Disk Configuration Wizard Customization: MDT (WSIM)

This is regarding the activity recently I have completed at global IT services and consulting company . Their IT manager had a requirement that after creating the media when we boot up as per the LTI automation it automatically formats the drive and install new OS. But they want to see thewizardfor format and partition during installation so that their IT engineer can manually decide on the partition to install and proceed with Windows 7 installaion.

1. First we need to import the custom image captured in the deployment share.

2. Then we need to create Standard Client task sequence and disable Format and partition in Task Sequence as below.

3. Then go to OS info tab in Task Sequence.

4. Click on Unattend.xml

5. This will process and open the custom image in Windows system image manager.

6. Go to Components and then to Windows setup neutral.
7. Go to Disk Configuration. Right click and add the setting to Pass 1 WindowsPE.
8. Go to its properties on right hand side and make WillShowUI to Always.
9. Then click on Save and close the Windows SIM.
10. Click OK on task sequence properties.
11. Then go to deployment share properties.
12. And automate in the rules as per the requirement. Make sure for Deployment type give NEWCOMPUTER.
13. Right click on deployment share and then update deployment share.
14. Then go to media, right click and create new media.
15. Then go to media properties and specify the appropriate automation rule.
16. Again remember to specify NEWCOMPUTER in deployment type.
17. Click OK. Then update media content.
18. Once media is updated we get the iso file at the specified location.
19. Using this LiteTouchMedia iso, we can boot and install Windows 7 on client machines.
20. Here we have XP machine with 2 drives. We also have files on E drive.

21. Now I have copied the iso file on my base system which we can use to test the client machines.
22. Add the iso to the test PC and boot it from CD.
23. It will start loading files from iso to XP machines.
24. It will go through the normal deployment process.
25. Then just before installing the Windows 7 OS it will give us the Disk Configuration wizard where we can specify the configuration as required.
26. Then we can click on Next and go ahead with Windows 7 installation.
27. Now the deployment completed successfully.
28. Here we can see that XP machine migrated to Windows 7 and the data on E drive is still there.

Where is smsts.log located?

To troubleshoot the SCCM OSD deployment issues we can enable the F8 feature in our Windows PE boot images. Below is the process for the same:-

ü Enable the Command Prompt on your boot image
Boot images have an option to enable a command shell while running in Windows PE. This is turned off by default for security reasons but can be enabled on the “Windows PE”property page.

  1. Open the boot image’s properties dialog

  2. On the Windows PE tab check the “Enable command support (testing only)” option

When a task sequence is running in Windows PE you can open a command shell by pressing F8. As long as the command-shell is open the task sequence will not reboot the machine. This gives a chance to verify network connectivity, diagnose driver issues, and view/copy the log files.

ü Client Log Files Location
All actions in a task sequence log to the smsts.log file. This file is moved around during different stages of an operating system deployment so that it does not interfere with the imaging process.

During OS Deployment
Before your hard drive is formatted and partitioned
X:\windows\temp\smstslog\
After your hard drive is partitioned formatted
X:\smstslog\ and then is in C:\_SMSTaskSequence\logs\smstslog\

Within Windows
Within Windows before the SCCM agent is installed:
C:\_SMSTaskSequence\logs\smstslog\
Within Windows after the SCCM agent installed:
C:\windows\system32\ccm\logs\smstslog\
When the Task Sequence completes on a x86
C:\windows\system32\ccm\logs\

For x64 Systems
C:\windows\SysWOW64\ccm\logs\

Ø If the task sequence finishes in the full operating system and there is no ConfigMgr client installed then the log is copied to the Windows temp directory.

In order to access these logs you need to press F8 to bring up the cmd prompt.

After accessing the smsts.log we can use the below commands to copy the same on network share.

net use \\somefolderonyournetwork (net use h: \\servername\share)
enter your credentials
copy smsts.log \\somefolderonyournetworkThen we can review the logs and troubleshoot as required.

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