Problem with system cloning reboot'ing forever

[Paul Sucro]

I get the message "machine Resealed, Click OK to reboot".
This happens on every bootup.

I also have the message. Title - First Boot Agent, "Installing
Components"

It appears that every time I start up it finds some new component and
thinks the system must be rebooted for Reseal.

Anyone have any ideas.

Thanks,
Paul Sucro.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Paul,

Check the status of your EWF. If it is enabled or disabled.
Also check if you have put fbreseal.exe to execute on each boot. Or you called it manually.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Paul Sucro]

fbreseal.exe is in the Windows\system32 directory.

Write filter is installed, but is disabled.

We enable the write filter after doing specific installs after windows
FBA is completed.

Thanks,
Paul.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Paul,

Can you list exactly all steps that you did to "post FBA" image.
How did you executed fbreseal.exe?

At what phase number did you set EWF to enable?

Check in documentation FBA phase that happens when cloning begin on target device when cloning execute for the first time.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Paul Sucro]

Normally without system cloning tool, and FBA Reseal phase, we allow
FBA to complete.
On the first boot after FBA is complete, we do some minor installs,
and configurations.
Now we programmatically enable the write filter.
After the next reboot, the write filter is enabled and all is
completed.
This has worked for years.
-------------------
I took this working image, and added the system cloning tool.
I used the default settings, which are to automatically reseal at step
12000.

-------------------
Since, I added the system cloning tool, I get the information stated
that the "machine is resealed, Click OK to reboot". On every reboot.

So I had a working system, and all I did was add the system cloning
tool.
(Note: when this was added all I saw was system cloning tool hotfix
Q810144, so I added this.)

 

[KM]

Paul,

Within the image with System Cloning Tool in place, when you enable the EWF now?
You should do that after you reboot after the "machine is resealed..." message since it is still part of FBA process.
Please note that you will need to reboot the machine one more time after you enable EWF to take the change in effect.

I hope that you implemented RAW registry EWF in the image are planning to clone. Otherwise you may end up having a hassle to clone
the image properly preserving the EWF state (EWF Config partition).
The best, I think, would be to clone the image with EWF disabled and then enable it (manually or automatically via a self-cleaning
startup script) on the cloned devices.

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Paul,

Let me try again:
How did you do this in current image so this does not work for you.

According to your description you must:
1. Set reasel at step 0 (manual reseal) in TD.
2. Build image.
3. Make post FBA image.
4. Configure image manualy as you already do.
5. For start leave EWF disabled.
6. Run fbreseal.exe
7. Shutdown.
8. Copy image.
9. Execute new image and let cloning to complete.
10. Manually or automatically enable EWF.
11. Shutdown.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Doug Hoeffel]

Paul:

As Slobodan stated, make real sure you don't enable the EWF just after
running fbreseal without a reboot in between. If you don't reboot then you
persisted the reseal on each subsequent boot.

So, with EWF disabled, perform the reseal then reboot. On this boot, the
reseal occurs, the SID changes etc. You will see this since this boot will
take a bit longer as all of this magic happens. Then enable the EWF then
reboot again. Now you're good to go...

HTH... Doug

 

[Paul Sucro]

Thanks for all the help.

I found the problem, was that the write filter was not removed from
the drive, when I placed the new files on the drive for FBA to do its
works.

So what happened was the following.
At some point during startup, after a reboot, the write filter was
enabled.

So what I was told was correct. The only problem was that I didn't
intentionally cause this to happen, so I could not understand the
problem.

Thanks, again.

I got everything working great.

Paul.