Bluescreen with v3 TNI Agent on Windows 7

[karel.krobath]

Hello,

 

I experience a bluescreen on Windows 7 x64 every time i run the tniwinagent.exe from the version 3.0.0 build 1601 and build 1627 on workstations with a certain ahci controller.

 

The bluescreen occurs in the driver iaStorS.sys (Fileversion: 3.8.1.1006) of the “Intel C600 Series Chispet SAS”-Controller. At the moment I have Lenovos S30 and D30, where this happens.

The driverexeption does not happen, when I scan the pc with the tniwinagent.exe from the TNI version 2.

 

I could not attach the minidump file from a scan I ran today. If you need it, I will send it via E-Mail.

 

If you need further information, I would be happy to help.

 

Greetings

[karel.krobath]

hi,

 

I have bad news. The Bluescreen occurs with the agent build 1630 as well.

 

Greetings.

[Hemo2]

We haven't implemented TNI v3 yet due to logistics and other projects taking precedence. But this bluescreen issue reported by karel brings up a question.

 

Are there new command line switches for the new v3 TNIWINAGENT.EXE program?  Is there one that maybe tells it not to do a 'low level' hardware scan, or something similar to avoid this potential issue?

[karel.krobath]

The bluescreen does happen in the version 3.0.0 build 1653 with the TNIWINAGENT.EXE as well.

[mehdin81]

yes 1653 as well give iastors.sys bluescreen problem

[Hemo2]

I hope this issue is being reviewed as causing a BSOD during the inventory scan on your computers is not a functional situation.

[karel.krobath]

First I would like to emphasize the idea of customizing the TNIWINAGENT.EXE with command line parameters. This would be helpful for systems that work with scripted scans (as we do).


Secondly a possible workaround for the BOSD issue:
Use the TNIWINAGENT.EXE from the TNI version 2.x. This scanner did never cause any blue screens, because the deep hardware scan is possibly not being used. The .inv files which are created with the agent v2.x can be read with the TNI version 3.x.

[karel.krobath]

The bluescreen does happen in the version 3.0.1 build 1675 with the TNIWINAGENT.EXE as well.

[Hemo2]

Karel, does this bluescreen occur in the newest v3.1.0 build 1684 release?

[Support]

Yes, it will happen in 3.1.0 too, the agent there is the same.

 

The problem is in bugs in the Intel driver (iastors.sys) which show themselves when the driver is being queried in a certain way for low-level hardware information.

 

The low-level hardware scan is now disabled by default in TNI itself (when you run the online scan from the TNI console), but it's enabled by default in tniwinagent.exe. To disable this type of scan, you should add a /nodriver switch to the command line calling the agent.

 

I would also suggest updating the drivers to the latest versions.

 

We will update the agent to disable the low-level scan by default when in the /scripted mode.

[karel.krobath]

Confirmed: the command line switch /nodriver is working fine. No blue screens on previously affected computers.

 

A little suggestion: a good thing would be a help in the tniwinagent.exe like "tniwinagent.exe /?" where the parameters a explained a bit, and the default settings are wirtten.

[Support]

Good news for everyone: tniwinagent.exe in the latest TNI version 3.1.1 released on July 14 was updated so that it does not cause BSOD on affected systems (the ones that have faulty Intel storage drivers "iastor*.sys"). tniwinagent.exe version is 14.07.14.0.

 

We have added a new command-line option /driver:X, where X is 0-3, and the explanations can be found in "Options - Storage". In short, 0 - completely disable low-level scan (same as /nodriver), 1 - skip disk drive scan on all systems, 2 - skip disk drive scan if iastor*.sys driver is detected (default option), 3 - always scan everything (unsafe, previous default).

 

So now specifying nothing related to the driver in the command-line is the same as specifying /driver:2, i.e. default setting. Please check the new agent on the affected systems and let us know if it works well.

 

If you have not renewed your license for version 3.1 and later, you can still use TNI 3.0.1 or even version 2 and substitute the existing tniwinagent.exe with the new tniwinagent.exe from the installation of TNI 3.1.1.

 

P.S. We have also implemented the /? command-line switch in the latest agent.