How to ghost or clone a PC with a Windows Agent

Last Modified

Mon Aug 17 16:30 GMT 2020

Description

• This solution explains how to clone a PC with the Windows Agent pre-installed.
• Note that while this concern is primarily for using a clone image more than once within the same customer, but is good practice for any Golden Image.

Environment

• N-able N-central

Solution

• Preparing a Clone Image With the Windows Agent
  • Due to security changes in N-able N-central 2020.1 and later, we can no longer accommodate installing the Windows Agent on a Golden Image used for Image Deployment.
  • Our recommendation is to remove the agent from any existing Golden Image used for deployment with the following steps:
    1. Stop the Windows Agent Service and Windows Agent Maintenance Service,
    2. Run this command to delete the asset tag:
       • "C:\Program Files (x86)\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\bin\NcentralAssetTool.exe" -d
    3. Uninstall Take Control:
       • "C:\Program Files (x86)\BeAnywhere Support Express\GetSupportService_N-Central\uninstall.exe" /S
    4. Uninstall PME by uninstalling the following from Add/Remove Programs:
       • N-able Cache Service
       • N-able PME Agent
       • N-able RPC Server
    5. Delete the following file (if it exists):
       • "C:\ProgramData\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\config\ConnectionString_Agent.xml"
    6. Uninstall the N-able N-central Windows Agent (without turning the services back on).
  • At this stage the device has been cleaned up and will avoid potential duplicate devices or other issues when used to deploy a new image.
  • Our recommendation for installing the agent on newly deployed images is to use a post-deployment script to install the agent silently using the following guidelines:
    1. https://documentation.n-able.com/N-central/Rel_2020-1-0/webhelp/Content/Deploying/RB-Using-a-Customer-specific-link.htm
    2. https://documentation.n-able.com/N-central/Rel_2020-1-0/webhelp/Content/Deploying/silent_win_install.htm
• ?Preparing a Clone Image With the Windows Agent (Prior to N-able N-central 2020.1)
• This article will cover only the steps involving the Windows Agent and any other requirements for the cloning device will need to be followed per other involved software.

1. Create the customer in N-able N-central .
2. Get the CustomerID
   1. Select your service organization in the navigation tree, or if installing in a site select the customer level,
   2. Select Administration -> Customers or if installing at a site select Administration -> Customers,
   3. Make note of the Access Code, this will be your CustomerID.
3. Install the Windows Agent using the customer/site specific installation.
4. Stop the Windows Agent Maintenance service.
5. Stop the Windows Agent service.
6. Edit the C:\Program Files (x86)\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\config\ApplianceConfig.xml file with Notepad or similar text editor:

<ApplianceID>-1</ApplianceID>
<CheckerLogSent>False</CheckerLogSent>
<CustomerID>use the value from step 2</CustomerID>
<CompletedRegistration>False</CompletedRegistration>

1. Save the file.
2. If your N-able N-central version is 10.1 or higher, run the following command (Administrative Command prompt Required):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\bin\NcentralAssetTool.exe" -d

1. If your N-able N-central version is 10.2 or higher, also run the following command:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\BeAnywhere Support Express\GetSupportService_N-Central\uninstall.exe" /S

1. If your N-able N-central version is 11.1 or higher, you will also need to delete the following file:

"C:\ProgramData\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\config\ConnectionString_Agent.xml"

1. The PC is now ready to be 'ghosted'.
2. The 'ghosted' PCs will self register with the Customer ID specified above when they are first booted.

• Repairing Devices Created Without The Steps Above (Prior to N-able N-central 2020.1)
  • In the event that a clone image was created with a Windows Agent installed on it (even if it was uninstalled before the clone/ghost process) and deployed out to devices, we do have a method to repair those devices.
  • This will need to be performed for each device, or issued out via script through another process such as GPO (typically cannot be deployed through N-able N-central,).
  • Depending on the environment it may also be a good idea to look for possible MAC Address duplication from VPN adapters and similar virtual network hardware and add them to the exclusion list:

1. Delete the offending device(s) in N-able N-central,
   1. While this step may seem extreme, it is critical to ensure that each device registers uniquely rather than relying on the now confused set of asset data that has been populated to N-able N-central by multiple devices.
2. Get the CustomerID
   1. Select your service organization in the navigation tree, or if installing in a site select the customer level,
   2. Select Administration > Customers or if installing at a site select Administration > Customers,
   3. Make note of the Access Code, this will be your CustomerID.
3. Stop the Windows Agent Maintenance service.
4. Stop the Windows Agent service.
5. Edit the C:\Program Files\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\config\ApplianceConfig.xml file with Notepad or similar text editor:

6. <ApplianceID>-1</ApplianceID>
   <CheckerLogSent>False</CheckerLogSent>
   <CustomerID>use the value from step 2</CustomerID>
   <CompletedRegistration>False</CompletedRegistration>Save the file.

7. If  your N-able N-central version is 10.1 or higher, run the following command (Administrative Command prompt Required):

1. If your N-able N-central version is 10.2 or higher, also run the following command:

1. If your N-able N-central version is 11.1 or higher, you will also need to delete the following file:
   1. "C:\ProgramData\N-able Technologies\Windows Agent\config\ConnectionString_Agent.xml"
2. Restart the Windows Agent Service and Windows Agent Maintenance Service.

• At this point the agents should be able to check in on their own as unique devices.