amend windows hosts files says access denied?

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Mike Rowe

• March 22, 2017 15:41

Trying to amend a windows hosts file to add an entry as not all host files are the same at the moment

I can edit the file manually on the PC's and then created a batch file to amend the file.

However when I run it It fails with an access denied error. I am running it thorough PDQ deploy with the same credentials as when I do it manually

 

Any suggestions please? 

 

 

 

 

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  Brandon Bunnelle

  • March 22, 2017 15:46

  Have you tried running this step in PDQ Deploy as "Local System"?

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  Brandon Bunnelle

  • March 22, 2017 15:48

  Also post some screenshots of your package setup.

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  Mike Rowe

  • March 22, 2017 15:54

  I have tried running as system and hat also failed. Pretty sure it is the permissions that the accounts have as it is system file but strange it works when logged in normally (Including running the batch file).

   

  No screen shots to show really just fails and when I check the output file says access is denied.

  batch is just this

  Echo >> c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
  Echo 10.80.x.x collabnhl.xxxxxx.gov.uk
  Exit

  xxx just so I do not give out addresses etc.

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  Mike Rowe

  • March 22, 2017 15:57

  

  

  

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  Stephen Valdinger

  • March 22, 2017 16:12

  Try a Powershell step. It will execute Powershell with the RunAs administrator option, giving you access to the C:\windows directory et. al.

   

  Use this as the code, just edit it so the ip and hostname are correct. Check output.log after deployment, it should return the contents of the host file in full:

  #Create backup of hosts file
  Copy-Item -Path C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts -Destination C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.bak
  
  #write data to file, utf8 format as its a hosts file
  Write-Output '10.80.x.x collabnhl.xxxxxx.gov.uk' | Out-File -NoClobber C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts -Append -Force utf8
  
  
  Write-Output $(Get-Content 'C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts')

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  Dan Sadler

  • March 22, 2017 17:59
  • Edited

  I used a File Copy Step.  Just put the Host File with the correct changes on the DFS Share then copied to the correct location with the Overwrite Existing.. 

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  Mike Rowe

  • March 23, 2017 08:20

  Dan,

   Can't do a file copy as different hosts on different PC's so need to append it.

   

  Stephen,

  That looks like a possible solution. I will try that

   

  Many Thanks to you all

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  Mike Rowe

  • March 23, 2017 09:31

  Powershell seems to work but hosts file is not updated when I checked it on some PC's

   

  Strange

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  Stephen Valdinger

  • March 23, 2017 12:32

  Works on everything I've tested on. I've got Windows 8.1 everywhere, and Powershell v4, but the code I wrote should be good all the way back to v2.

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  Brandon Bunnelle

  • March 23, 2017 13:02

  have you checked the log files on the machines the script failed on?

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  Mike Rowe

  • March 23, 2017 13:09

   

  Think the server it was running from was version 1.0 still so I have upgraded it and I will test.

   

   

   

  Many thanks for your efforts they are much appreciated

   

   

   

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