Second Tuesday of every month called Microsoft patch Day Patches get released and configmgr* guys busy in testing ,moving them to production.

As usual, I have Downloaded the patches,added to the package,deployed to Distribution Points ,all returned success (Decompressed the PCK successfully).Until here Good.

While testing the patches on one of the server,it just stands at downloading /Preparing for installation for quite long but nothing happens.Huh ? (login with mstsc /admin)

ok,start with basic troubleshooting by looking at contentTransfermanager.log and datatransferservice.log because these two logs plays the role whether the client attempts to download content or not

ContentTransferManager.log–> logs when  client attempts to download content from the first distribution point listed in the content location.

DataTransferService.log —>Logs if a job has been created to download the files to the client or not.

Here is what i have from the logs:

Datatransferservice.log:

Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 404, status ‘Resource Not Found’ ,

GetDirectoryList_HTTP(‘http://servername:8530/SMS_DP_SMSPKGH$/packageID/14eb1517-9a6f-461d-9dd6-656d876efbe4′) failed with code 0x8004027e.

 

Contenttransfermanager.log

Error sending HEAD request. HTTP code 500, status ‘Internal Server Error’

From the above logs,we know ,client is having issues while getting the required patch content from the Distribution Point.Client keeps trying for longer period but nothing happens.

take a look at IIS logs if it gives any further clues.

On windows server 2003,Logs located at  C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\W3SVC1

2013-10-10 00:02:25 W3SVC1 10.83.1.14 HEAD /SMS_DP_SMSPKGH$/PackageID/14eb1517-9a6f-461d-9dd6-656d876efbe4 – 8530 – 10.83.1.14 SMS+CCM 401 1 0

From the above snippet,you can see an error code 401 which is access denied.

I then looked at the Update ID if it really exist in the package folder or not ? Browse H:\smspkgh$\packageID for content  14eb1517-9a6f-461d-9dd6-656d876efbe4 .

I can not find it though my package is successfully decompressed and sent the status message to central site.

I compared the patch package properties with working server properties,i see there are 100+ files missing.

something interesting to know ? why did this happened ? have no time now to troubleshoot why did this happened may be later but for now ,try to fix Preparing for Installation .

Solution that worked for me:

I don’t know if there is hash value for each update that is created and downloaded by Configmgr but i gave a try to copy the missing Update IDs manually from working server to Issue DP.

Close the Configmgr software update applet (if you just close it it will be running in the background),to kill it,go to task manager,you see process called smscliui.exe ,end the process

Restart the SMS agent host service

open configuration manager applet from control panel,initiate software update deployment evaluation cycle  and software update scan cycle ,few min later you will see prompt asking to install the Windows updates if the deadline is not reached.

This time,all the required patches installed successfully

To confirm , if this solution works for all,logged into other server where in,it require different patches which are not available in DP,do a manual copy of the missing patches (which you can get from the contentransfermanager.log) from working server

Restart the SMS agent host,end the sccm client user interface,initiate the software update actions,it DID .

To avoid this issue on other clients,get the missing patch content from working server .

Hope you find this article useful.

SCCM Configmgr 2007:Software Updates Stuck at Preparing for Installation Error sending DAV request. HTTP code 404, status ‘Resource Not Found’ is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Good news to Configmgr guys.Yesterday Microsoft announced another Free book called “Microsoft System Center: Troubleshooting Configuration Manager “ which talks about site hirarchy,distribution points,understanding configuration manager components,log files,troubleshooting scenarios.

I think this guide will provide you to understand various components of Configuration Manager on both the server and client side work together while performing the tasks also the real world troubleshooting with log files.

Download the Configuration manager 2012 Troubleshooting Guide from here

If you are looking for Configuration Manager 2012 Field Experience guide from Microsoft experts,download it from here

via http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2013/11/12/free-ebook-microsoft-system-center-troubleshooting-configuration-manager.aspx

SCCM Configmgr 2012 Troubleshooting Guide –Free EBook from Microsoft is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

In my previous blog post,i talked about how to compare 2 distribution points to see if they both have any applications mismatch.This blog post talks about how to distribute the missing apps to the Distribution Point.

I have used basic inbuilt Configmgr powershell commands for this activity,more via here

Note:Use the package names as input file rather Package ID’s.

Below powershell script works for applications,packages,driver packages,boot images and OS images.You need to remove the # tag(to uncomment) to distribute specific package type.

#change the path of psd1
import-module F:\sccm\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1
#Change the site Code
cd P01:
$SiteCode = “P01”
#provide the path for list of applications to be distributed
$packages =GC “C:\users\eswar\desktop\pkglist.txt”
$server=‘DPname.eskonr.com’
foreach ($packagename in $packages)
{
#for applications
#Start-CMContentDistribution -ApplicationName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For packages
#Start-CMContentDistribution -PackageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For Driverpackage names
#Start-CMContentDistribution -DriverPackageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For Bootimages
#Start-CMContentDistribution -BootImageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#For OSImages
#Start-CMContentDistribution –OperatingSystemImageName  “$packagename” -DistributionPointName “$server”

#output results

“Pkg:” + $packagename + ” “+ “distributed to” + ” “+ “Server:” +$server | Out-File -FilePath C:\users\eswar\desktop\server-distribute-results.txt -Append
}

download the powershell script from technet Gallery

How to refresh package on many DP’s : http://eskonr.com/2013/09/sccm-configmgr-powershell-script-refresh-package-on-multiple-distribution-points/

Configmgr 2012:Powershell script add packages, applications,Drivers to Distribution Point is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

I recently had interesting issue with Configmgr 2012 SP1 CU3 client.Many Optional applications in Software Center changes to 4/10/1998 for ‘Available After’

This issue was posted on several forums but there is not solution yet why is this happening.

After working with Microsoft,found the root cause but no permanent solution ,instead we have temporary workaround to fix this issue.

Issue:

Applications appear as Old date(1998) in Software Center for ‘Available After’ which is unclear to end users about the application availability and they tend to ignore it.

Take a look at the picture below,for Microsoft office project professional 2007 application,the available after date shows as 4/10/1998.Why is this ? and for test project professional application,it show correct date .why ?

This is not application issue nor client issue nor Server issue then where is the problem,

Basic Troubleshooting:

The first thing that comes in mind is,check the Scheduled date for the Deployment ,what date it is specified ? You are wrong.The scheduled date is correct but it will not display here.

2nd is to look at wmi ,application information is stored in “root\ccm\clientsdk” namespace.Startdate for the specific application show wrong Date.

3rd to look is,run the policy spy and check the properties for the problem package using the application assignment ID,you will see correct date which was scheduled in application deployment but why is this showing as 1998 ?

4th to look at all the logs(expecially policyagent.log,DCMagent.log,ccmstatestore.log) but they don’t reveal much information.

After doing lot of troubleshooting on the client,found the issue is causing because of Task Sequence .Confused ?

Root Cause:

Applications which are deployed to clients are also part of Task Sequence as referenced packages ,the two deployments causing the clients to go back to old Date.

More explanation:

Assume Task sequence(TS1) which is used to deploy OS is targeted to Collection(coll1) as Optional (not mandatory).This task sequence has many actions for applications For Ex: MS project professional (app1)

So the clients which are part of Collection coll1 (considering the cm12 client is installed) will have information about App1 which used in the Task sequence(ts1).

I also created deployment for App1 and targeted to ms office project collection(coll2) with available option(not Required).

So far,No confusions.One TS to coll1 and one application(App1) to coll2.

after the deployment is done ,if you look at the software center,if it will show wrong date(1998),then client is not synced correctly and this is happening because of 2 deployments, one from Task Sequence and other from Application Deployment.

To Confirm this,I tested by creating few deployments for the applications used in Task sequence and deployed to test collection(for the clients who are part of TS),i see the same behavior.

Workaround: Do not use the same application which is referenced in Task sequence for the application deployment.Recreate the application used in Task sequence and deploy to clients that will show the right information for ‘available after’.

Microsoft is working on the fix,Stay Tunes for updates.

Configmgr 2012 "Available after" date in Software Center changes to 4/10/1998 is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Long Ago, I posted blog on “How do i know what packages are transferring from specific site to Distribution Points and what is the % of content left and completed using tool called sender analyzer ,More info here .

Sender Analyzer basically analyses the sender.log for the Site you connect from the Tool and DPJobmgr.exe basically analyzes pkgxfermgr.log on the Site that you connect,I think this tool can be called as ‘package transfer analyzer’ tool

Due to the changes in Configmgr 2012,the above tool no more support and haven’t see any other tool that gets the similar information.

Configmgr 2012 R2 toolkit bring out some nice tools which really helps troubleshooting day to day activities .One of the new tools which was added into R2 Toolkit is Distribution Point Job Queue Manager (DPJobMgr.exe) which helps troubleshooting and managing ongoing content distribution jobs to Distribution Points also it be easy for us to know how many min/hrs/days it takes to send complete package.

In this post,i will walk though the features and how to use this Tool.

The tool displays the list of jobs that the package transfer manager component has in its queue as well as the status of the jobs (ready to be executed(Pipeline which you can see from inbox folder, running or retrying).

This tool also allows manipulation of the jobs in the queue, moving jobs higher on the list, cancelling or even kick start running a job manually.

Note:This tool do not support to connect to CAS OR Secondary Site to know what packages are sending to its child Sites .It works only to know the content sending from Primary Site.

lets run the tool (dpjobmgr.exe),Enter the primary Site server name,click connect

Note:Full administration permission is required to make the connection

Once the connection is successfully established ,You can see a notification at the bottom of the tool that confirms that the tool is connected to the site server saying ‘connect to Site server was successful’.

This tool Consists of 5 tabs,will go through each one except Help button

Overview Tab:

This tab Shows the summary of all the jobs on all distribution points(this tool do not display primary or secondary sites,shows only DP’s).

After sometime,I added package to the DP.Refresh the Overview Tab

All the nodes are self explanatory here.

1. Distribution Point: Lists the names of the distribution points

2. Running Jobs: Shows the number of concurrent jobs that are running on a particular distribution point.

Note: Number of concurrent software distributions is a setting that can be modified in Software Distribution Component Properties.

3. Total Jobs: Shows the number of all the jobs that are targeted to a particular distribution point. This number includes the jobs that are running, retrying, or waiting to be executed.

4. Total Retries: Shows the number of times jobs have been retrying in a particular distribution point. Higher number may represent a general problem in that particular distribution point.

Refresh—>To refresh the Overview tab which gets the updated information(if there are any jobs added to the queue while you are on this tool)

Start Auto Refresh—>Refresh this tab automatically to know if there are any new jobs added to the package transfer queue(Default is 2 min).

Distribution Point Info Tab:

This tab Shows the list of all the distribution points under the particular site(P01) that the tool is connected to. (keep in mind,only DP’s but not secondary sites).

List of all the distribution points can be seen on the left hand side pane, you can select which distribution points you want to see the status of current running jobs.You can also select all Distributions if you want.

The right hand pane will show the jobs only for the selected distribution points.

From the above screenshot,i have one job running which is Windows 8 image.

For each Distribution Point,you would see 8 columns and i think they are all self explanatory like software name,package ID,Size of the package,what is the progress %,start/restart time,no of retries and DP name.

If you are sending BIG packages like OS images or other apps,it takes time to get the the progress (%) of the completion and shown under “Progress” column .

Note:Each column can be sorted either by descending or ascending order.

Manage Jobs Tab:

Shows list of all the jobs and their status in one view.

This tab also Contains the same eight columns as the “Distribution Point Info” tab, but now all the jobs can be right clicked to perform certain actions like cancel the package,retry etc.

Right click actions are described below:

1. Run: Kick starts a job that is in any state other than running

2. Move To Top: Moves one or multiple jobs to the top of the queue, this may result in this jobs to start running immediately. A lower priority job can pause running as a consequence of this action.

3. Move Up: Moves a particular job one row above, a lower priority job can pause running as a consequence of this action.

4. Move Down: Moves a particular job one row below.

5. Move To Bottom: Moves one or multiple jobs to the bottom of the queue.

6. Cancel: Tries to cancel one or multiple jobs.

Note :Jobs that are near their final completion time or jobs that are on site server (if the site server is also a distribution point) cannot be cancelled.

From the above screenshot,you can the job running.By mistake,you distributed the BIG packages to unwanted DP’s and you want to cancel the process before it completes,right click on the package and say cancel.

You get prompted with below screen asking for confirmation.

If you click on Yes,it will send the package notification instruction (.pkn)to cancel the thread which you can see from pkgxfermgr.log file.

Nice to have such cool tools for content troubleshooting.

Configmgr 2012 R2 Toolkit: DP Job Queue manager (DPJobmgr.exe) pkgxfermgr.log Analyzer is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Quick post on the Distribution Point availability Error.Primary Site cannot check the availability of the Remote Distribution Point servers and Sitestat.log generating error messages continuously for DP servers

“omGetServerRoleAvailabilityState could not read from the registry on CMDP01.eskonr.com; error = 6:”

“Failed to get the Availability State on server CMDP01.eskonr.com for role SMS Distribution Point.”

How to Fix this ?

Create a DWord Registry key with name ‘Availability State’ and value=0 on the problem DP servers.

Path to create DW Registry name and value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Operations Management\SMS Server Role\SMS Distribution Point

After sometime, site server polls the Remote DP servers,it will check the availability and update the information in the Database.

you see something like this.

if you are running this issue on large number of servers,use the below VB script.

ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Set objfso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set servers = objfso.OpenTextFile ("servers.txt", 1)
Set outputList = objfso.OpenTextFile ("outputList.txt", 2, True)
do While Not servers.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer=servers.readline
   Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
   strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Operations Management\SMS Server Role\SMS Distribution Point"
   oreg.setDWORDValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strkeypath, "Availability State" , "0"
if err=0 then
outputList.WriteLine "Registry added onto" & vbTab & strcomputer
else
outputList.WriteLine "Registry not added onto" & vbTab & strcomputer
end if
loop
   msgbox "Done"

Configmgr 2012:Failed to get the Availability State on server for role SMS Distribution Point Error:6 sitestat.log is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

When you install the Distribution Point role from Configmgr 2012 primary site,it automatically install +Configure IIS ,WDS for you .Later,you can configure the WDS settings to support for unknown computers etc.

Recently,i had issue with unknown/Known clients that,they get IP address from DHCP ,prompts to press F12 , try to connect to WDS server but immediately start giving \boot\BCD error.

The below picture shows that,Configmgr 2012 is not responding to clients after Client try to connect to WDS.

Upon this error,we straight away check if boot images are available on the DP or not,check the remoteinstall folder on the DP server if they are correctly placed.

try to restart the Windows Deployment server service if that helps in otherway what else ? None of the above solve the problem.

For all PXE booting related things,configmgr create log file called smspxe.log which provides information about PXE service point.

On the Distribution Point server,you will find this log from <Installation Drive>:\SMS_DP$\sms\logs. SMSPXE.log shows old date(2 months Ago)

from above screen,you can see,smsdpprov.log is updated with today’s date but smspxe.log is OLD.There is something wrong with PXE service Point role installation/Configuration ?

How to Fix it ?

Solution: Remove the PXE support role ,wait for sometime until it remove and enable it back again.

Go back to your Configmgr console,administration pane—Distribution Point,properties of the Distribution Point,uncheck the PXE support for clients.

wait for the removal of PXE support on the target DP.How do you confirm it is success of nor ?

From your RemoteInstall Folder on the DP,SMSimages,SMSboot folders will be deleted.

Upon confirmation,try enabling the PXE Support function(you don’t need to redistribute the boot images if you have already distributed to the DP),PXE role will be configured correctly,clients will be able to boot .

More information from  SMSPXE.log.

************************************** If you have many Remote Distribution Points that also server PXE support,how do you check before clients reporting this issue ?*****************************

Use the simple vbscript to find servers which are not updated the SMSPXE.log since long.

ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
Set objfso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set servers = objfso.OpenTextFile ("servers.txt", 1)
Set objoutputfile = objfso.OpenTextFile ("Results.txt", 2, True)
filename="SMSPXE.log"
Do While Not servers.AtEndOfStream
strcomputer = servers.ReadLine
If objFSO.fileExists("\\" & strComputer & "\F$\SMS_DP$\sms\logs\" & filename) Then
set objfile=objfso.GetFile ("\\" & strComputer & "\F$\SMS_DP$\sms\logs\" & filename)
objoutputfile.WriteLine  strcomputer & vbTab & objFile.DateLastModified
Else
objoutputfile.WriteLine filename & vbTab & "do not Exist" & vbtab & strcomputer
End If
loop
msgbox("done")

Until next

Configmgr 2012:PXE Boot Error Windows Failed to Start \Boot\BCD is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Recently,After the Path Tuesday, None of the clients which are reporting to Primary Site do not perform a successful Scan (clients beneath secondary Site are working Good) .This leads me to look at the software update logs on the client to see what is going wrong. Since most of the clients directly reporting to Primary are having issues so thought of checking/troubleshoot this issue on the Primary site itself .

Browse through the wuahandler.log from Drive:\Configmr\SMS_CCM\Logs,below is what I can see.

OnSearchComplete – Failed to end search job. Error = 0×80244022.

Scan failed with error = 0×80244022.

To know the error code description about ‘0×80244022’ ,use error lookup from cmtrace (ctrl+L).

Same as HTTP status 503 – the service is temporarily overloaded.

Source: Windows Update Agent

The 503 Service Unavailable error means, the problem is usually with the web site is down which is WSUS in this case.

Tried restarting the server ,followed by WSUS service and IIS service but issue still exist.

after the search on the internet,found this article ,leads me to check the application pool in IIS.I jump into IIS to check the status of WSUS application pool which was in stopped state .

After starting the wsuspool application,sync completed successfully.

Tried to initiate software update scan cycle on the client,monitor wuahandler.log

Hope it helps!

Configmgr: OnSearchComplete – Failed to end search job. Error = 0×80244022 WUAHandler.log is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Recently,I was troubleshooting configmgr 2012 client issue ,the installation keeps failing with error code :1603 (from ccmsetup.log) ,error says ,”Fatal error during installation”.

in addition to this,I see something interesting about network access location %APPDATA%.

MSI: Could not access network location %APPDATA%\.

File C:\Windows\ccmsetup\{181D79D7-1115-4D96-8E9B-5833DF92FBB4}\client.msi installation failed. Error text: ExitCode: 1603
Action: CostFinalize.
ErrorMessages:
Could not access network location %APPDATA%\.
Could not access network location %APPDATA%\.

From CCMSETUP.Log:

while installing sccm client,It requires to access the environmental variable %APPDATA% from registry location which are are corrupted/Changed for several reasons .

How do I Fix it ?

There is fix available on the support.Microsoft.com and msdn but with different Error Code Error 1606: Could Not Access Network Location.

I have applied the similar fix on the problem computer before reinstalling the ccmsetup.exe.it worked

Here is the simplified fix for you :

1. Open the Registry editor
2. Navigate to the following registry keys HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

If you look at all the values for the variables in the above pic,you can identify the odd one which is appdata.
3. The correct and default value for AppData should be: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming

4. It would be better to also check and correct the Appdata Value for the below registry keys as well before we start the installation.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\

Hope it helps !

Configmgr Client Error:ccmsetup failed with Exit Code: 1603, MSI Could not access network location %APPDATA% is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

While Upgrading Clients from Configmgr 2007 to Configmgr 2012,we see lot of issues with respect to client failure like client is installed with exit Code ‘0’ but software center do not work as intended,client is installed but no policies etc.

I had interesting issue recently during the client up-gradation from CM07 to CM12.Client was installed successfully with Exit code ‘0’ from ccmsetup.log(%windir%\ccmsetup\logs) but software center doesn’t open.

If I look at the properties of configuration manager applet,actions tab,I can see only 2 policies appearing(Machine and User) .locationservices.log and clientlocation.log,clientIDmanagerstartup.log show positive information,there are no errors but still unable to launch software center.

Here is what I see when I launch software center message:

Software Center cannot get the current status for some of the software. Software Center will list any items with available status. You can press F5 to refresh the view. If the problem persists, contact your help desk.
More information:
Loading Software Center returned error code 0×0041013 (-2147217389).

Tried uninstalling client using ccmsetup.exe /uninstall , ccmclean.exe and all possible things we do to fix it but issue doesn’t go away.

The above error is causing because, Old CM client was not uninstalled successfully.

After long troubleshooting,found the culprit was dll file from registry.Interesting ?

So how do I fix it ?

1. Go to registry Editor (regedit from Run command)

Right click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and Find with {555B0C3E-41BB-4B8A-A8AE-8A9BEE761BDF}

On the search found value, check, if the value for default  (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{555B0C3E-41BB-4B8A-A8AE-8A9BEE761BDF}\InProcServer32) is set to below or not if not, change the value to C:\WINDOWS\CCM\ccmcisdk.dll

Check the registry with same ID once again (you can press F3) {555B0C3E-41BB-4B8A-A8AE-8A9BEE761BDF} , under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\ ,if you find value dcmsdk.dll for default, the below underlined value should be deleted C:\windows\syswow64\ccm\dcmsdk.dll).

Now launch software center, it should allow you to see the applications(may take time depends on the policy retrieval time).

Until next!

Configmgr 2012: Software Center returned error code 0×0041013 (-2147217389) is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

working on some Inventory Customizations.I need to get some registry information into Configmgr Database.For this,I have to do MOF changes to both configuration.mof and hardware inventory from Default Client settings.

How to get the MOF Syntax ? I have used mark’s Regkey2mof tool .This tool will provide you both configuration.mof and clientsettings mof .

with the syntax,I got from the tool, done the changes in both the places (configuration.mof and default client settings—hardware inventory and import the mof file)

Monitor the log dataldr.log on the server,if the mof files are complied successfully or not.

Initiated machine policy retrieval on the target computer using script available here to load the policies and then ran hardware inventory action.

Monitor inventoryagennt.log on the client,after while,client sent the hardware inventory to assigned management point.

After this is done,I have been waiting to see the changes in Database but the table never get updated ,just empty.

So went ahead to look at Management point logs (Mp_hinv.log) ,I see below message.

Hinv: Mapping table marked for reloading.

Hinv: class name not found in the mapping table: ClientSW

Hinv: the report could not be processed completely due to unknown classes or properties - it may be obsolete

After spending so much time in troubleshooting this, I tried initiating a Full hardware inventory action using the script available here http://eskonr.com/2013/08/sccm-configmgr-2012-script-to-trigger-machine-policy-inventory-and-other-actions-on-clients/

Monitor logs,this time problem solved.

Do i need to initiate Full Hardware inventory on all the clients ? No. For Some Reason,MP could not able to process /Update the delta inventory information collected from the client into Database.

Once the Table updated with inventory information,delta inventory from rest of the clients will be updated automatically.

Solution : Initiating A Full Hardware Inventory on the client fix the issue.

SCCM Configmgr 2012 Hardware Inventory Error class name not found in the mapping table mp_hinv.log is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Had a problem with sccm 2012 client installation today,it keeps generating error code 1638 from ccmsetup.log .

File C:\Windows\ccmsetup\{181D79D7-1115-4D96-8E9B-5833DF92FBB4}\client.msi installation failed. Error text: ExitCode: 1638

Use ctrl+L to find the error code description for 1638, it says “Another version of this product is already installed. Installation of this version cannot continue. To configure or remove the existing version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel”

I tried uninstalling the client using ccmsetup.exe /uninstall,also tried with ccmclean.exe  before reinstalling client but that doesn't help.

It seems like,the previously installed client was either partially installed and it cannot continue further to install .

I also checked if there is any configuration manager applet from control panel,there is nothing as such.

So what next ? why does it says,another version of this product already installed ?

If you have any such type of problems with removal of any partially installed or removed, use MSI Clean Up Utility that will help you to remove the hidden products completely. 

Download MSI Clean Up Utility from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.08.utilityspotlight.aspx.

Run the application with administrative rights on the problem computer.

Open the application (windows Installer Clean up) and identify Configuration manager client ,click remove.

Now try installing the Client,it should go smoothly without any issues.

Hope it helps !

SCCM Configmgr 2012 ccmsetup installation failed Error Exitcode 1638 is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Trying to run the patch compliance report based on OU per Software update Group (For October 2014) ,report is available to download from http://eskonr.com/2014/11/sccm-configmgr-2012-patch-report-ou-based-compliance-status-per-update-group/ . Report shows some good success rate but still there are computers with unknown status .Unknown status means,these clients do not report anything to CM DB whether they required patches or not required ,no compliance information at all.

I pick one computer randomly and start looking at Software Update logs on the client side . The software update logs that helps to identify the scan issues are WUAHandler.log (CCM\logs),windowsupdate.log(%Windir%)

WUAHandler.log log shows ,client started to search for windows updates but it failed with error code 0xc8000222.

Error message : OnSearchComplete - Failed to end search job. Error = 0xc8000222.

Scan failed with error = 0xc8000222.

To know the description of this error code,tried error lookup from the CMtrace log ,but that doesn’t give me any clue.

The next log to look at is ,Windowsupdate.log  ,to know more about windowsupdate.log and how to read it,please refer https://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093?wa=wsignin1.0 and http://www.updatexp.com/windows-update-log.html

Windowsupdate.log errors out with message : DtaStor    FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000222

It seems to like,the datastore or  other related component from C:\windows\softwaredistribution folders are corrupted.

Solution :

The solution for this issue ,is to stop windows update service,rename software distribution folder,start windows update service and then run the software update scan action.

1. Open the CMD (run as administrator) ,type net stop wuauserv to stop the windows update service

2.Type rename C:\windows\softwaredistribution softwaredistribution.old to rename

3.Type net start wuauserv to start windows update service

4.Initiate software update scan cycle from Configuration manager applet .

To run action 4,there are various scripts/tools available,like wmic,right click tools,sccm client center etc.

You can also script this solution to perform on bulk clients.

After you run action 4,monitor WUAhandler.log ,should see sync status with success.

Hope it helps!

SCCM Configmgr 2012 Software Update Scan failed OnSearchComplete – Failed to end search job. Error = 0xc8000222 is a post from: Eswar Koneti's Blog

Few days ago,I had an issue while reading log files using Configmgr CMTrace tool.I tried opening the .log file to read the content but it failed to display the content and instead,it keep prompting me error message ‘The file either does not exist or could not be accessed.Do you want to continue anyway’.

for other users who logged into the same computer,it works good. So I suspect,this could be user profile issue ? but I cannot recreate profile for this issue. It may requires some troubleshooting on this part.

Below is what I get message after opening the log file.

If I click Yes,it displays nothing.

I tried deleting the cmtrace.exe from the existing location and copied CMTrace to different location but still, I get same error.I also tried opening the .log file with notepad and later change it back to cmtrace but still same issue.

To read the logs,I always need to open CMtrace first and then go to file,open to select .log file,but cannot do this always as time consuming.

what made the cmtrace corrupt and how to fix this issue ?

The default application (cmtrace) settings are stored in the registry in HKCU. so in this case,the settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Log.File\shell\open\command

Registry settings to open log file using cmtrace as below:

Value data setting: "C:\windows\System32\CMTrace.exe" ""

I looked this setting on working computer and it differs from above .The working machine has below setting:

Value data setting”": "C:\windows\cmtrace.exe" "%1"

If you compare both(working and not working ) ,%1 is missing on the problem computer for the current user.

To fix the problem, just need to add "%1" next to the cmtrace location on the problem computer ("C:\windows\System32\CMTrace.exe""%1").

I could not able to trace ,what causes the setting made wrong in the value data setting but nice to know how to fix it.

In the next post,I will show you,how to set cmtrace as the default log viewer instead of user look for cmtrace to open the logs.

One of most important and critically used feature in configuration manager 2012 is  Software updates .It is always challenging and import task for any sccm administrator to achieve good patch compliance success rate within the given SLA(Service level agreement).Patch compliance success rate is depends mainly on heath of your SCCM clients and some times things may go wrong even though sccm client is healthy (able to receive applications/packages and performing inventory except patches).

I have created lot of SSRS reports on software update compliance out of many,one of the widely used report is get the patch compliance status of software update group for specific collection with linked report to get the computers with unknown and required status for troubleshooting (to check when was the last hardware,last software scan,last user ,OS etc).

Coming to the subject line, I have been seeing many questions on the configuration manager forums and social networking sites on software update patching issues .couple of questions on the subject line are like

1) Client getting packages ,applications but not software updates

2) Most of the clients receiving deployed software updates but still few do not get.

3)Clients not detecting software updates

4) clients log says ,patches required but sccm reports says,updates not required( means complaint)

5) Client log says patches not required but sccm report says ,updates required.

6)Software update failing to install ,how to fix 

7) I have added patches to the existing software update group/deployment and these newly added patches not deploying successful and many more ….

The solution for the most of the above issues can be identified and solved by analyzing the the client logs before we do in-depth troubleshooting.

In this blog post (SCCM 2012 Troubleshoot software update client issues),I will explain you the basic troubleshooting steps (only on client side ) which will help you to resolve issues on your own by analyzing the logs and take it further afterwards.

Before we jump into the troubleshooting,I would like to illustrate the main components which are involved in deploying software updates.

When you enable software update agent setting in client agent settings,a policy will be created with this setting and stored in SQL Database.So when client initiate machine policy,it communicate with management point which includes the software update client feature installation instructions to be installed or applied on the client. In this process, Client will create local GPO with WSUS Settings by leaving automatic updates .

If you do not  disable automatic updates (Via GPO) leaving the door open for the WUA to do things on its own outside the control of ConfigMgr including installing any updates approved directly in WSUS (including new versions of the agent itself which are automatically approved) and rebooting systems which have a pending reboot. Neither of these is desirable in a ConfigMgr managed environment and thus the recommendation for disabling automatic updates. As for the rest of the Windows Update GPO settings, they are meaningless in the context of ConfigMgr so it doesn't really matter what you set those to if you disable automatic updates,more from here

If you choose to create a GPO for WUA, you must configure the Windows Update Server option to point to the active software update point server in the site or location. If there is an existing GPO that was intended to manage standalone WSUS prior to implementing Configuration Manager in your environment, the GPO could override the local GPO created by Configuration Manager, which can cause issues when the software update client tries to communicate with the software update point server.

Software update Components involved are:

1.Windows update agent (WUA)

2.Software update client agent (from SCCM)

3.Windows management instrumentation (WMI)

Note: Make sure you disable the automatic updates via GPO,further reading http://blog.configmgrftw.com/software-updates-management-and-group-policy-for-configmgr-cont/

Windows Update agent(WUA): is responsible for scheduling and initializing scan, detection, download, and install of updates on the client machine. WUA Agent is an implanted service in a Windows service (SVCHOST.exe) and is named Windows Update which you can see from services.msc.

If you disable WUA Agent, software update agent will not function correctly. So it always recommended to not disable this service.

Software update client agent (from SCCM): When you enable the software update agent,it will install 2 actions on the client 1) Software update scan cycle 2) software update deployment Evaluation Cycle

Software Update Scan Schedule :This action perform the software update scan (along with WUA) against the Microsoft update catalog, which occurs every 7 days by default.

software update Deployment evaluation:This action Initiate the software update deployment to start download and install the updates.

Note: when you create software update deployment with deadline for ex: at 4.00 PM ,the actual time that software update client start updating the installation is depends on on setting disable deadline randomization ((located in the Computer Agent client settings)

A delay of up to 2 hours will be applied with deadline time to install required software updates . This randomization prevents all software update clients from starting update installations at the same time (This setting is disabled by default). More info,read https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/gg682067.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 . If you enable this setting,then the deployed software updates will be installed with deadline what you set i.e at 4.00PM (based on Client local time or UTC).

It is also good to know the patch compliance states which are sent as state messages by client to site server .Patch compliance is calculated based on these 4 states.

Installed :This means the software update is applicable and the client already has the update installed. 

Not Required: This means the software update is not applicable to the client .

Required: This means the software update is applicable but is not yet installed.Alternatively, it may mean that the software update was installed but the state message has not yet been sent to to the site server.

Unknown :This means either that the client system did not complete the software scan or the site server did not receive the scan status from the client system.

Enough theory , Lets have a look at client troubleshooting steps. (Note: Client logs can be found at %windir%\ccm\logs\ ,if you have not changed the default path).

There are many logs on the client which help you to troubleshoot client issues,but we only look at important logs what is required for software updates.

1. First log to check is locationservices.log—>This log is used to check the correct software update point has been detected by the client.You can also see the management point and distribution point entries from this log.

2. 2nd log to check is wuahander.log –> when the software update scan cycle initiated, Windows update agent (windows update service) will contact WSUS (SUP) for scanning and if is successful,a state message will be sent to site server confirming that,software update scan is completed successfully which can be seen from this log. Get the report to know the software update scan results from here

For some reason,if you don’t see the successfully completed scan message,you should start troubleshooting from this log based on the error .

You can get the error description from CMTrace.exe tool. Copy the error code and use ctrl+L (Error lookup) from your cmtrace.exe ,get the error description  .

If WSUS entries are not set correctly or having any issues locating the correct WSUS,you can set WSUS entry manually or script.Further troubleshooting is required .

The registry location for the WSUS entries as follows:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU with UseWUSserver =1

3. 3rd log is windowsupdate.log –>If software update scan is successful from wuahandler.log ,you can ignore this log file and directly move to next log (updatesdeployment.log) .If Software update scan is not successful then,you should look at this log for more information.  This log Provides information about when the Windows Update Agent connects to the WSUS server and retrieves the software updates for compliance assessment and whether there are updates to the agent components.

Using these 2 logs (wuahandler.log and windowsupdate.log) ,try to fix the errors and make sure ,you see the scanning successful from wuahandler.log

4.4th log to check is UpdatesDeployment.log—> Provides information about the deployment on the client, including software update activation, evaluation, and enforcement. Verbose logging shows additional information about the interaction with the client user interface.

This log shows the number of updates and deployments being targeted to a machine.

From above log snippet ,you see that,the total actionable updates = 0 means ,client do not require any additional updates that you targeted to this PC.For some reason,if the client says non-compliant from your sccm reports,try to refresh compliance state using https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc146437.aspx ,and monitor updatestore.log to see if the state messages (like Successfully raised Resync state message)has been sent to the site server (MP) or not.

you can alternatively use the below PowerShell script ,advertise to your clients monthly twice or once as per the business needs.

$SCCMUpdatesStore = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.CCM.UpdatesStore
$SCCMUpdatesStore.RefreshServerComplianceState()
New-EventLog -LogName Application -Source SyncStateScript -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source SyncStateScript -EventId 555 -EntryType Information -Message "Sync State ran successfully"

updatedeployment.log also tell you that,what assignments (Update deployments) made with count of updates in each deployment. From above log, Assignment {C37C45D8-E722-4EB7-AC21-014925079560} has total CI = 6 ,means ,the assignment has total 6 patches .

How do you check the deployment name for particular assignment ? well ,you can add Deployment Unique ID column for software update deployment or use below SQL syntax .

SELECT * FROM vSMS_UpdateGroupAssignment
WHERE vSMS_UpdateGroupAssignment.Assignment_UniqueID= '{C37C45D8-E722-4EB7-AC21-014925079560}'

For some reason,if you don’t see the newly added patches installing ( issue no:7) ,you can check updatedeployment.log with particular assignment group and patch count .If the count of patches are less than what it supposed to be,then you may have to refresh the machine policy ,initiate software update scan and wait for a while before client start downloading the policies.

If you see some updates are pending for action (total actionable updates <>0)  but not installing,look at CAS.log if your client is able to locate the content on the Distribution point or not.

UpdatesDeployment.log will also tell you ,if enough maintenance window (ServiceWindowManager.log) time available to install the updates.Read the following blogs to know the maintenance window calculation for software update installation.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2013/06/11/configmgr-2012-support-tip-clients-never-reboot-even-when-required-in-a-deployment.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/csloyan/archive/2010/10/24/maintenance-window-calculations-explained.aspx

5.5th log to check check is UpdatesStore.log—>Provides information about the compliance status for the software updates that were assessed during the compliance scan cycle (Status like Missing/Installed).

If you see all things working good, the final log to refer is RebootCoordinator.log—>Provides information about the process for coordinating system restarts on client computers after software update installations.

Below diagram shows the configuration manager Client side software update deployment flowchart captured from configuration manager software update management filed experience guide.

For troubleshooting clients, You can use tools like deployment monitoring tool,configuration manager support center etc.

I normally use the configuration manager support center to troubleshoot the client issues to check if the policy for the deployed software update group received correctly or not based on the PolicyIVersion.

Open the support center (you can download from Microsoft) ,connect to remote machine (need admin rights on remote computer) .

go to policy tab,click on requested  and then Load requested policy .you will see list of wmi instances on the left.

click on settings(root\ccm\policy\machine\requestedconfig) ,click on CCM_updateCIassignment ,click the policyID ,on the right side,you will see information about the software update group.

check the policy version on the client and on the site server .now you know how to take it further troubleshooting. Good luck.

Couple of common workarounds when troubleshooting software update issues :

1. Stop the windows update service,rename or delete the Software Distribution folder (%windir%\softwareDistribution) and start windows update service. This approach provides a fresh start with a new Windows Update data store if the Datastore.edb file is corrupted.

2. Restart the windows update service ,trigger software update scan cycle and software update deployment evaluation cycle.follow the logs.

4.http://eskonr.com/2014/11/sccm-configmgr-2012-software-update-scan-failed-onsearchcomplete-failed-to-end-search-job-error-0xc8000222/

5.http://eskonr.com/2014/11/sccm-configmgr-2012-patch-report-ou-based-compliance-status-per-update-group/

6.http://eskonr.com/2014/10/sccm-configmgr-2012-software-update-scan-error-group-policy-settings-were-overwritten-by-a-higher-authority-error-code-0x87d00692/

7.Refer software update client issues  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/bb932189.aspx

This post will be updating with possible solutions frequently.So keep checking this blog post.

Feel free to comment if corrections or anything missed via comment section.