any suggestions for deploying SNOW inventory agent on Citrix golden image. Image will be deployed to target servers using MCS . My fear is that Machine Identifyers of the image server (UID's, CI info, ...) will be deployed to the target devices.

6 years ago

Hi Gert,

When using a golden image, it is important to make sure that each virtual machine generated from the image gets a unique client identifier (hostname or GUID). To ensure this the client.dat file needs to be removed from the global image, otherwise all VDI’s created from that image will get the same client identifier, which will result in only one device being updated in Snow License Manager.

The best way to ensure creation of unique client identifiers in this environment is to stop the Snow Inventory Agent service and then remove the whole data (%ProgramFiles%\Snow Software\Inventory\Agent\data) folder before closing the updated global image.

An alternative would be to use a startup script that runs on all VDI’s and removes the client.dat file as a part of the startup process. At each startup, the script would need to

1. stop the SnowInventoryAgent5 service,

2. remove the Inventory\Agent\data folder, and

3. start the SnowInventoryAgent5 service again.

This script would need to be executed with local administrator or SYSTEM privileges.

Extra Tip : You may also need to consider using HOSTNAME only mode for these machines. I've seen an issue recently with another virtual desktop system where the Bios Serial number was not unique.

Tom

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TL800271
6 years ago

Hi Gert,
When using a golden image, it is important to make sure that each virtual machine generated from the image gets a unique client identifier (hostname or GUID). To ensure this the client.dat file needs to be removed from the global image, otherwise all VDI’s created from that image will get the same client identifier, which will result in only one device being updated in Snow License Manager.
The best way to ensure creation of unique client identifiers in this environment is to stop the Snow Inventory Agent service and then remove the whole data (%ProgramFiles%\Snow Software\Inventory\Agent\data) folder before closing the updated global image.

An alternative would be to use a startup script that runs on all VDI’s and removes the client.dat file as a part of the startup process. At each startup, the script would need to
1.   stop the SnowInventoryAgent5 service,
2.   remove the Inventory\Agent\data folder, and
3.   start the SnowInventoryAgent5 service again.
This script would need to be executed with local administrator or SYSTEM privileges.

Extra Tip : You may also need to consider using HOSTNAME only mode for these machines. I've seen an issue recently with another virtual desktop system where the Bios Serial number was not unique.

Tom
Expand Post

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