Issue: Create and deploy WES7 images with ConfigMgr 1511

In a customer environment, Windows Embedded Standard (WES) 7 is used in combination with ConfigMgr. With ConfigMgr 2012 R2 this wasn't an issue it all. After the ConfigMgr 1511 upgrade however, deployment of the WES 7 image stops at initializing the ConfigMgr client. Situation is, a ConfigMgr client is part of the image, and it can't be upgraded during deployment. When looking in task manager no CCMsetup.exe proces is active. When looking in Services, no SMS Agent Host service is running (because it's disabled). When looking in smsts.log the following line is displayed: Failed to register task sequence with the newly installed client.

End of story! No applications were installed and deployment is hanging on this part for multiple hours! That sucks bigtime..

Errors seen in ccmsetup.log
ITaskService: GetFolder failed with 0x80070003
Failed to delete task Configuration Manager Client Retry Task. Error 0x80070003
Failed to delete task Configuration Manager Client Upgrade Task. Error 0x80070003
Failed to get client version for sending state messages. Error 0x8004100e
Failed to send status 100. Error (87D00215)
Failed to connect to policy namespace. Error 0x8004100e
Failed to revoke client upgrade local policy. Error 0x8004100e
Failed to get client version for sending state messages. Error 0x8004100e
Failed to send status 100. Error (87D00215)
Error while calculating path to state file.
Loading the client state failed.
CcmRegisterEndpointRollback. In the event of a failed installation, this action rolls back the changes from CcmRegisterEndpoint.

Errors seen in smsts.log
Unable to read SMS client cert from environment. Not restoring SMS client cert.
CoCreateInstance failed 0x80070422
Failed to register task sequence with the newly installed client. (0x4B2FD068). Continuing..
Failed to show task sequence action progress dialog. Error code 0x800706be

Errors seen in LocationServices.log
Unexpected row count (0) retrieved from AD.
Failed to retrieve MP certificate encryption info from AD.

I did create another image, using CCMclean.exe on the existing installed client. I installed the ConfigMgr 1511 client after that with good results. Did a capture with ConfigMgr too without any problems. During deployment of this image the same behaviour was seen, no CCMsetup.exe running, no enabled SMS Agent Host service and no task sequence progress. For it seems ConfigMgr 1511 and WES 7 aren't good friends here? When logon on the client (after breaking deployment progress) the ConfigMgr client is seems to be active, but without a site code. No good result if you ask me..

After that I installed and configured MDT 2013 Update 2 (done within 30 minutes) and created an image with that. Good point with MDT is that no ConfigMgr client needs to be installed, so you have a really clean image. The capture was done at first try without any problems. I decided to use ConfigMgr for deployment again of multiple PXE servers otherwise. Trick is with ConfigMgr 1511 and the WES7 image created with MDT 2013U2 no issue is seen during initializing the ConfigMgr client. Hurray! So next time be wise, and create your image with MDT. ConfigMgr will do the job afterwards :-)

MDT 2013 - Deploy Multiple Windows versions with a single Deploymentshare

When deploying an Windows image in MDT 2013 you can add rules in CustomSettings.ini to offer a product key during deployment (for example). Settings in this ini file are used to create the unattend file, which is needed during mini-setup. Just add the following rules for skipping the product key:
-SkipProductKey=YES
-ProductKey=AAAAA-BBBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE

When using multiple Windows versions however, this will not do the job. In that case add the product key in the deployment task sequence(s). Just add it at start in the task sequence, beneath the Initialization phase. Just name the variable ProductKey and enter a KMS Client Setup Key (for example). It's just that simple ;)

When looking for KMS Client Setup Keys have a look here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj612867.aspx

Just love MDT because of simplicity and functionality!

Sysprep and Capture task sequence fails when capture a Windows 8.x image

Last week I created a Windows 8.1 Update 1 image with MDT 2013. During the Sysprep and Capture proces, the following error message came up. Time to take some action if you ask me! ;)

Looking on Microsoft TechNet the following answer was found:
This problem occurs because the LTIApply.wsf script fails to check for the existence of the boot folder on the system partition before the script runs the takeown.exe command to change ownership on the folder. The takeown.exe command fails with a "Not Found" error if the boot folder doesn't exist. This causes the Sysprep and Capture task sequence to fail.

For the workaround have a look here: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2797676?wa=wsignin1.0

Great it works that way!

MDT 2013 - The task sequence has been suspended

During deployment with MDT 2013, after a few working deployments, the following message is displayed: "The task sequence has been suspended". After that the system is rebooting and you can start all over again. This because of the following problem: you have to wipe the disk to continue. Just press F8 during Windows PE and type in the following commands:

1. Diskpart
  2. List disk
    3. Select disk 0
      4. List part
        5. Select part 1
          6. Clean
            7. Create part primary
              8. Assign
                9. Active
                  10. Exit

After that deployment works as Always!

No IP-address set during MDT Sysprep and Capture

Last week I created a Windows 7 SP1 image manually, installed almost 200 updates in it (!) and started the MDT 2013 default task sequence "Sysprep and Capture". The first part went fine (Sysprep), but when in Windows PE there was no IP-address set. Oops! Lucky me you can start a command prompt and start "Retry" later. Let's have a look how to enter a static IP-address within Windows PE.

 
Just start Command Prompt with F8 and type in the following command: "Netsh interface ip show config" > which is showing that my interface is called "Ethernet0"

After that type in the command: "Netsh interface ipv4 set address “Ethernet0” static <IP address> <Subnet mask <Gateway>" 

After that it was possible to capture Windows 7 SP1 successfully!

This simply made my day! ;)