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When Things go wrong during MDT Deployment (Part 2) October 23, 2009

Posted by keithga in MDT 2010, Troubleshooting.
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Other Log files…

In a continuation of my last post on debugging Litetouch failures by viewing the bdd.log file. Let me also discuss some of the *other* log files that may appear during a Litetouch Deployment.

  • During WinPE bootup, there may be problems with the WinPE itself, for example the network driver may fail to load. Look in x:\windows\system32\WPEInit.log, for details
  • During Windows Vista and Windows 7 setup, any setup errors should be logged in the panther directory. A good description of these files, and where they are located can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927521.
  • When performing a domain join, Windows will write logging information to: c:\windows\debug\netsetup.log.
  • During a State Capture and State Restore (USMT), MDT will write to the standard MDT log file locations to the files: USMTEstimate.log, USMTCapture.log, USMTRestore.log.
  • Finally, in Litetouch scenarios, when processing the tasks defined in the task sequence list, the SCCM Stand Alone Task Sequencer will write to a file called smsts.log. Typically this file is located at %Temp%\smsts.log. However, you can also tell by searching within the bdd.log file. If Litetouch sees where the smsts.log file is located then it will log the path. Just search for smsts.log. Also, when complete, Litetouch will archive the smsts.log file to the c:\windows\temp\deploymentlogs\smsts.log location like bdd.log.

Keith

Keith Garner is a Deployment Specialist with Xtreme Consulting Group

When things go wrong during MDT Deployment (Part 1) October 23, 2009

Posted by keithga in MDT 2010, Troubleshooting.
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Occasionally, things do go wrong during MDT deployment.

Most of the time the best place to start looking is the Bdd.log file. While on the MDT development team, we tried hard to ensure that the client scripts wrote to the logs frequently, so we could debug problems later with minimal effort.

Typically each script will write out to a corresponding log file *and* to bdd.log. So for example if you were running the ZTIWindowsUpdate.wsf script, that script would write out to ZTIWindowsUpdate.log *and* bdd.log.

MDT Litetouch log files are written to a common location, bdd.log. This log file is located typically in one of the following locations:

  • If you are running from a WinPE boot disk, and the local machine does not yet have any partitions defined, typically the logs are located on the WinPE Disk: x:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS\bdd.log.
  • After the main hard disk partition on the client machine has been created, MDT will start logging to the local c: drive at: c:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS\bdd.log. Typically, during scenarios when we are not installing an OS from scratch, this is the default location for Log files. For example if we are running a Task Sequence that is installing a set of applications only.
  • When the entire Litetouch process is finished, MDT will archive the contents of the logs to c:\windows\temp\depoymentlogs\bdd.log.
  • Also if you have the variable SLShare defined, when the Litetouch Process is finished, MDT will archive the contents of the log to that share. For example: SLSHARE=%DeployRoot%\BDDLogs.

There is a new property I created for MDT 2010, called SLShareDynamicLogging. For example: SLShareDynamicLogging = \\MyServer\PublicWriteShare\MDTLogs\. This property will write debugging information to the network share defined in addition to c:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS. Please be aware that MDT 2010 writes a *lot* of debugging information to the log, and adding another logging destination will slow down MDT. I recommend using it only in advanced debugging scenarios when you can’t access the log files on the client machine.

Keith

Keith Garner is a Deployment Specialist with Xtreme Consulting Group

Tim Mintner to speak at the Central Texas Systems Management User Group October 23, 2009

Posted by tmintner in Announcements, Speaking Engagements.
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Tim Mintner will be speaking on the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 on Friday, November 13 in Austin, Texas at the Central Texas Systems Management User Group (CTSMUG).  Don’t miss this opportunity to get a free training class on MDT 2010.

Here is the agenda for the day:

Agenda:

9:30 – 10:00 Welcome and Coffee
10:00 – 11:30 MDT 2010 – Intro and Intermediate

11:30- 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 3:30 MDT 2010 – Advanced, and MDT Extensions for ConfigMgr
3:30 – Post-Meeting Social at Dave and Busters

Register early! This meeting may be a sell-out!

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Announcement: Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team! October 23, 2009

Posted by keithga in Announcements.
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Welcome to Xtreme Deployment!  We will be posting technical blog posts on OS Deployment using Microsoft technologies such as MDT 2010 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007.  Check back often for updates!

Xtreme Consulting Group is pleased to announce the formation of the Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team. A team within Xtreme Consulting Group, specializing in Windows Deployments.

Several Members of the Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team have recently come off an engagement with the Microsoft team that developed the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010.

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 is the latest version of the critically acclaimed deployment software for the Windows Operating System. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is the de-facto reference design for deployments of Windows Operating Systems and Applications.

The Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team has been formed to fill a critical need for experts in Windows Deployment. Whether are preparing your first deployment system, or need help developing customized scripts or enhancements for your existing system. Xreme Consulting’s Deployment Team is resource you need.

The formation of the Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team comes at the same time as Microsoft is releasing their new flagship product Windows 7. With the release of Windows 7, more and more companies are evaluating their internal desktop platform requirements, and looking into methods and scripts to deploy this new operating system.

Here are a few of the members on the team:

  • Tim Mintner – Tim Mintner has over fifteen years consulting experience with many of the largest companies in the world on Systems Management and Operating System Deployment.  Most recently, Tim was a Senior Software Development Engineer for Microsoft on the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and helped ship six versions of MDT that have been downloaded by over 300,000 customers worldwide.  Tim has been an author for Technet Magazine and is a highly rated speaker at Microsoft events such as the Microsoft Management Summit and Microsoft TechEd.  Tim is actively involved in the Systems Management and OS Deployment community and has been recognized as a Microsoft Most Valued Professional for his efforts with User Groups and online communities.
  • Keith Garner - Keith Garner has been working in the Puget Sound region at the Microsoft Corporate Headquarters as a Software Developer for fifteen years, mostly in the Windows Product Group, and Microsoft IT, specializing in Windows OS Internals, and Deployment. For the past 4 years, Keith has been working as a consultant with Xtreme Consulting Group, working on several Microsoft projects, including BDD/MDT, and most recently MDT 2010.
  • Polly Reese – Polly has almost 20 years of industry experience. Responsible for the delivery and engagement management of Microsoft Consulting Services for the Global Deployment practice including pipeline, revenue, utilization, and delivery management of desktop deployment services worldwide.   Provided leadership, evangelism and education to the global Microsoft deployment expert community.

Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team is the resource for your next deployment project. And we have solutions and resources for a wide range of projects.

  • Xtreme Consulting Deployment Team are the experts on MDT 2010. MDT 2010 is the de-facto reference system designed by Microsoft for Windows Deployments in the business environment.
  • Xtreme Consulting Services has a large library of common deployment tools and systems ready to be droped into your Corporate environment.
    In some instances, we can setup a fully functional, common deployment (MDT Litetouch) solution on site, and in just hours containing:

    • Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008
    • Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, and more…
    • PDF Readers, Media Players, Microsoft Silverlight Clients, Anti Virus clients.
    • Runtime Environments like: .NET Frameworks (all versions), Java Runtimes.
    • Server tools like: SQL Server, Sharepoint Server.
    • Development Environments: Visual Studio,
  • Xtreme Consulting Services has several Subject Matter Experts on the critically aclaimed Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010.
    • Custom Scripts, configurations, custom wizard pages, etc…
    • Advanced Debugging of complex scenarios, etc..

Let Xtreme Consulting Services Deployment Team help you get your IT infrastructure under control.

Xtreme Consulting Group, Inc. is a business and IT services firm that delivers project management and consulting services to help clients reduce costs, enhance organizational flexibility, and improve performance. The company specializes in project/program management, development infrastructure & engineering planned IT, web design & development, and SharePoint portal development. Xtreme Consulting Group operates throughout the US from their corporate offices in Redmond, WA. More information about Xtreme can be found at www.xtremeconsulting.com