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Hubb1981
Contributor
Contributor

DEM 2111 Intermittently fails to load profiles

DEM 2011

Win10 1903/20H2 Instant Clone desktops.

~200 Users.

Most mornings, DEM will fail to load profiles for 1 or 2 users.  There is no pattern to the users impacted (different users, pools, hosts)

When this happens, there are nothing written to flexengine.log, and no event log entries appear related to the Group Policy that applies DEM settings, nor are there any crash related entries for flexengine.exe.

We have tried updating the DEM configs from a DFS-N location to the direct file server path.
When a profile doesn't load,  the users can access the path that stores their profile archives, by name, without any issues.
There are no errors logged regarding file access on the server that hosts the profile archives.
Other logins processed at the same time are handled correctly.
If the user logs off their blank profile, and logs back in - the next login loads the profile correctly.

Has anyone else experienced an issue like this? and got a solution?

 

 

 

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19 Replies
mrkasius
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi @Hubb1981,

What is the performance of your file server (cluster)?

I would recommend configuring 'ArchivePathMissingAction'. This automatically logs off the user when the path is not available.

 

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ijdemes
Expert
Expert

I would go with mrkasius' solution for when profile loading goes wrong.

However, to troubleshoot the actual issue I would recommend enabling FlexEngine debug logging first. And since it can happen for any user, I would recommend enabling debug logging in the DEM GPO.

Configuring FlexEngine Logging Settings (vmware.com)

I am curious if anything is added to the user's FlexEngine.log when having debug logging enabled and profile loading goes wrong.


\\ Ivan
---
Twitter: @ivandemes
Blog: https://www.ivandemes.com
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Starren
Contributor
Contributor

We have the same issue with DEM 2111 and Win10 20H2 Instant Clone desktops.

There is no pattern to be found, since a few weeks we have enabled debug logging for all the users. 
No errors are being logged to the flexengine.log.

Has anyone else experienced an issue like this? and got a solution?

 

 

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Hubb1981
Contributor
Contributor

We have debug logging enabled.

When the issue occurs, nothing is logged.  As far as DEM is concerned, no login has happened.
No errors are logged related to group policy, and the event viewer shows all group policies as being processed OK.

ArchivePathMissingAction doesn't trigger, because the archive and profile path are available/accessible.

Performance of the File server (single Server 2016 file server) is fine.  Profile paths are excluded from AV on the server side, and flexengine is excluded on the Client side.  Profile Path is referenced by Servername (not DFS-N)

The environment has been stable up until 2111

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Hubb1981
Contributor
Contributor

DEM 2203 has been released.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Dynamic-Environment-Manager/2203/rn/vmware-dynamic-environment-man...

We're hoping to roll it out sooner rather than later, but I'd be very interested in your results if you get to it first.

Cheers

 - Adam

 

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@Hubb1981,

Are there any event log messages from DEM itself when the logon processing does not take place? If a user logs off after this happens, does DEM run during logoff?

Can you provide a .REG export of key HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies from within a session for which DEM did not run at logon, either as an attachment in this thread, or via a private message?

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Hubb1981
Contributor
Contributor

I've not been able to find anything in the Event logs from DEM.

DEM will run at logoff (and capture an essentially blank profile) for users.

I've provided an export of HKCU/Software/Policies via PM for a user who did not get a profile.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@Hubb1981,

Thank you for the policies export. That all looks perfectly fine and straightforward.

DEM will run at logoff (and capture an essentially blank profile) for users

That's quite odd, as the DEM agent has some protection mechanism built in to prevent performing an export in the case the import did not run:
2022-04-28 16:36:06.048 [WARN ] Previous import not marked as successful -- skipping export
2022-04-28 16:36:06.049 [INFO ] Done (36 ms) [<<IFP#3d5bb27b-588abfc]

Can you provide a registry export of HKCU\Software\Immidio for a session where DEM did not seem to have run during logon?

 

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kennyvz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We're suffering from this, or something very similar, using v2111 and v2203 on Windows 10 21H2, where DEM doesn't perform any action on login after a VM is rebooted. When the user logs out of the same session the following message is written to FlexEngine.log:

date/time [DEBUG] Skipping legacy path-based export

I can consistently reproduce the issue and the problem doesn't occur if the user logs out and back in without the reboot, but the problem returns with the next reboot.

DEM is configured via Group Policy and all required settings are in place including "Run FlexEngine at logon and logoff Group Policy" setting. I noticed this in the 2111 Release Notes, but obviously that relates to NoAD mode:

 

  • FlexEngine does not run after reboot

    When FlexEngine is configured in NoAD mode and computer environment settings support is enabled, FlexEngine sometimes does not run during the first session after a reboot.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Importantly, I think, when I roll back to DEM 2016 or earlier the problem goes away, and returns when I then re-upgrade to 2111 or 2203.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, even if it's to confirm it's not the same issue 😀

Many thanks.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@kennyvz,

Do you have support for computer environment settings enabled? If so, do you have RevertOnShutdown=1 configured?

That setting is sometimes causing the "FlexEngine does not run after reboot" behavior. Pre-DEM 2111 that only applied to NoAD mode setups, but as of DEM 2111 it could affect Group Policy-based setups as well. The fix in DEM 2111 is that that setting no longer defaults to 1, but if it's explicitly set to 1 that could still cause the issue, of course.

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kennyvz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi @DEMdev many thanks for the reply, very much appreciated.

We don't use the Computer Environment feature intentionally and checked the Additional Features section just in case and it's definitely disabled. I read the KB that mentions the issue and the documentation about that setting https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86314

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Dynamic-Environment-Manager/2106/com.vmware.dynamic.environment.ma...

but neither the XML file (FlexRepository\AgentConfiguration\Computer.xml) nor Registry Keys (HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware UEM\Agent\​Computer Configuration) exist.

While I was checking for the registry keys though I did notice on an existing machine that had been re-logged into and therefore DEM had worked:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware UEM\SessionData\1\UemState = DONE

Whereas the machine logged into directly after reboot had this:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware UEM\SessionData\1\UemState = CONNECT

Not sure if that helps shed any light on what's happening (or not happening).

Cheers.

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Hubb1981
Contributor
Contributor

 HKCU\Software\Immidio does not exist in a session where DEM has not run.

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kennyvz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi @Hubb1981 I can see the DEM service starts on boot when I enable "FlexEngine logging to the Windows event log":

Event 4069, Immidio Flex+ Service Started
Event 4069, Immidio Flex+ Service Stopped

but it just doesn't process the policies on first login. I've got a ticket logged with VMware Support and it's currently with Engineering, so hoping they can find the issue and resolve it.

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kennyvz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Just to update this thread, VMware investigated the issue, had me try a sandboxed test version of the Agent which worked, confirmed it was a bug and said they will try to incorporate the fix into 2206, most likely as a HKLM configuration setting. Not great in the meantime, but hoping the fix does make it into 2206.

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

This will indeed be included in the upcoming 2206 (10.6) release. As described by @kennyvz it will not be enabled by default, but requires an HKLM value to be set. The reason for this approach is that uninstalls require a bit more attention when the fix is enabled, and we don't want to inflict that on customers for whom the product is currently behaving as it should.

An improved fix is scheduled for 2209 (10.7) – that one won't have the uninstall impact, and hence won't require any specific configuration.

kennyvz
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi @DEMdev, thanks for the confirmation and the further details about 2209, much appreciated.

VMHero4Ever
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I also tested in our environment upgrading from DEM 2106 to 2206.
It doesn't work as expected. We using Instant Clone VDIs (Win10 - 20H2). First I regconized that the import during logon is doing nothing.
After I was able to fix it I can now see that logoff hangs 😞


We also using domain joined VMs and no computer settings yet. Should we also update the ADMX template to get it working?
In the Log file I can see an error (debug mode is on). It do not proceed after these entries....

2022-08-02 09:32:46.647 [DEBUG] Creating 5 backups (single backup per day) in path '\\XXXXX' (DFS path at '\\XXXUEM-Settings$')
2022-08-02 09:32:46.647 [DEBUG] Logging to file '\\XXXXX'

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DEMdev
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@VMHero4Ever,

Is this related to the "Intermittently fails to load profiles" issue? If not, can you please start a new thread for your issue?

> In the Log file I can see an error

What error do you see?

 

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VMHero4Ever
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Sorry, it's not related to the original thread.
I opened a ticket at VMware. I will try to get a solution there.