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IntroductionI’ve seen reports about problems with PXE boot specifically related to the boot images not getting properly upgraded during the upgrade to Service Pack 1, and I came across this problem yesterday, the suggested fix’s published by others online however did not resolve the problem I had therefore I decided to post this in case others run into the issue. Symptoms of the problem When PXE booting a computer after the upgrade to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 you receive an error like PXE-E53: No boot filename received, this means that PXE boot fails and you cannot image computer via network boot. The boot images on your Configuration Manager server (in my case, the Primary site server in a hierarchy) look good, and the boot images are reported as being the correct version for SP1 (6.2.9200.16384). Redistributing the content makes no difference to this issue. Checking the SMSPXE.log file on your PXE enabled distribution point shows errors repeating over and over which reference the inability to copy files (in my case it was font files). See screenshot below: As a result, the boot images are never finalized and therefore PXE boot fails. The files referenced are fonts that should be present in the Windows Deployment Services Fonts folder, and if you check the location(s) listed you will probably see that the font files (and folders in some cases) do not exist. Failed to copy D:\RemoteInstall\SMSTempBootFiles\CAS00004\WINDOWS\Boot\Fonts\segmono_boot.ttf to D:\RemoteInstall\Boot\Fonts\segmono_boot.ttf There are some suggested workarounds for the above problem (listed at the bottom of this post in the related reading section) but none I tried worked and as a result I still could not PXE boot. I did not want to simply manually copy the required font files in the Fonts folder, I wanted the Configuration Manager server to place them there (that would mean that the correct ACL were applied). I needed a method that guaranteed to work every time and that would restore PXE boot ability, the method involved deleting the built-in images and replacing them with new ones. This process places the missing files back in the RemoteInstall folder (WDS) and allows the boot images to finalize. Step 1. Remove the built in boot images from distribution pointsAs our current boot images don’t work we’ll remove them from our distribution points. Right click a boot image and choose properties select the Content Locations tab, and highlight the distribution point you want to remove the boot image from, select Remove and continue with the wizard, click ok when prompted. You may see delete failure messages in distrmgr.log, ignore them. Repeat the above process for each boot image you want to remove. Step 2. Delete the boot images from the ConfigMgr console In a hierarchy, do the following process on your CAS. In a Standalone Primary, do the process on that Primary servers console. In the Operating Systems workspace, select boot images, then select a boot image to delete, right click and choose Delete a Delete Boot Image wizard will appear, if the boot image is used in one or more task sequences you’ll see those details listed by clicking on the Show Detail button Take note of the name(s) of any task sequences listed and the boot image architecture (x86 or x64) as you’ll need to add the respective boot images back to those task sequences later in this process otherwise they will not work. Repeat the above process for all boot images. Step 3. Adding boot images to Configuration Manager Now that your boot images are gone, we need to replace them with working boot images, so in the ConfigMgr console click on Add Boot Image. Browse to the UNC (network) location of the X64 WinPE.wim file located in your Assessment and Deployment Kit installation folder on the server in question, in my example I’m adding boot images from the CAS server, if you have a standalone server add the boot images from the ADK installation on that primary server, the UNC path will probably be something like the following:- \\CAS\C$\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\winpe.wim the drop down menu will list your winpe wim image as in the screenshot below Give the boot image a name that is descriptive of the boot image architecture eg: Boot image (x64) and the version should be 6.2.9200.16384 for this version of WinPE. complete the wizard And repeat the above for the X86 boot image, obviously pointing to the UNC path of the X86 winpe.wim file. Step 4. Edit the boot image properties Now that we’ve added both architecture boot images we need to make sure they can be used for PXE boot. So right click on your boot image, choose properties click on the Customization tab, place a check mark in the Enable command support (testing only) option, this allows us to press F8 during deployments to bring up a command prompt to troubleshoot using cmtrace and the SMSTS.log file. Next click on the Data Source tab and ensure that the Deploy this boot image from the PXE enabled distribution point is selected otherwise we cannot use this boot image in PXE deployed Task sequences Make any other changes you want (such as optional components, prestart files, drivers) and then click Apply and answer NO when prompted to distribute the boot image, we will distribute the boot images in our next step. Note: don’t forget to repeat the above process for your X86 boot image. Step 5. Distribute our Boot images Now that our boot images are added and customized, we need to distribute them to our distribution points, select both boot images, right click and choose distribute content review the review content screen, click next select your distribution points(s) by clicking on the Add drop down menu and continue through the wizard until completion. Step 6. Adjust your task sequences to use the new boot images Now everything is in place for using the new boot images, so right click on your task sequences individually, choose properties, advanced and point the boot image to the appropriate boot image by placing a checkmark in Use a boot image and browsing to the correct architecture of your new boot image Step 7. Boot a client computer Now that the changes are complete, boot a client computer and enjoy the working PXE boot process once more, notice also that the Fonts folder(s) are now correctly populated in your RemoteInstall directory structure on your server (P01) that hosts the PXE enabled distribution point. Summary Hopefully the above process will highlight how you can replace the default boot images in Configuration Manager 2012 after upgrading to Service Pack 1. Related reading The following links provide additional information about issues with boot images after upgrading to Service Pack 1 or suggestions to resolve the problems once identified. http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7437-using-system-center-2012-configuration-manager-part-11-upgrading-the-hierarchy-to-service-pack-1 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmanagerosd/thread/c7b2cdfb-ce0c-4726-bba4-0c0d1a7dba6e/ http://blog.coretech.dk/rja/post-sccm-2012-sp1-failure-to-update-boot-images/ http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenterpfe/archive/2013/01/11/updated-system-center-2012-configuration-manager-antivirus-exclusions-with-more-details.aspx http://scug.be/sccm/2008/06/10/pxe-in-sccm-issues-amp-bugs/ http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmanagerdeployment/thread/a1dfee53-9c0f-41a6-9c0f-1ad5b49ead30/ http://jackychuasce.blogspot.se/2012/07/how-to-troubleshooting-pxe-service.html http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmanagerosd/thread/c7b2cdfb-ce0c-4726-bba4-0c0d1a7dba6e/ Until next time, adios cheers niall

did you capture the image before SP1 was applied to Configuration Manager 2012 ?

if you are deploying Windows XP only then don't use the WADK, if you are deploying Windows 7 then all is ok, if you are migrating to Windows 7 then you should be ok as long as your hardware is supported via WinPE 4 (which is part of WADK) cheers niall

have you experimented with any of the firmware options for secure boot, press and hold volume UP and then press the power button.

no, the link is not wrong, you are required to put some thought into whether you want a CAS or a Standalone Primary, the new link (setting up a CAS and then Setting up a primary), shows how to use the latest versions of SQL etc at that time (release of RTM), if you are installing Configuraiton Manager 2012 from scratch then i'd recommend you follow the new guides, the decision to install a CAS or not is up to you, but the content remains the same.

have you followed my advice in Step 6 here ? are you an SQL sysadmin on the server you are attempting to run this on ?

how long have you waited ? perhaps it's still installing updates...

is this Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 or RTM ? what does your client.msi.log file say ? or ccmsetup.log

give me an example product that you need to license, did you look at the link i posted ?

do you mean the Operating System or for example, Office Products ? if so most Enterprises use a Key Management Server (KMS) to accomplish license activation en-masse, see here for details of that.

are these Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 clients ? have you verified what antimalware policy they have applied ?

make sure to distribute both architecture boot images to your distribution points, have you tried that ?

yes you can have a standalone primary with secondaries underneath (and no CAS) however do you really need secondaries see this for more details, you can have 250 secondaries under one primary.

strange, what type of USB drive is it ? what bios version do you have (it's written across the bottom of the screen when you get into the firmware) have you tried any other usb bootable device ?

the client push questions should really be raised as a separate post to keep on topic, however client push requires several things in place like firewall ports opened and a client push account which has local administrative permissions on the computer you are pushing the client on...

what hardware are you PXE booting, those menu choices don't look familiar... are you PXE booting to a configuration manager server ?

i've tested that query on a test collection here limited to All Systems and it works fine, did you choose Update Membership on the collection you created and then refreshed your view ? cheers niall

I attempted a recovery and it didn't work so I think the answer is no, feel free to test yourself however.

i'm updating it now and will let you know as soon as i do

thanks ! this is normal with SP1 - see this post for details

simple, reduce the number, create a top 50 list of apps that you will install dynamically for users during the task sequence, everything else gets installed using normal Configuration manager jobs, that's how we do it where I work (global company,26000 clients)

yup, as per and

yes that's what I mean, it's manual work, give it a try and see what happens, note that in order for this to work (if it works at all) you have to manually configure WDS prior to adding PXE support in CM12..

below is a quote from the guide you linked to (it was written for the release candidate version of CM12), did you do the below or not ?

you could prompt for the Username via a HTA frontend and use that username instead of computername to do the checking against.