[sccm 2012] Issues deploying images

[NokiX]

Hi All,

 

I'm quite new to using SCCM however I have managed to take an image of both a VM which I am using for a core image and also a new laptop which I wanted to test taking an image of since I need to image about 40 laptops with that same image ASAP.

 

The image has been taken without any issues however the problem I'm having now is that the WDS side of things doesn't seem to be working and the machines don't see the PXE server even when it's enabled. I checked the services and it looks like the WDS service isn't started but when starting it I receive and error as below:

In the event logs is:

I'm not sure however why this is happening as the WDS role wasn't installed before I installed SCCM so as far as I can see it should work but apparently it's not. I'm a bit stuck now since all the information I can find relates to WDS only installations and don't seem to relate to the same error codes I'm seeing. Anybody had experience with this issue?

[DalekSec]

How did you set it up? when we did ours we followed this: https://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topic/4045-sccm-2012-guides/

[NokiX]

Unfortunately the job was partly done by my network manager however when I picked it up the server was setup but it was setup as a CAS in error so I had to reinstall as a stand-alone primary server which meant I uninstalled system center and reinstalled it again. I had no errors or problems during the install and we then upgraded the installation from 2012 to 2012 R2 SP1 so it should be as up to date as possible.

 

I could look into setting up everything again but there are other SCCM products installed on the server so it would have to wait until my network manager is in next week since he set a lot of the other products up although as far as I know it's bits like the virtual machine manager etc which shouldn't cause any problems with WDS (as far as i know).

[DalekSec]

I wouldn't say re-install it again, more like go through the guide making sure everything is correct. One tick box could stop the whole deployment process! We had a similar problem where the person who left setup SCCM and we didn't know the ins and outs. Went through this guide and it was working by the end

[NokiX]

I wouldn't say re-install it again, more like go through the guide making sure everything is correct. One tick box could stop the whole deployment process! We had a similar problem where the person who left setup SCCM and we didn't know the ins and outs. Went through this guide and it was working by the end

 

I'll take a look through all the configuration tomorrow to ensure it's setup exactly how I need. Thankfully we do have another server which has an old installation of WDS that we used to use so if I have no choice I could use that to deploy the image as a quick fix. Thanks for the link however as it seems to give a lot of detail which i was lacking on previous guides.

[markwilfan]

May as well bring it up to 1602 whilst you're at it. You may find removing the pxe role (check box) making a cup of tea, then ticking it again, drinking said tea fixes this. I've had it before where wds doesn't quite go on properly

[Annabelle]

How is the WDS setup? Is it done thru Windows Server role and features or from SCCM?

 

If you are completely stuck and will be be setting up SCCM again, do away with the CAS. Go with primary standalone. Unless you have more than 100,000 clients.

[Blue_Cookeh]

SCCM should be managing the WDS setup, you shouldn't ever need to touch WDS directly when using SCCM for deployment.

 

Your best bets are to go into the SCCM Administration part of the console and check the status messages next to all the SCCM site components, then you should right click > view log files and scroll through the relevant log files. SCCM's logs are far more useful and verbose than the Event Viewer logs in Windows.

 

What PXE errors are you getting? Have you looked in SMSPXE.log or distmgr.log? (I believe it's in c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\Logs, or something along those lines).

 

Also, try reinstalling the WDS stuff for SCCM, you can use this post as a general guide: https://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topic/6447-sccm-2012-pxe-point-reinstall/

Edited June 2, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[maddocks1993]

Hi Nokix,

 

Worse comes to worse you can uninstall the Windows Deployment Services - This shouldn't affect SCCM at all as you are only integrating WDS into SCCM and exactly the same goes for WSUS. Might be wise to delete the content of your existing directory to start from scratch.

 

You can either install WDS via Server Manager or through the SCCM Console. I did mine through Server Manager specifying a particular path and then editing the distribution Role in SCCM. In Windows Deployment Services as well, you can set the PXE Respone as well and everything else I have left the same. I've done numerous installation's that way and all of SCCM's have been completely fine. At the moment, I am currently transferring over to SCCM Current Branch before the release of SCCM 2016 as the bosses want to go to Windows 10 this summer -.-

 

 

When you upgrade to 1602, I would be inclined to check the boot image as I know Microsoft had a faulty boot image in their Assessment and Deployment Kit upon released and there was a specific hotfix to fix that issue. 1511 > 1602 is 'SCCM Current Branch'.

 

Another question, how come you have both Virtual Machine Manager & Configuration Manager on the same box? They both can run in a Virtual Machine unless of course you have no space or SAN

 

Regards,

 

Chris.

[NokiX]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I am working through some of the steps now to try and get WDS reinstalled through SCCM so hopefully that works but if not I'll be going through the guide that @DalekSec posted to make sure the entire installation is setup correctly.

 

 

 

Another question, how come you have both Virtual Machine Manager & Configuration Manager on the same box? They both can run in a Virtual Machine unless of course you have no space or SAN

 

 

In regards to that, I'm not exactly sure since it wasn't me who installed them both on the same box but we got a new server and decided to use it for SCCM and other similar products but the problem we have is that there isn't much local storage on the box! We would use a SAN but we don't have any available we can use currently as our cluster needs to be rebuild so we are currently moving data off the SAN so we can reinstall the windows storage OS since it keeps giving errors! Once that's sorted however we can start to use that SAN for extra storage for some VM's and SCCM.

[NokiX]

So I have gone through the steps to remove and re-add the PXE/WDS setup and now the distmgr log shows the following:

 

PXE provider is already installed.~ $$<06-02-2016 11:29:45.139-60>

 

This happens when re-enabling the PXE option so it seems to think that the provider is already installed when it's not. Not sure how to go about fixing that as the service isn't showing now and the features page shows it as not installed as well so I'm not sure why it's being a pain!

[maddocks1993]

Hi Nokix,

 

Your best bet is to remove the PXE Boot from the Distribution Settings. Uninstall WDS - Restart - Install WDS Manually then Enable PXE in Distribution Settings in SCCM.

 

I have also got this TechNet website as well.

 

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dd13bf24-0f66-426e-9b47-f10eb1b69841/sccm-2012-enabling-pxe-support-does-not-install-wds-on-server?forum=configmanagerosd

 

Regards,

 

Chris.