Imaging and the network

[DKershner12]

 Having an issue with my IT team.

 They have a network drop they use to image laptops/desktops

 They image laptops one after the other with zero issues.

 But as soon as they plug a desktop into the drop the desktop comes up but when they go to authenticate they get "procedural errors"

 Now to me this is not a network issue but they won't stop blaming the network.

 Has anyone ever come across this before or give me an idea which way to turn?

[ammahend]

Is this an open port? If not what kind of authentication are you using on that port?

[DKershner12]

 To the best of my knowledge the port itself does not have authentication. Just the image software.

[ammahend]

if there is no authentication and the port is working for other devices then it should work for desktop also, one of the ways you can prove it is installed wireshark on the desktop and do a capture on Ethernet port, if will give you more insight, you can share the capture I can look if you like,  most likely seems like imaging server side issue.

you should also do basic tests like port is up, no errors on port, not in error disable state, desktop can resolve dns, has an IP etc, just basic checks 

[DKershner12]

so, ports are pretty basic

interface GigabitEthernet1/0/13
switchport access vlan 38
switchport mode access
spanning-tree portfast edge

 And not allowed to use wireshark

[DKershner12]

So, it seems to have started working again. Wish I could say rebooting the switch fixed it but from what they're saying one of the other folks updated a few drivers on the server and they just hadn't had a desktop to image to test it.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"But as soon as they plug a desktop into the drop the desktop comes up but when they go to authenticate they get "procedural errors"

You later write the port doesn't do authentication, so could you expand upon what the authentication is actually being done and what are the exact "procedural errors"?

That aside, laptop/desktop imaging might be done using proprietary software between laptop and image server and/or the two devices might be in the same L2 domain.  Whatever you're doing to try to get the desktop to work, might require more typical L2/L3 networking to work.  I.e. there might be a network issues that the imaging just doesn't bump into (and perhaps doesn't cause, either).

". . . give me an idea which way to turn?"

First determine how network usage differs between imaging and ordinary desktop connectivity.

For example, imaging might not even use IP addressing, or if it does, IP addresses unknown to the network as a whole, while the ordinary desktop might need to pull a valid DHCP IP for the network it's now connecting to.