Troubleshooting Operating System Deployment

Should one of your task sequences encounter an issue, you have to step into the world of OSD troubleshooting. Finding and correcting problems in OSD is similar to fixing issues elsewhere in ConfigMgr-check the logs. The trick, as always, is to find the correct log. "Configuration Manager Log Files," and at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ bb932135.aspx . OSD has expanded on this by including robust status messages and the OSD home page, which summarizes available information.

Command Line Support

A highly recommended troubleshooting step is to enable command line support in WinPE. When enabled, you can start a separate command line by pressing F8 while a target system is booted into WinPE. From this command line, you can launch Windows Notepad to view log files (such as smsts.log covered in the next section) or otherwise inspect the target system. A common use of this command line is to run ipconfig /all to verify that network drivers have been loaded with proper configuration of IP-related network information. To enable command-line support, edit the properties of your boot images by right-clicking them and selecting Edit . Go to the WinPE tab, and check the option to Enable Command Support.

CAUTION:
You cannot restrict access to the command line during a task sequence after it is enabled in a boot image. From the command line, internals of the OSD and Windows deployment process are accessible including certain passwords stored in clear text.
In general, enabling command support is considered an acceptable risk by most organizations as it is relatively hidden and obscure. Otherwise, there is no way to troubleshoot connectivity or other startup issues experienced in the OSD process. If you follow sound security practices, the accounts used and embedded in the process should be least privilege accounts that have the power to only do their specific tasks.

NOTE
Unlike ConfigMgr 2007, the ConfigMgr log viewing tool, now called CMTrace, is automatically included on all boot images.