Cannot write ZISD (ZENworks Image Safe Data)

  • 3414734
  • 27-Feb-2008
  • 03-Jul-2018

Environment

Novell ZENworks Desktop Management 6.5 - ZDM6.5
Novell ZENworks Desktop Management 7 - ZDM7
Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 10
Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11
ZENworks Configuration Management 2017

Situation

Cannot write updates to Image-Safe Data area. with a new disk, or one that has has data-shredding software run upon it.
"Save" option is not available (it appears all in blue) when running zisedit at the bash prompt.
Data appears to be written when exiting zisedit in Windows, but it is not saved.

Resolution

Important note: prior to ZCM 11.2.3a, ZCM used space within the limits of sectors 6-63 to store Image-Safe Data, but from 11.2.3a onwards, only sectors 34-63 are considered as suitable for writing ZISD information (and if the agent detects the ZISD in sectors 6-33, will attempt to copy it to a space in sectors 34-63). This is because GPT disks use the space that was previously used for ZISD in the early sectors. For ZCM 11.2.3a onwards, If the data in sectors 34-63 is not required, then to clear the space (after taking a backup, see Additional Information section below), at the bash prompt issue the following command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 seek=34 count=27
N.B. for SCSI or SATA, use:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=34 count=27
Be very careful to get the syntax correct when issuing "dd" commands on disks that contain data, as using the wrong parameter may erase all of the data on the disk.

Once space has been "cleared", when the machine is next booted, ZISWIN will be able to write the Image-Safe Data.


For ZCM prior to 11.2.3a: If the data in sectors 6-63 is not required, then to clear the space (after taking a backup, see Additional Information section below), at the bash prompt issue the following command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 seek=5 count=58
N.B. for SCSI or SATA, use:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 seek=5 count=58
Be very careful to get the syntax correct when issuing "dd" commands on disks that contain data, as using the wrong parameter may erase all of the data on the disk.

Once space has been "cleared", when the machine is next booted, ZISWIN will be able to write the Image-Safe Data.

Additional Information

Some manufacturers leave a data pattern on new disks, also disk shredding software can be used to blank out a hard disk by leaving random data: in these circumstances, the ZENworks Imaging Agent is unable to find space to store the ZENworks Image-Safe Data (ZISD). ZISD can be stored between disk sector 6 and 63, and may take more then one sector. The commands shown in this TID will write binary zeroes to all sectors between 6 and 63 - be sure that the data that's currently stored in this area is not required - to be "safe, to make a backup of this area, a command such as

dd if=/dev/hda of=sector.bak bs=512 seek=5 count=58

may be used.

To view the current contents of space eligible for use as ZISD, issue the command

dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=63|hexdump -Cv|less

(SCSI and SATA disks will use /dev/sda) and the contents of the first 63 sectors will be displayed, alongside an ASCII representation. Press space to move forward one screenful, enter to move forward one line, "b" to move back, and "q" to quit.
Sector 6 starts at 00000a00.

NOTE: As of ZENworks 7 SP1, ZISWIN is no longer tied to sector 6. Rather it is now the first available sector. This was done in ZENworks 7 SP1 to address issues with GRUB co-existence.