SCCM Remote Imaging

[Newb]

We run Server 2019 on site and usually image using PCs by PXE boot. We have an issue now where we need to image a lot of PCs and remote imaging would be really useful. I have tested remote imaging but only seem to be getting a success rate of around 50% at the best of times.

 

I created a collection with the test devices in, deploy a required task sequence to this collection and make this available to media and PXE and clients and put the start as asap and I then set an expiry date to ensure the TS doesn’t rerun for a short time after. I also put the action to always rerun.

 

I then check the TS log in SCCM and can see the devices receive the TS deployment and in my first test it actually kicked off 8 devices however 4 then failed shortly after.

 

Is there any advice? Or has anyone experienced similar? Is it likely to be issues my with setup above or possible network issues? I have copied some logs from one which successfully imaged and one which failed but haven’t managed to review them yet.

 

Thanks in advance

[chris_uk]

How is it failing, at what point does it fail? What is the error message returned? If they start imaging look for the smsts.log file, it will have the error in it. Look for an app called cmtrace, it will make the log files easier to view. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/core/support/cmtrace

 

Only reason we have SCCM fail to image is due to someone turning off the PC or failing hardware.

[Newb]

Hi, Thank you for the reply.

 

I had a look into the smsts log file and compared a working vs non working device when remote imaging.

 

It shows :

"Error. Received 0x80072ee7 from WinHttpSendRequest."

"unknown host (gethostbyname failed)"

"Sending with winhttp failed; 80072ee7"

 

After a search online, looks like server name or address could not be resolved? (unknown host (gethostbyname failed) : 80072ee7 Failed task sequence 0x80004005 - Microsoft Q&A)

 

These warnings are actually also on the device that "worked" with remote imaging but cleared itself, whereas this one repeated the error.

 

The strange thing is though, it then seems to carry on and completes the next step of partitioning the disk (process completed with error code 0) , which matches the "working" device with no further warnings or errors. I cant see anything else relating to a failure although I saw it fail in person, is there another log I can look into?

 

Another thing that was strange was in the logs the time went from 11:49 to 20:52 (although this was not the correct time - I am not sure where it pulls the time/date from - only that in the log it mentioning setting time zone just before this occured)

 

Once this failed, we tried manually kicking off the device F12 and PXE booted which worked fine.

Edited April 20, 2024 by Newb
missed info

[chris_uk]

Does your DNS all resolve OK on the devices?

Strange you are getting that when trying to build from inside windows, have you tried logging in, loading software center and trying to image the device that way?

The time issue will be down to your timezone not being set.