WSUS for SCCM SUP install on Win2008 R2 fails with "The update could not be found. There may be a network connection issue".

When trying to install WSUS on Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard the following error is thrown "The update could not be found. There may be a network connection issue". This is when trying to install WSUS from the Server Manager console.

The problem here was that this server was configured with a Local Policy to use another WSUS server as it's source for Windows Updates. I have no idea why it was configured as a Local Policy and not as a Group Policy. However, to resolve the problem, simply open the Local Policy editor, and browse to Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Update.

Double click the Specify Intranet Microsoft update service location in my environment, this was enabled, with a legacy WSUS server populated in the intranet update fields. I changed this to Not Configure.

To double check the Local Policy has removed the problematic setting open the Registry, browse to Local Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate the intranet service points should not be present in this list of settings.

SCCM 2012 Task Sequence Fails 0x80070490 "Unable to find a Windows system root at X:\. Element not found. (Error 80080490); Source: Windows"

An SCCM Task Sequence fails mid-deployment with 0x80070490 on reviewing the SMSTS.log file, the location of this log files depends so please consult the following blog;

http://sccmguy.com/2011/03/29/where-is-the-smsts-log-located/

In my SMSTS.log file it was specifying the error "Unable to find a Windows system root at X:\. Element not found. (Error 80080490); Source: Windows)". After a bit of further research it turns out this is related to the Windows WIM file index.

My Task Sequence was configured to use 1-1 so I used the following command;

Dism /Get-WinInfo /WimFile:D:\PathtoWim.wim

This printed the images indexes in the current WIM file. You will notice from the screen shot that 1-1 was reporting a description of "undefined". This made sense, so I though I would check within the Configuration Manager console.

Browse to Software Library\Overview\Operating Systems\Operating Systems Images and right click on the image that is being deployed via the Task Sequence select Properties.

From the Properties window click on the Images tab and select 1-1  you will notice that most of the properties are actually blank. 

 If you do the same again and choose 2-2 the fields are now populated.

 Now that I had determined the cause of the issue the next step was to edit the Task Sequence, browse to Software Library\Overview\Operating Systems\Task Sequences and right click on the Task Sequence and select Edit. Click on the step within the Task Sequence that installs the operating system and ensure the Image drop down is set to 2-2 when I first checked mine was obviously set to 1-1.

Installing and Configuring the Reporting Services (SRS) Point for ConfigMgr 2012 R2 (SCCM)

You should begin with installing the Reporting Services - Native instance feature from the SQL 2012 media.

 

You will be prompted to name the SQL Instance I named mine SRS. Click Next.

 

When Reporting Services installs successfully, click Close.

 

You must now configure Reporting Services before it is integrated with SCCM 2012 R2. Click the Reporting Services Configuration Manager icon from Start.

 

Click on the Service Account tab, and select Use another account: and input an Administrative domain account, and click Apply.

 

Skip over Web Services URL for now, and click Database.  Click on the Change Database button.

 

You will then follow through the wizard to provision a new database instance.

 

Also click Change Credentials from the Database tab, and ensure it is using an Administrative domain account. Click Apply. Now go back to the Web Service URL, you do not have to change any configurations here you must simply click Apply and this will push the wizard to provision and configure the IIS virtual directories to support the Reporting Server.

 

Now launch the ConfigMgr console and click Adminstration, expand Site and then Server and Site System Roles. Right click on your Primary Site Server and select Add Site System Roles.

 

Tick Reporting Services Point and click Next to continue.

 

Review the configurations and set the Reporting Services Username to an Administrative domain account. Click Next.

 

Reporting Services is now installed and configured.

 

Integrating ConfigMgr 2012 R2 and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

On your Configuration Manager 2012 R2 server install the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013. Once MDT installed you will notice a new icon Configure ConfigMgr Integration.

 

Ensure Install MDT extensions for Configuration Manager is selected. Click Next.

Click Finish.

 

Now if you return to ConfigMgr and browse to Software Library expand Operating Systems and right click on Task Sequences the option to click Create MDT Task Sequence will now have appeared.

 

If you have been looking for a tutorial on how to integrate these products your requirements probably could benefit from the added OSD capabilities.

SCCM 2012 R2 "The Create Task Sequence Media Wizard Completed with Errors -2147212243" Refer to CreateTSMedia.log File

You are trying to create a Stand-Alone SCCM 2012 R2 USB Boot drive from one of your Task Sequences. It get all the way to the end and fails with The Create Task Sequence Media Wizard Completed with Errors -2147212243" Refer to CreateTSMedia.log File

 

It turns out in this instance that the Operating System image that was attempting to be compiled into a Stand-Alone USB Drive was approximately 10GB's in size. Having done some research on the Internet it appears to be a known issue for OS images greater than 4.75GB's to fail with The Create Task Sequence Media Wizard Completed with Errors -2147212243" Refer to CreateTSMedia.log File.

I opened up the CreateTSMedia.log file using the CMTrace utility, the log can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\AdminUILog.

From the log file there is a number of error relating to the formatting of the USB Drive. The USB Drive was brand new out of the packet, 32GB in size and was formatted in NTFS. I decided to manually format the USB Drive and try again, same result.

 

It transpires that to work around this issue you must use the Command Prompt to manually create an ISO containing all the SCCM components. The ISO file can be larger than 4.75GB's therefore it does not suffer the same issues as the automated wizard.

The following command can be used at an Administrative Command Prompt to generate an ISO file of an entire Task Sequence's components.

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386

 

CreateMedia.exe /K:Full  /P:”sccm_dp_fqdn” /S:”sccm_site_code” /C: /D:”sccm_mgmt_fdqn” /L:”Configuration Manager 2012” /A:”sccm_taskseqID” /Z:”False” /T:”CD” /M:”10240” /F:”C:\New\NewSCCM.iso”

 

Change each of the variables in the command above to match the environment.

sccm_dp_fqdn	Configuration Manager Distribution Point FQDN
sccm_site_code	Site Code for the SCCM Site
sccm_mgmt_fqdn	Configuration Manager Management Point FQDN
sccm_taskseqID	The Task Sequence ID
/M:value	Sets the maximum size of the ISO (mine is 10GB’s)
/F:”File Path”	Output path for the ISO file

 

 

To keep an eye on how the ISO being created the CreateTSMedia.log can be used to monitor the progress. It will end with the statement CreateMedia.exe: Success if the ISO has been created successfully.

 

Now instead of using diskpart you can use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to create a bootable USB Drive from the ISO file. It will usually fail at 99% reporting it is unable to copy files, in most cases the USB Drive still works correctly.

 

 

Customizing the WinPE Environment for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is a solutions accelerator from Microsoft to aid operating system deployment, MDT offers a subset of SCCM deployment features.

MDT uses Task Sequences to deploy and configure operating systems and applications. WinPE with Windows 8 and MDT 2013 is WinPE v5.0. In this post I will document how you can customise the default WinPE environment.

 

Customising the "IT Organization" field.

 

To edit the "IT Organization" field, you must make a change to the CustomSettings.ini file that is installed as part of the Deployment Share. The CustomSetting.ini file can be found at C:\DeploymentShare\Control\, right click on the file and select "Edit".

Add "_SMSTSORGNAME=organization name" below the [Default] container.

 

After making any changes to the MDT Deployment Share, you must always update the content. This can be done by right click on the Deployment Share and selecting "Update Deployment Share".

 

You can also edit the "Running: " field on the Installation Progress box, I have found it good practice to change this to something descriptive, such as "Windows 8.1 Proof of Concept Project - May 2014".

This must also be done from the CustomSetting.ini file, if you have follow above and already customized the "IT Organization" field your CustomSettings.ini file should look like my one below.

Again it is important to update the Deployment Share so that MDT registers the changes and re-reads the CustomSettings.ini file.

 

It is also possible to change the WinPE background, I personally always like to change this to some kind of company branding, to do this you must have a suitable wallpaper in Bitmap format.

You must first right click on the Deployment Share and select "Properties"

Click on the "Windows PE" tab from the "Properties" window, in this example I am only customizing the x64 WinPE environment therefore this may be slightly different for your environment, therefore select either x86 or x64 from the "Platform" drop down.

I always copy my desktop wallpaper files to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper, therefore in this example I have pointed to my WinPE wallpaper Bitmap that is stored in the C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper folder.

Click "Apply" and "OK".

Updating the Deployment Share will take a few minutes after changing the Wallpaper, this is because MDT has to insert the Wallpaper file into the Litetouch_x86 and Litetouch_x64 ISO files.

                                       

Click "Finish".

MDT 2013 Error "Language to install:” field blank during OSD with MDT 2013

You are attempting to perform a Lite Touch installation of Windows 8.1 using MDT 2013 and you are halted on the Locale and Time page as the Language to install: field is blank with no drop down options, this stops you from continuing with the deployment.

 

 
As a work around to this issue I edited the CustomSettings.ini file to include statements to automate this part of the deployment wizard. I added the following statements into the CustomSettings.ini file;

SkipLocalSelection=YES KeyboardLocale=0809:000000809 UserLocale=en-GB UILangugage=en-GB SkipTimeZone=YES TimeZoneName=GMT Standard Time

 Although there may be reasons you do not want to automate this step, this worked around the problem for me and allowed me to continue with the OS deployment.