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RhoSysAdminFlag for United States of America

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How do I troubleshoot SCCM application install task that hangs during OSD deploy?

I'm using SCCM Current Branch (1710) to deploy Windows 10 LTSB. It had been working fine for weeks, but now I have a particular package that's hanging. How do I troubleshoot this?

I'm not sure if anything has changed. I couldn't tell you what has changed. But clearly something did.
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Michael Pfister
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Not clear at which phase your SCCM TS is hanging.

If its during installation of additional software (after OS) just disable the offending package and see if you can troubleshoot the setup of the package afterwards. I assume ist prompting for some user input which can't be seen during TS,
Hi,

There's only one answer to that - look at the smsts.log (in c:\windows\ccm\logs) on the client. View it with CMtrace (from \\<siteserver>\<sitecode>\tools.

Mike
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The software installs fine when you do it by hand - even after breaking out of the hung up deploy.

There's nothing in the smts.log other than what looks like SCCM listing out all the steps in the TS. There's nothing that shows the installs for any of the steps - even the ones that work. Of course I may be misinterpreting what I'm seeing.

Maybe the proper description of my problem is that the next step never starts. The pop-up shows the package that never installs. The "History of task sequence" report has no entry for the step that's displayed on the monitor.

I'm rerunning the TS now with the previous step disabled to see if what I thought was the problem step is really the problem.
Hi,

That sounds odd. The other log I forgot to mention is execmgr.log. It contains the command lines of anything that does trigger installs.
SMSTS.log does exactly what you said and that's exactly why you need to look at it. It will give you a step by step walkthrough of what really happened. Note, if it gets too big (5MB is the puny default size) it will rollover and create a backup with a numeric name. If you have any open the SMSTS but select all the others and tick "merge". Then you get the full logfile, start to end.

I've found the hard way, installing by hand proves nothing except you can install it manually. When you put it in a TS, it's a whole new world with rules of its own, so things don't behave as you expect. The only way to figure it out is the log files. App_deploy is another but I can't remember if it joins in during as TS, or if it only logs application deployments.

Feel free to attach the smsts and redact any IPs etc. if need be.

Mike
I tried another deploy without the prior steps, and it's definitely the one with the dialog box on the screen. (Un)fortunately, my company is closed this coming week, so I'll have to wait until the week after the 4th to troubleshoot this further.

One curious observation - I tested the deploy to a VM and it works fine. When I test it with a Dell or Lenovo laptop, I get the same "package hangs" behavior.

The package I'm trying to install is Cisco AnyConnect 4.5..

NOTE to moderator - please do not close this discussion. I will revisit in a week.
Add the verbose log parameter to the msi Installation, i.e.:

msiexec /i "%~dp0anyconnect-win-4.6.00362-core-vpn-predeploy-k9.msi" DISABLE_CUSTOMER_EXPERIENCE_FEEDBACK=1 /l*v "C:\Windows\Logs\anyconnect-win-4.6.00362-core-vpn-predeploy-k9.log" /qn

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Hopefully the log file explains why its hanging
Note to moderator - please leave this open until middle of next week (7/12). I'm out of the office and cannot troubleshoot this further until then.
So here's where I'm at today with my Windows 10 OS deploy issue :

- Both AnyConnect MSI installs complete (Secure Mobility Client, Start Before Login Module).  The TS history report shows these tasks completing. "Programs and Features" shows each is installed. The verbose log files show they completed.

- The TS history report shows no reboot was required after the "Secure Mobility Client" install, but a reboot was required/requested after the "SBL Module" install. The TS report shows a reboot was successfully performed.

- The next two "Run Command Line" tasks after these installs complete. All these tasks do is copy some files to the C:\ drive.  The TS history report shows these tasks have completed.

- The next task is where it hangs. This task is a "Install Package" task. There's no entry for it in the TS history report, and nothing referencing it shows up in execmgr.log.  It does show up in the SMTS.log file.

If I disable this particular "Install Package" task, the deploy hangs at the next "Install Package" task. So there's nothing unique about the next step.

If I disable the two AnyConnect install tasks, the deploy will run successfully.

Here's where it gets weird.

We also install two Cisco WebEx packages before the AnyConnect installs.

For Dell Desktops, we only install the WebEx packages - and the deploy completes successfully every time.

For Dell or Lenovo laptops, we install the AnyConnect packages after the WebEx installs. Both laptop makes hang in the same place - on the next "Install Package" task.  If we disable the AnyConnect installs, the laptop deploys still hang on the next "Install Package" task after the WebEx installs.

The only way to get the laptop deploys to complete is to disable everything WebEx and AnyConnect.
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Mike Taylor
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I realize this is confusing to read from top to bottom. The behavior changed in the past 10 days, which is why I re-stated everything.

Following Mike's advice, I created separate "(OSD) Per-system unattended" programs for each Cisco AnyConnect and WebEx package, and added REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS to the end of each command line.  This way anyone doing software deployments won't alter anything I'm using for OS deploys.

It turns out the problem child may have been the WebEx Productivity Tools (was set to "Config Mgr Restarts"). All I know is that I was finally able to install all the Cisco stuff to a Dell laptop today - which I haven't been able to do for a month.

[update] Deploys to Dell laptops and Lenovo laptops are working. My long nightmare is over - until the next one.

Thanks Mike!  Suppressing all the reboots for the Cisco installs did the trick!
Marvellous. Glad it's sorted. I know the pain so happy am happy to assist.