how can I troubleshoot Windows PE booting in SCCM

[anyweb]

With all Windows PE problems and errors that you may (most likely will..) encounter during SCCM OSD Deployment, you'll want to enable the F8 feature in your Windows PE boot images, which allows you to do some basic testing by giving you access to a CMD prompt within the Windows PE session

 

So how do you enable this troubleshooting feature ?

 

locate your boot images in the Operating System Deployment section of SCCM

 

right-click on your chosen boot image (for example 32 bit) and choose Properties

 

 

Select the Windows PE tab from the properties, and place a checkmark in Enable command support then click apply

 

 

Don't forget to re-distribute your boot images to their Distribution Points after making this change, and give them some time for doing so.

 

Once distributed, when you PXE boot your clients and you want to troubleshoot any Windows PE deployment issues, press F8 once Windows PE has loadedand you'll get a command prompt.

 

In addition this will keep Windows PE operational in situations where whatever error you were getting would cause Windows PE to reboot with no warnings thereby giving you a chance to read the logs and perform troubleshooting.

 

 

SMSTS Log File location

 

 

If the task sequence completes when running in the full operating system with a Configuration Manager 2007 client installed on the computer: <CCM Install Dir>\Logs

 

If the task sequence completes when running in the full operating system with no Configuration Manager 2007 client installed on the computer: %Temp%\SMSTSLOG

 

If the task sequence completes when running in Windows PE: <largest fixed partition>\SMSTSLOG

 

Note:

 

In addition, the logs for SCCM (during the Windows PE phase) are stored in X:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSLog\ and C:\SMSTSLog and C:\_SMSTaskSequence.

 

 

 

 

More often than not, the Log file you need to be reading is the smsts.log file to see what is going wrong in your deployment...

 

After Windows PE is done and Windows installation is complete you can find the logs elsewhere such as C:\Windows\System32\CCM\Logs or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs for 32bit and 64bit respectively. In those directories you'll find a log file named (for example) smsts-20081125-122856.log, the actual name of the file will change based on the date/time that you do the deployment.

 

 

I've enabled Command Prompt Support, now what ?

 

Once command prompt support is enabled you've got lots of options for troubleshooting.

 

 

network testing (ipconfig/ping...) or map a share such as

 

net use h: \\servername\share

 

If the user you are trying to logon with is a DOMAIN user then use this format

 

Enter the user name for 'servername':

DOMAIN\domainuser

 

 

disk testing (diskpart...)

read LOGS to look for errors that explain why the deployment is failing... using notepad

 

 

 

 

 

Troubleshooting Links

 

List of Custom Error Codes for Configuration Manager 2007.

 

Troubleshooting tips on Technet see here

 

Troubleshooting made easy > http://blogs.msdn.co...e-easy-way.aspx

 

Sample Troubleshooting Session

 

The Below is taken from a real troubleshooting session...

During the Windows PE phase of a Windows Server 2008 Deployment I got an error

 

Task Sequence has failed with the error code (0x00000001)

 

 

In the example above it's complaining about a Validate issue in the Task Sequence deployment of Windows Server 2008,

 

looking at the log file located at X:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSLog\ztivalidate

 

I can see that it's complaining about the speed of the processor (because this is a Virtual Machine)

 

Hint: Open the log file with SMS Trace. SMS trace is one of the tools that you can find in SCCM 2007 Toolkit. You can download it from here.

Once you open the log file it will highlight the problems in Red.

 

 

so to fix this problem required editing the Validate section of the Task Sequence and removing the check for CPU speed

 

[anyweb]

some more from this week,

 

Task Sequence bombs out during installation of some Hotfix

 

After looking at the SMSTS.log I found this

 

Installation completed with exit code 0x80240016

Installation failed with error (0x80240016)

 

I've googled this and I get references to Windows Update, so I've checked the windowsupdate.log file and it does list the following

 

2009-03-16 12:30:43:380 4868 131c COMAPI -- START -- COMAPI: Install [ClientId = wusa]

2009-03-16 12:30:43:380 4868 131c COMAPI - Allow source prompts: Yes; Forced: No; Force quiet: No

2009-03-16 12:30:43:380 4868 131c COMAPI WARNING: ISusInternal::BeginInstallUpdates3 failed, hr=80240016

2009-03-16 12:30:43:380 4868 131c COMAPI - WARNING: Exit code = 0x80240016

 

which didn't really help at all,

 

long story short, to resolve this problem i had to Add a Restart within the task sequence directly after this hotfix was installed.

[anyweb]

got another one today, this happened after I rebooted the SCCM server (this is a test lab environment with dhcp and AD/DNS all running on the same box)

 

my virtual and real clients were getting TFTP errors namely

 

PXE-E32: TFTP open timeout

 

a quick troubleshooting session via Windows Server 2008's server manager showed no problems, all roles were functioning without problems

 

a quick look at SCCM's system status did report that the PXE service point had problems

 

Severity Type Site code Date / Time System Component Message ID Description

Error Milestone WDN 5/18/2009 9:25:31 AM WIN-CILZXI45G1Q SMS_PXE_SERVICE_POINT 6319 PXE Control Manager detected PXE service point is not responding to PXE requests. The error is 16389. Possible cause: PXE service point is not started or not responding. Solution: Manually restart the PXE service point. Possible cause: WDS service is not responding. Solution: Manually restart the WDS service.

 

restarted WDS server service, no change to the PXE boot problem

 

restarted DHCP server service, no change

 

restarted DNS server service, problem solved.

 

f.y.i.