Another FAQ nugget by Paul Meyer (VMFactory Master).

Problem

  • Errors were reported after the execution of a task sequence

Source

  • At the end of execution, the MDT scans a couple of logs to see if any errors were reported by the scripts. All scripts are kept in C:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS, but only until you  click ‘Finish’ on the summary, after which the C:\MININT directory will be deleted in the clean-up process.

Diagnosis

  1. Before clicking the ‘Finish’ button, copy the C:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS directory somewhere to save it from cleanup
  2. Find the log file that contains the error quoted in the summary. You can use a tool (e.g. Windows Explorer) to search all of the logs or just look through some. The ‘rule’ is that script files generate a log with the same name, but with the .log extension instead of .wsf. Good bets are:
    • Litetouch.log: contains high level logging of the task sequence process. Particularly errors that are the result of ‘Run command line’ tasks are found in here.
    • ZTIApplication.log: contains generic logging for all ‘Install Application’ tasks. Any error in the command line of defined applications will show up with an ‘unexpected’ result in this log.
      1. Look at the command that is being executed and see if you can find any additional logging by the command itself.
      2. You can also try to re-execute the command manually to see if it will succeed. This is kind of hard to do, since these are executed from VBScript, with the current directory set to some UNC path. This is often the source of errors with CMD batch files, since some commands require the current directory to be a mapped drive. I recommend these to be re-written to VBScript.
      3. If the command is an MSIEXEC command, you can look-up the error codes on TechNet. E.g., if it relates to another installation still in progress, check the application command line of the application installed before this one. It may miss a ‘/norestart’ option, which may mean that an installation is  continued after an automatic reboot. It may also miss pre-requisite installations and be forced into a reboot or a partial installation. Separate installation of pre-requisites usually solves these problems.
    • ZTIOSRole.log: contains errors that relate to ‘Install Roles and Feature’ e.g. conflicting options, Win2008R2 vs. Win2008 features
  3. Use a Task Sequence based on the ‘Custom’ template to test steps in isolation.