System Center Configuration manager 2012, Warning during PXE boot

Question

Hey I have a SCCM2012 setup on a virtual Hyper V server and use it to create Win 7 Enterprise installations for PXE installs. I'm just learning about SCCM2012, and I think its a little hard finding help online about it I've been coding java for a years and when I face any issue there I will just jump on irC and instantly have 200 people willing to help me.

Anyways following a microsoft guide, I have succesfully created a windows 7 installation. I then, following another, guide, added acrobat reader 11, as an application package. For those of you who can help me I won't tell you what I did step by step, cause we all know its many steps, but everything went as expected according to the guide, and I ended up distributing the application.

Now during a test PXE installation on a pc I get a warning under 'Application Discovery' "critical problems were encountered while processing the application master list" I'm not able to get a more specific explanation, and instead I click on.

I'm then as promised by the guide, shown a long list containing one item "acrobat reader" It goes on to give me a tast sequence error (0x000025E5) And then finish the installation.

But.. Acrobat Reader is not installed along win 7.

P.S. I've also added a soundcard driver which installs without problems.. these are the only 2 things I have on my Win 7 install, an install that worked without warnings before adding acrobat

So here is what I'm looking for: 1: Common errors I should be carefull about when installing applications

2: Is there any form of Loggin on the local PC? where I can maybe see more specifically what went wrong

3: A point towards some forum/chat, where I could engage in dialogues about SCCM2012, as I will be fooling around with it for a few weeks.

/Allan

Answer 1

You can enable command support on the boot image and then access the smsts.log file, which should be stored in:

X:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSLOG

or if the OSD is at a later stage:

C:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSLOG

A tip is to use the Cmtrace tool to open it. This tool is located in:

X:\sms\bin\x64

After the installation the smsts.log file can also be located in:

C:\Windows\Syswow64\CCM\Logs

Answer 2

SCCM is an amazing product that does really powerful things, and it does even more with MDT try getting used to working with MDT as well, because once you're building your images in MDT using a VM and have MDT integrated with SCCM you're in business.

1. When installing Apps, MSI is always preferred over EXE. Test your app deploys in a VM, that way you can use a snapshot to go back when you use the wrong syntax. Not that EXE can't be installed, MSI has a standard commandline and EXE lacks logging. Get the MSI for adobe from their FTP and use WinRAR or whatever to extract the MSI from the EXE. Use the command line syntax below to install.

   msiexec.exe /qb- /l*vx %LogPath%\msiappname.log REBOOT=ReallySuppress UILevel=67 ALLUSERS=2 /I msifilename.msi

2. Once you have MDT integrated with SCCM you should be able to set dynamic logging. That way you'll be able to have logs reporting on the fly to the server. Make sure you're using CMTrace to read the log files. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/systemcenter/en-US/b64ac69f-17f8-472d-89d4-84c0533cd924/slsharedynamiclogging?forum=configmgrosd

3. MyITForum is good as are the TechNet forums. http://deploymentresearch.com/ has by far some of the best information on CM2012, half of what I know I learned from him. His books are worth every penny.