Unexpected Novell Security Services login prompt with ZENworks Agent

  • 3103877
  • 17-Oct-2006
  • 30-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell ZENworks 7 Desktop Management - ZDM7 Automatic Workstation Import
NetIdentity Agent
Novell ZENworks Middle Tier

Situation

The Novell Security Services login prompt appears after a workstation sits idle for several minutes.
The NetIdentity credentials stored on the Windows workstation do not appear to be automatically passed back to the ZENworks Middle Tier server.
The user is prompted for a username and password via the Novell Security Services login prompt that shows the correct Realm, but the user has already successfully authenticated once to the local workstation and to eDirectory via the ZENworks Middle Tier server.

Resolution

Make sure that the following registry key is present on the Windows workstation that has the ZENworks Management Agent installed:
Location: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Name: GinaDLL
Type: String Value
Data: NWGina.dll

Additional Information

The NetIdentity agent is installed by default when the ZENworks Management Agent (zfdagent.msi) is installed on a Windows workstation. The NetIdentity Agent secure "wallet" stores Windows credentials that can be passes seamlessly back to any NetIdentity aware Novell application, such as ZENworks Middle Tier, NetStorage, iManager, iChain etc.
The cause of this problem is due to MSGINA.DLL being used on the workstation with the ZENworks Agent, instead of the NWGina.dll. In this instance, a Novell Cool Solution called AutoLog, that was installed on the workstation, was identified as the the cause of the symptom. AutoLog changes the NWGina.dll key listed above to MSGINA.DLL. By default, the ZENworks Management Agent installs and uses NWGINA.DLL as the primary authentication module. All information passed to NetIdentity is pased from NWGina.dll. If NWGina.dll is not in place in the registry key listed above, NetIdentity may become unaware of authentication events and therefore may challenge the end user for authentication credentials via the Novell Security Servcies login prompt.