Category
Operating System Deployment
Articles focused on OSD processes, task sequences, and imaging — from boot methods to the errors that stop a deployment halfway through.
What this category covers
Deployment work in ConfigMgr rarely fails in one obvious place. These posts follow the chain from network boot to a finished task sequence.
Boot
iPXE UEFI boot without WDS
Booting into a deployment environment over the network without relying on a WDS server, using iPXE in a UEFI setup.
Task sequences
Error handling and monitoring
Reading task sequence failures, including a fatal MSI exit code that appeared across machines running the same sequence, and monitoring progress with status message queries.
Imaging
Deployment preparation
Supporting material around imaging and deployment, such as SCCM backup setup and SQL database email configuration from the 2016 posts.
Windows
Upgrades after imaging
What happens when a Windows 10 upgrade will not continue after a reboot, and how multi-language Windows 10 deployment was approached in July 2018.
Selected OSD-related posts
Dates below refer to when the posts were published.
| Date | Topic | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| April 2016 | SCCM backup setup | Preparing site backups before deployment work |
| April 2016 | SQL database email configuration | Getting database notifications out of the site database |
| July 2018 | Multi-language Windows 10 deployment | Handling language variants during deployment |
| July 2019 | ConfigMgr fatal MSI errors | Diagnosing a task sequence failure seen across machines |
Browse the latest posts on the home page or look through ConfigMgr articles for related administration topics.
Working through a failed sequence
When a task sequence stops, the useful question is usually where it stopped rather than why the whole deployment failed. A few habits help:
- Check the status message query for the sequence before changing anything.
- Compare the failing step against a machine where the same sequence completed.
- Treat a repeated exit code as a signal to look at the package or the environment, not only the client.
- Keep site backups current so a deployment problem does not become a recovery problem.
Related reading: ConfigMgr, Intune and PowerShell.
