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 R2 error generated as Client Push tries to install SCCM Client onto a Hyper-V Cluster Object

SCCM 2012 R2 error "Client Configuration Manager failed to complete the ConfigMgr installation on client "HVCLUST01". In the past 168 hours, CCM has made 175 unsuccessful attempts. The operating system reported error 53: The network path was not found. This was failing because SCCM was trying to push the client to a Failover Cluster object for a Hyper-V Cluster. This is just a computer account that represents the logical cluster in Active Directory. However it was being discovered as a new computer during an SCCM discovery. 

The error was not causing any negative problems it was just causing red flags to be logged, which nobody likes.

The fix was to put the Hyper-V Cluster objects host name into the excludes servers list in the Registry of the SCCM server for that particular site. Browse to Local Machine\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Components\SMS_Discovery_Data_Manager and open the Registry key "ExcludeServers"

SCCM 2012 R2 "Configuration Manager did not find a site to manage this client." on Windows 8.1 client

After troubleshooting some problems with deployment of the SCCM Client to Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 devices, the manual installation worked however when your try to connect the client to a site it fails with "Configuration Manager did not find a site to manage this client." In this environment the SCCM infrastructure had been rebuilt twice previously, as this was a test setup to simulate a real deployment of SCCM 2012 R2.

The problem was caused by two things, the first is that I had not get the default Site for the Boundary Group the problematic client was in. To check or resolve this click Administration/Hierarchy Configuration/Boundary Groups. Right click on the Boundary Group and select Properties. 

Click the Reference tab, click the option Use this boundary group for site assignment, select the correct site from the drop down. Then click the Add button and select the corresponding site server.

This only corrected some of the problems, newly built clients that had not had any visibility of the old installation of SCCM were fine, they could resolve the Site Code without problem. However old clients that were previously managed by the old SCCM installation still failed. This was because the old installation of SCCM was configured to deploy the client via GPO's. In the GPO's the Site Code had been statically configured, this is a setting that is tattooed onto the client machines Registry. Even after the GPO was removed from the computer the SMS Site Code is still in the registry, in my example this Site Code no longer exists, hence it causes the problem. To resolve this open the Registry on the problematic installation and browse to Local Machine\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Mobile Client. 

Inside this folder there was an entry "GPRequestedSiteAssignmentCode", in this instance this was set to the old Site Code. I deleted the entire entry and it resolved the problem.

SCCM 2012 "This task sequence cannot be run because the program files for "PACKAGE ID" cannot be located on a distribution point." and Task Sequence Error "0x8000FFFF"

When you try to run a Task Sequence in SCCM 2012 it fails with "This task sequence cannot be run because the program files for "PACKAGE ID" cannot be located on a distribution point.". In this case for me this was because I had recreated by boot images and the Task Sequences were still pointing to the old ones "AG10005" which no longer existed. 

To test I created a new Task Sequence and configured it to use the newly generated boot images, when I did this it resolved the original issue and the Task Sequence started. I was then faced with a Task Sequence Error  "with error code (0x8000FFFF)".

After some research this related to the "Partition Disk 0" stage of the Task Sequence, I edited the Task Sequence and removed the predefined configuration done by the Task Sequence template I then used the star button to configure the volume to be labelled "DISK" and to use 100% of the available space.

The second part of this could have been caused because the device I am testing with is a Thin Provisioned VMware VMDK. 

SCCM/WDS PXE Boot Fails with "The details below show the information relating to the PXE boot request for this computer. Please provide these details to your Windows Deployment Services Administrator so that this request can be approved" and "Pending Request ID: x Please wait. SMS is looking for policy PXE Boot Aborted"

When you try to PXE Boot a new (unknown) computer you get "The details below show the information relating to the PXE boot request for this computer. Please provide these details to your Windows Deployment Services Administrator so that this request can be approved.", this is followed on by another error "Pending Request ID: x Please wait. SMS is looking for policy PXE Boot Aborted".

I checked in the SMSPXE.log file and it appears the issue was caused by the new computer being unknown by SCCM. It states "device is not in the database.".

From the Configuration Manager console browse to the All Unknown Computers collection from Assets and Compliance\Overview\Devices\All Unknown Computers highlight the Unknown Computer object which is x64 in this instance and use the Add Selected Items button and click Add Selected Items to Existing Device Collection.

From the Select Collection window choose a collection that has Task Sequences advertised/deployed to it and drop the unknown computer into there.

Try the PXE Boot again and it should have resolved the issue.

SCCM 2012 PXE Boot "PXE-E32 PXE Timeout" Windows Deployment Services (WDS) "The Windows Deployment Server service terminated with the following service-specific error: This shared resource does not exist"

After installing SCCM 2012 SP1 CU5 PXE boot is no longer working, when you attempt to boot a client you receive the following "PXE-E32 PXE Timeout" error. On investigation it is because the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) service is not running on the Distribution Point (DP), when you try to manually start this you get the following error  "The Windows Deployment Server service terminated with the following service-specific error: This shared resource does not exist".

The first step is to disabled PXE on the Distribution Point this can be done from the Properties pane of the Distribution Point by unticking the Enable PXE support for clients from the PXE tab.

This process will attempt to remove WDS from the server to ensure that it is completely removed use the following PowerShell command;

Uninstall-WindowsFeature WDS -Restart

When the server starts now try to reconfigure the Distribution Point for WDS, you do this by simply ticking the Enable PXE Support for Clients option. 

To confirm that WDS has been reinstalled and configured using the following PowerShell command;

Get-WindowsFeature *wds*

At this point I tried to start the Windows Deployment Services service again and it still failed, I then began to think this could be related to the RemoteInstall folder that is provisioned as part of SCCM/MDT.

When I checked the RemoteInstall folder it was configured as Not Shared, which did not seem right as this was where clients were directed to download boot images from.

My next step was to use the following command from an Administrative Command Prompt;

WDSUTIL /Initialize-Server /Reminst:"C:\RemoteInstall"

After this command completed successfully it restored the share configuration on the RemoteInstall folder. Now the Windows Deployment Server service started correctly.

This then allowed me to start the WDS service and clients could PXE boot.

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.