Troubleshooting OS Deployment in Configuration Manager

Troubleshooting Configuration Manager task sequences can be challenging. Here are some of the things I have found helpful when things go wrong with Operating System Deployment in Configuration Manager.

• Enable the debug command shell in your boot image – on your boot image “Properties” dialog box, from the “Windows PE” tab, select “Enable command support (testing only)”.  Don’t forget to update your distribution points and boot images. With command shell support enabled you can press F8 at any time during the Windows PE phase of the installation process to access a command shell. While in the command shell, the task sequence will not reboot the computer, allowing you to access some useful log files stored in RAM-Disk and not available after a reboot. From the command prompt you will typically find the task sequence logs in the folder x:\windows\temp\smstslog.  Several times when a task sequence is failing during the Windows PE phase, this has allowed me to identify the problem (typically mass storage drivers, or network access permissions).
• Log files are your friend – I consider one of Configuration Manager’s greatest features to be the copious logging it performs. There are several places fromwhich you can troubleshoot OSD using these log files;
  1. As mentioned earlier, while booted into Windows PE, the log files are stored in the x:\windows\temp\smstslog folder. Unless you have added the Trace32 log file viewer to your boot image, you will need to open the log file using Notepad.
  2. Depending on what stage of OS Deployment you are in, you will find log files in one of a couple of locations.
     1. While in the operating system. If the ConfigMgr client is not installed, you will find the log files in the %windir%\temp\smstslog folder. If the ConfigMgr client is installed, you will find the log file in %windir%\system32\ccm\logs folder.
     2. Once OS Deployment is complete, the logs are placed in their final location. Normally, if the full operating system and configuration manager client is installed at the end of the task sequence, you will find the log file in the client logs folder (%windir%\system32\ccm\logs). If the task sequence did not finish with the full OS and client being installed you will find the final log file either in the SMSTSLog directory at the root of the partition with the most available space on the partition, or in the Windows Temp directory.
• When running, the task sequence is constantly sending status information to the site server at each step along the way. Configuration Manager contains many reports specifically focused on task sequences. I have found the report “History – Specific task sequence advertisements run on a specific computer” to be particularly helpful. This report is a step by step detailed view of the progress of a running task sequence. Here you can see everything right down to which PNP device drivers were not located by the running task sequence, This report has been a life saver on more than one occasion.