Group Policies not always applying

Question

I am seeing a problem when trying to apply group policies to windows xp
worstations. Sometimes they apply and other times they will either
partially apply or not apply at all.
After some thorough investigation I have found that sometimes the
directory stucture in "c:\windows\system32\grouppolicy" is just not being
copied fully from the source. The Scheduled task to apply the GPO is
always running but, seems to be before the grouppolicy directory has been
updated.
Enviroment is Netware 6.5sp5, zen 6.5sp2, winxp sp2, novell client 4.9sp2
(also tried 4.91sp2). Problem has been around for some time (previous
versions) and can be randomly replicated on different servers and in test
enviroment.
Note: have tried changing source for group policy to local pc and even
this can fail, this along with other tests have rulled out network
issues. Have noticed though that when enabling logging of zen management
agents that the logging in process is slowed down and will help reduce
the problem. Could be a log-in speed issue?
Hope somebody can offer a solution. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Unfortunately I cannot read much from your log file. But currently I am
a bit confused about your setting.
* Are you using a ZENworks User Policy Package or a ZENworks
Workstation Policy Package? Or both (which means you have to care
about concurrency)?
* What is your schedule for the policy package and the GPOs (within
the policy package)? The usual schedule for user policy packages
is the user login.
* If you have problems during user login, try a different schedule.
* Is it correct, that the central and the local GPO path is not
always synchronized by ZENworks? Then check access problems to the
server/path (including name resolution, ...), check the ZENworks
policy package schedule (in ConsoleOne and at the local
workstation) and verify that the scheduled job is executed.
* If the synchronization works, but the GPOs are not applied, it
looks more like a Windows problem. There are a couple of Windows
tools for testing this. Unfortunately I am not on site this week
and I don't remember their names.
* Yes, it is important to use the SP2 plugin for ConsoleOne.
* It is also important that the workstation you create the policy
package (with the mmc) and the workstation you apply the GPOs have
exactly the same patch level.
Keep in mind, that ZENworks distributes the policy files and Windows
applies them. Therefore both processes must be considered separately.
There could be said much more about GPOs, so please give us one concrete
problem with clear boundaries (what you have tested).
Regards, Simon
Brendan Clifford schrieb:
> Hi Simon,
>
> Thanks for the input, I have had a look at this tid already and this
> pointed me in the direction of the gpo not copying from the server
> properly to c:\windows\system32\group policy folder (some times). If
> I copy the files off the server into the directory and run wnsched and
> run the scheduled task to appy the policies they will work 100% of the
> time.
>
> Odly sometimes the directory structure will be the same on the pc as
> the server and GPO will not apply correctly. On these occasions if I
> check wmsched all looks like it has run corectly. However if I run the
> task again the policies will apply this time. It's just as though the
> copy is to slow to happen sometimes > therefore the group policy is
> always applying just the wrong one!!!!.
>
> I have also enabled the debug logs for zen 6.5 desktop management to
> try and trace why the files are only partially copying or not copying
> at all on the odd occasion. Does anybody know how to read these logs,
> they look the same to me between working and not working and I can not
> find in any log's where or when the group policy folder structure is
> downloaded from the server. Except, when logging in as a new user the
> wmgrppoluser.log does show copying of files to the group policy folder
> on the local computer. I have attached the wmgrppoluser.log file below
> of one time when it didn;t apply the policy properly.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> -- DEBUG LOG FILE -- C:\Program
> Files\Novell\ZENworks\DebugLogs\WMGrpPolUser.log
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Entering WMHelperInteractiveUserEntry!
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 ProcessID: 2112
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x0 to Don't reparse in key
> Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x1 to User Logged In in key
> Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 GinaGetUsersSIDInTextualForm ENTERED
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Textual SID :
> S-1-5-21-987319440-1293364371-1211451425-1014
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 GinaGetUsersSIDInTextualForm EXIT : 0
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Current time High: 29791882 Low:2541052678
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Read reg. value Last Run Time High: 0x1c6968a in
> key Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Read reg. value Last Run Time Low: 0x91acceb4 in
> key Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Previous time High: 29791882 Low: 2444021428
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x1 to Don't reparse in key
> Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Applying user policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Read reg. value Don't reparse: 0x1 in key
> Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Read reg. value Group Policy User Status: 0x3000
> in key Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Read reg. key Group Policy User Status: 0x3000
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Policy applied at predesktop. Skipping
> reapplication at user login.
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x0 to Don't reparse in key
> Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x1c6968a to Last Run Time High
> in key Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Wrote reg. value 0x97756306 to Last Run Time Low
> in key Software\Novell\Workstation Manager\Group Policies
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Apply user policies releasing mutex.
> 06/23/2006 16:02:21 Exiting WMHelperInteractiveUserEntry ccode: 0