Newest Clonezilla creates duplicated SIDs in my domain
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program
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steven_shiau
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It is a weird issue. We are using Clonezilla for 5 years now for mass preparation of new Windows machines. I know that cloning the disk creates a copy of machine with the same SID. But we've done testing and have been using this for years without problems. Because when a machine is joined into domain, it gets an unique Domain SID. E.g. after joining domain such cloned machines will show up as separate entries in WSUS console (Windows Systems Update Service). But lately i have noticed that some machines are missing in the console. After checking the whole list i have found around 30 machines missing. Usually one of the latest to join the domain pushes all others form the list. It looks like this started to happen 3-5 months ago. I suspected the Clonezilla. So today i tried with the latest 2.x version and 3 identical machines. Made a clone of one machine and cloned the image to 2 other machines (i'm doing whole disk image without any mbr or hidden data, when i apply the image i only use -r key). Those 2 machines had the issue, only last one was showing in WSUS. Then i downloaded Clonezilla 1.2.12-67 (2012.12), made an image with it and cloned same 2 machines using old Clonezilla and the image created with old Clonezilla. Joined both machines to domain and they showup fine in the WSUS.
So, it is obvious that something has changed in Clonezilla about how image is applied, but i can't imagine what exactly can be happening. I'm only cloning the data (so i thought), so what's the difference for the domain/WSUS. I can fix current flawed machines by running Sysprep on them after the cloning, but that's another 30-60 minutes of work for each one (i dislike Sysprep as it reruns the setup and reinstalls default drivers in some cases). So, for now we will have to revert to the older Clonezilla. Any thoughts?
Maybe newest Clonezilla clones some HDD info/ID and it makes WSUS confused
In Clonezilla live 1.2.12-67, partclone 0.2.49-1drbl is used, and for Clonezilla live 2.2.0-x, partclone 0.2.66 is used. I believe this is the major difference. However, according to the changelog of partclone, we did not touch NTFS for a long time. Therefore I can not find any clues now. If you have further info, please let us know.
Thanks.
Steven.
So, getting back on this 5 years later :) Had to switch to newest Clonezilla recently as old one was not working with new NVMe SSDs. We are doing Reset SUS ID for some time to avoid Windows machines duplication in WSUS. And it seems that it is working fine now. A few laptops i have cloned recently are showing up in WSUS normally.
I think it has something to do with sysprepping by generalize parameter. Then you have to use this image to spread the installation in the network. Also you have to use multi activation keys to use same images for different computers.