repackage operation and when the "Check Machine State" dialog is displayed just do not close it; as far as this dialog is up the share should be available too
I do have the option set, but the popup dialog box never appears in the controller UI with this issue. In the RunLog I see:
Connecting to Virtualization Product
Opening Virtual Machine" "N1WorkerC"
Checking snapshot operations compatibility
Connecting virtualization console
Reverting to Virtual Machine Snapshot "snapwilerunning"
Powering on Virtual Machine
Checking Guest Integration Services on the guest operating system.
Logging in to Virtual Machine
Checking Advanced Installer Tools on the guest operating system
Advanced Installer Remote Tools are up-to-date.
Waiting for user login.
Preparing Virtual Machine [NOTE: Popup error occurs during this step]
Closing current Virtual Machine session
An error occurred during the repack operation.
. create a local user account (with a password set) on your controller machine
2. create a share on your controller machine with permissions set only for the above local user account
3. try to access the controller shared location from your worker machine
Two local accounts on different machines, even with the same local name and password results in a request for account/password that matches the destination machine (controller in this case).

This did lead me to look into SMB server tracing on the controller to watch activity, which I am looking into currently. I'm guessing that I'd really need SMB Client tracing on the worker, but because of reverting to snapshot that is problematic. I'll reply again when I have more info.

timmangan
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:17 pm

Re: 16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:03 pm

I tried enabling the SMBServer diagnostics on the controller:

Code: Select all

logman start -ets SMB-DIAG -p Microsoft-Windows-SmbServer -o SMB-Diag2.etl
ran the remote packaging, then

Code: Select all

logman stop -ets SMB-Diag
Loading that file into the Microsoft Message Analyzer, I can see the controller repackager creating and closing 4 shares, but no incoming activity was recorded.

I then ran a second test with a pre-created share on the controller, and manually used file explorer on the worker to connect to the share. In that test, I can clearly see the incoming communication to the SMB server making connections. Even if the connection had failed due to authentication in the prior test, I should have seen the attempt but there was none.

On this basis, it looks like the remote tool fails to correctly attempt to open the share on that machine. As I have previously seen that it wants to (using the IP address), it looks to be a problem in Remote Tools. I'm assuming that you wouldn't be using an interface that would care that SMB1 is now disabled by default on Windows 10?

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: 16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:36 am

Hi Tim,

I just sent you by email a debug resource for our Repackager tool so we can try to get more logging on your worker machine.

Just let me know if you did not get my email.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
Follow us: Twitter - Facebook - YouTube

timmangan
Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:17 pm

Re: 16.2 Repackager: shared folders issues

Thu Sep 05, 2019 1:59 pm

Follow-up for anyone reading this thread. I rebuild the VMs used and the issue disappeared; it is not a repackager issue but just something that happened to one of the VMs.

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