Rebuilding machines with EMA not reconnecting to CIRA

[BradM1]

Hi guys,

This relates very closely to a "previously answered" question:

https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-vPro-Platform/Intel-EMA-Agent-Rebuild/td-p/1416289

Unfortunately, the "answer" involves making changes within MEBx - on a machine(s) that is not currently provisioned in EMA, so there is no way of doing this remotely (The "Desktop" tab works fine, but the "Hardware Manageability" tab does not - so no OOB access, and no remote access to MEBx).

This means that if we need to rebuild one (or more) of our hundreds of PCs across a fairly broad geographical area, we need to have someone travel onsite(s) in order to make that modification.

That kinda negates the whole "OOB" thing, doesn't it??

Is there a better solution? Are we missing something??

Cheers,

Brad.

[Victor_G_Intel]

Hello BradM1,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In this case, yes you are correct there is no way that you can access MEBx remotely; therefore, if there is a step to be done within it, there has to be a person who will manually access it.

Additionally, the correct path that we recommend to not have problems with a machine that needs a rebuild is to fully un-provisioned the system first before doing the rebuild; however, if that un-provisioning process does not occur, the steps in the thread you previously shared will be the solution to the CIRA connection problem.

Regards,

Victor G.

Intel Technical Support Technician  

[BradM1]

Hi Victor,

Thanks for the response. One follow-up question - if we're able to update MEBx during the initial install by simply installing the agent, why is that not an option on re-install??? We CAN get to the machines remotely via RDP, SCCM etc... just not to the BIOS/MEBx.

Can it be done from the command line??

Having to be hands-on to repair machines (from a software perspective at least) is one of the primary reasons for using the vPro side of things to remove that requirement.

Cheers,

Brad.

[Jimmy_Wai_Intel]

Hi Brad,

If you know the admin password you set when the PC was previously provisioned, you can run ACUConfig in Intel SCS (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software/setup-configuration-software.html) or MeshCmd (https://www.meshcommander.com/meshcommander/meshcmd) on the PC to unprovision AMT. Once the AMT is unprovisioned, the EMA services will retry provisioning AMT when it is restarted. If you don't know the AMT admin password, the only way to unprovision is to physically touch the PC.

Regards,

Jimmy Wai

Technical Sales Specialist, Intel

[BradM1]

Hi Jimmy,

Yes, we know the password. However this is the result we're seeing when we try that:

Re-running the client at this stage brings us back full circle to the issue of CIRA not connecting.

Cheers,

Brad.

[Victor_G_Intel]

Hello BradM1,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In regard to the following:

“If we're able to update MEBx during the initial install by simply installing the agent, why is that not an option on re-install??? We CAN get to the machines remotely via RDP, SCCM etc... just not to the BIOS/MEBx.

Can it be done from the command line??

Having to be hands-on to repair machines (from a software perspective at least) is one of the primary reasons for using the vPro side of things to remove that requirement.”

You should always be able to update MEBx during the initial configuration because once you install the agent files that will push MEBx to update; however, when it comes to using a command line you can use it to send commands to un-provision a system; but when it comes to accessing MEBx there is no way to do that.

Additionally, as we have previously discussed, you should be able to fully un-provision a system before the rebuild occurs and after that, once the agent files are installed MEBx will get the update; on the other hand, if you don’t un-provision the system in question and it gets rebuild before that can happen the steps previously provided in the original thread you shared as an example will have to take place.

Important note: Please bear in mind that we don’t support Mesh Commander directly. If you ever find yourself using Mesh Commander and having trouble with it, you can use the link below to receive support for it.

Contact Information

https://www.meshcommander.com/contact-information

Regards,

Victor G.

Intel Technical Support Technician