SCCM BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING

1. Client may not send/receive any policies and will not run any advertisements.

Finding the Issue: There are few log files which you should look into,

CCMSETUP.LOG – This log file will have the details about the client installation

ClientLocation.Log – It helps to find out if the client is assigned to the SCCM site or not.

LocationServices.Log – It records if the client is communicating with the Distribution point or management point to receive policies.

Open Configuration Manager Properties, switch to Actions tab and check if you are able to see at least 5 policy agents displaying which means the client is healthy.
2.  Client fails to send inventory data to configuration manager site or fails to send status messages to the server

Cause: This issue may occur if the WMI of the client computer is corrupt or not working.

Solution: Check all the services which are required for the communication with the server, .eg:
• Computer browser
• Windows installer
• SMS agent host
• BITS
• WMI
All the above mentioned services should be automatic mode and started.

Then try repairing the WMI. To repair WMI follow the steps below,

Step 1:
%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /clearadap
%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /kill
%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /unregserver
%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /reserver
%windir%\system32\wbem\winmgmt /resyncperf

Step 2:
net stop winmgmt /y

Step 3:
If exist %windir%\system32\wbem\repository.old rmdir /s /q %windir%\system32\wbem\repository.old
ren %windir%\system32\wbem\repository repository.old
regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\scecli.dll
regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\userenv.dll
for /f %%s in (‘dir /b /s %windir%\system32\wbem\

Step 4:
net start winmgmt /y
Note: Ensure that the Windows Management Instrumentation service is running after performing the above steps

3. If the client fails to run an advertisement or if the software distribution failed on a client computer then how to troubleshoot?

Finding the Issue: Check the execmgr.log file in c:\windows\system32\ccm\logs on the client computer which will capture the execution of the program. It contains the exit code to determine the failure reason or the exact reason for the failure, normally for success the exit code is 0. If the program is failed then the exit code will be < or > 0. From these exit codes the reason for the failure can be sorted out.

If the distribution is failed on group of computers then the failure reason can be verified by running the report named “All advertisements for a specific package”. This report can be executed by navigating to Site database->Computer Management->Reporting->Reports. In the right hand side you can see a report named “All advertisements for a specific package” right click on this report and run now you have to enter the package ID of the package which is failed, finally click on display.

4. After distributing the software to the client, if the software package gets failed to download into the client computer cache

Cause: The software package may not be downloaded into the client computer cache if the client does not meet the requirement.

Solution: Ensure that the following services are up and running on the client computer

Background intelligence Transfer service
SMS agent Host
Windows Installer
Windows Management Instrumentation

Check if the client is contacting the DP using LocaitonServices.log file and if not add the required DP to the package.

5. How to detect problems respect to no computer entry in SCCM while computer connected to network?

There are different reasons for a client computer not being displayed on the SCCM Console but connected to the network.

Solution: Check if the SCCM client is installed on the client computer by navigating to Control panel and look for “configuration manager” icon entry (assuming that the control panel view is set to small icons)

If the client is installed, then open services.msc in the client computer and verify if the SMS_AgentHost service is running, if not start the service.

Check the Firewall enabled or disabled if enabled, allow the ports to talk to site server

Finally do an update of collection membership as described below,

Open SCCM console and navigate to Site Database->Computer Management->Collections->”Right click on a collection where the required client is not present” then select “update collection membership” as shown below and finally refresh the same collection. The client may then report to the console.
6. How to install SCCM client on a computer?

Solution:
Client can be installed manually on a computer by executing the following command line:
CCMSetup.exe /mp:SMSMP01(MP Name) /logon SMSSITECODE=AUTO. To run this command open a cmd prompt and change (cd) to the directory where ccmsetup.exe can be found (most likely in %windir%\system32\ccmsetup on 32bit versions of Windows). Then you can run above given command.
/mp:SMSMP01:- Specifies the management point SMSMP01 to download the necessary client installation files.
/logon: – Specifies that the installation should stop if an existing Configuration Manager 2007 or SMS 2003 client is found on the computer.
SMSSITECODE=AUTO:-  Specifies that the client should determine its Configuration Manager 2007 site code by using Active Directory or the server locator point

Client can also be installed using Client Push installation method
Navigate to the SCCM console from “Start->All programs->Microsoft System Center-> Configuration Manager 2007->ConfigMgr Console”
Expand Site Database->Computer Management->Collections->”Select a collection containing the client computer”->Right Click on the client computer name displayed on the Right side details pane-> Select “Install Client”.

You will be prompted with the below screen. Click Next Select “Always Install” option. Then click next and finish.

Note:
If the SCCM Client needs to be installed on the domain controllers then the “Include domain controllers” option should be enabled.
7. How to check if the client installation is succeeded or not?

Solution:
The client installation status can be verified using the log file or Control panel icons.

To check the log file, navigate to C:\Windows\System32\ccmsetup of the client computer and open the ccmsetup.log and clientmsi.log file. If the installation is success then you can see a “Installation Succeeded” line updated in the log file.

Also you can navigate to Start->Control panel and look for configuration manager icon entry (assuming that the control panel view is set to small icons). above is the screen shot of the same.
8. How to uninstall a client?
Solution:
To uninstall a client from the client computer, execute the following command on the client computer.

Ccmsetup.exe /uninstall

To run this command open a cmd prompt and change (cd) to the directory where ccmsetup.exe can be found (most likely in %windir%\system32\ccmsetup on 32bit versions of Windows). Then you can run ccmsetup.exe /uninstall.

To confirm the Un-installation of the client, verify that the control panel icon is gone and ccmExec.exe process will be removed.

9. How to detect unusable/non active system resources in SCCM?

Solution:
Open SCCM console, navigate to Site Database->Computer Management->Collections->”Select a collection containing the client computer”. On the right side details pane you can see different tabs as shown below,

Look for the “Active” tab and see if it’s Yes or No. If the status is “Yes” then the client is active, if it is “No”, then the client is inactive and if it is empty which means SCCM client has not been installed on the client computer

 
10. How to consult Resources Explorer in SCCM Administrator Console?

Solution:
Open SCCM console, navigate to Site Database->Computer Management->”Select the collection which contains the required client computer”. Right click on the client computer->Start->Resources Explorer as shown below.

Expand the client name and you can get the required hardware and software information.
Note: Windows update Agent, SCCM Client, Windows installer versions can be found under this resource explorer->Expand Hardware.

11. How to force Software and Hardware inventory on remote client computers?

Solution:
Remote into the client computer and open control panel and navigate to “configuration manager” icon as shown below.
Then Switch to Actions tab and select “Hardware inventory cycle” and click on initiate action repeat the same step for forcing software inventory cycle on SCCM client computers.

12. How to a run a specific web based report to identify any status?

Solution:
Open SCCM console, navigate to Site Database->Computer management->Reporting and click on reports. You can a list of default and customized reports which can be executed by Right click-> run (this runs the query which is being used to create the report) to view the web reports as shown below.

If the report ID is known then the particular report can be searched using “Look for” option as shown in the screenshot below.

13. How to export list from SCCM Console and resource explorer?

Solution:
Open SCCM console; navigate to Site Database->Computer Management-> All Systems, Right Click->View->Export List as shown below. This list contains the client computer names and it can saved as notepad or in excel format.
Select the client computer for which the list needs to be exported and Right Click->Start->Resource Explorer. Go to “Action” tab and select export list as shown below.

14. How to export SCCM web reports?

Solution:
Open SCCM console, navigate to Site Database->Computer management->Reporting and click on reports where all the required reports will be listed. Right click on any report and click run to execute the report (assuming that the report is already been created).

In the below screenshot “All advertisements for a Specific computer” has been executed.
The client computer name has been entered and click on display to run the query and the advertisement for the specific client will be displayed as shown below.

Click on “Export” option as shown below to export the result to the excel sheet.

15. How to Speed up software advertisement by forcing Policy Retrieval & Evaluation cycle?

Solution:
Open control panel, navigate to Configuration manager icon and click on it. As the ConfigMgr window pops up switch to action tab and initiate the “Machine policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle” by clicking on “Initiate Action” button as shown below.

16. How to verify the software package distribution status on a particular client machine?

Solution:
You can verify the status of a distribution by checking the execmgr.log file in c:\windows\system32\ccm\logs folder, and search for the particular software distribution using the packaged. If the package is success then “installation succeeded with the exit code 0” will be written into the log file.

You can also verify it by checking the registry key on a client computer, HKLM->Software->Microsoft->SMS->Mobile Client->Software Distribution->Execution History->System-><Package ID>->success or failure code will be written.

17. The client push installation may not work if its account is configured incorrectly or missing?

Solution:
This can be confirmed from ccm.log file on the site server which says,

“Attempting to connect to administrative share ‘\\COMPUTER1\Admin$’ using account ‘domain\account’
WNetAddConnection2 failed (LOGON32_LOGON_NEW_CREDENTIALS) using account domain\account (0000052e)
LogonUser failed (LOGON32_LOGON_INTERACTIVE) using account domain\account (0000052e)
ERROR: Unable to connect to remote registry for machine name “Computer”, error 5.
ERROR: Unable to access target machine for request: “Computer”, machine name: “Computer”, error code: 5”

On all potential client computers, the Advanced Client Push Installation process requires that you grant administrator rights and permissions to either of the following accounts:
• The SMS Service account when the site is running in standard security mode
• The Advanced Client Push Installation account
Clients that are not members of a domain cannot authenticate domain accounts. For clients that are not members of a domain, you can use a local account on the client computers.

For example, if you set up a standard account on each computer for administrative purposes, and all the accounts have the same password, you can define an Advanced Client Push Installation account as %machinename%\account.
18. Checking the overall Compliance using Update Lists when deploying Monthly Updates

Solution:
The overall compliance of a monthly update can be viewed using the “Compliance 1 – overall compliance” report.

To run this report open the SCCM console, navigate to Site management->Computer management-> Reporting->Reports, in the right pane you can list of reports from which select the above mentioned report and Right click->run.

When the report appears you will have to give some inputs like update ID and collection ID and click on display. Now you can view the overall compliance report of the monthly update.

19. If the operating system deployment through SCCM fails how you do identify the issue and troubleshoot it?

Solution:
When the client computer boots up with the Boot image and fails during the installation then there is an option to bring up a Debug command shell by pressing F8 option. This option is available only if the boot image in the SCCM server has been configured to “Enable command support”.

After bringing up the Debug command shell you can then check for the basic network connectivity between client and server, also you can check the SMSTS.log which is usually stored in X:\Windows\Temp\SMSTSLog\ or C:\SMSTSLog or C:\_SMSTaskSequence log file using the command prompt.

20. The SCCM client may not be installed properly or some agents won’t be running on the client computer. This client won’t be receiving any advertisements due to this issue.

Solution:
This can be verified from the control panel, configuration manager icon. Open the configuration manager item and swath to Action tab and if you see only some feature will be available like “User policy retrieval & Machine policy retrieval.
Look for the Locationserives.log file from c:\windows\system32\ccm\logs and it will contain the following error messages,
“Failed to refresh trusted key information while refreshing mp list”
“Failed to verify received message 0×80090006”
“Failed to verify received message 0x8009100e”

Follow the below steps to resolve this issue,
• Log on to the SCCM management point computer by using an account that has administrative permissions.
• Click Start, click Run, type services.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
• In the Services MMC snap-in, right-click SMS_EXECUTIVE, and then click Stop.
• In the Services MMC snap-in, right-click SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER, and then click Stop.
• Click Start, click Run, type ccmdelcert in the Open box, and then click OK.
• You receive the message:  “Successfully deleted cert”.
• In the Services MMC snap-in, right-click SMS_EXECUTIVE, and then click Start.
• In the Services MMC snap-in, right-click SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER, and then click Start.

21.  How to deploy an operating system on to an unknown or a bare metal (empty hard disk) Computers?

Solution:

a. Advise user to start the machine up and select the boot menu as soon as prompted.
i. Many different makes and models have different methods to boot via PXE, however the most common method is to press F12 on the initial BIOS screen.
b. Once the PXE process has begun it will attempt to connect to the PXE server. Once a response has been received ask the user to press F12 to continue when prompted
i. The user has only a couple of seconds to press F12 when prompted so make them aware prior.
ii. If the PXE fails to respond it could be a number of issues
1. The user’s machine is not located in the OS PXE Deployment collection, or the collection hasn’t been updated.
2. The Windows Deployment Server (WDS) is failing to respond to client requests.
3. User has not network connectivity, on this occasion it would be apparent from the on screen messages when attempting to get a DHCP address at the initialisation of the PXE request.
iii. If successful the user should not see a windows loading bar
iv. Within a couple of minutes the user should see a company background with a Deployment wizard.
v. Click next
vi. Select “<<Task Sequence Name required>>” and click next
vii. The user will see a progress bar as the wizard checks the deployment point that all the packages required for the deployment are available.
viii. If this process fails ask the user to read out the name of the package it failed on and check the distribution status of that package.
ix. The deployment will now commence.
x. Deployments via PXE take roughly around 1hr and 30mins to complete.

22. How to rebuild a client computer using SCCM?

Solution:

Determine which type of Rebuild is required:
i. If the user cannot access their Windows OS then only a PXE deployment (Refer No: 21) can be used. This method cannot utilise USMT and will completely wipe the hard drive with no attempt to backup any user data.
ii. If the user can access their Windows OS then we can used the SCCM Client to start the deployment process utilising USMT to attempt backup of the user’s profile.
For OS rebuild scenario to be successful the user’s machine must be available within SCCM. Move user machine to the OS Deployment Collection in SCCM
a. Connect to %SCCM Server %
b. Launch ConfigMgr Console
c. Expand the Computer Management Tree
d. Expand the Collections Tree
e. Right click on the OS PXE Deployments collection and select Properties
f. From the Properties Window select the Memberships Rules tab
g. Click the Create Direct Membership Rule button
h. On the first screen of the Create Direct Membership Rule Wizard click Next
i. Select System Resource from the Resource Class Drop Down
j. Select NetBIOS Name from the Attribute name
k. Input the user’s current machine’s computer name. Percentage signs can be used as wild cards to assist the search.
l. Click Next
m. Click Next
n. Click Finish
o. Right click on the OS PXE Deployments collection and select Update Collection Membership. It is also recommended you right click the same collection and select Refresh.
Desktop Rebuild via SCCM Client by retrieving policy
Retrieve latest Machine Policy for SCCM Client
p. Open Control Panel on the user’s machine
q. Double Click on the Configuration Manager Icon
r. Select the Actions Tab
s. Select Machine Policy Retrievals and Evaluation Cycle and press Initiate Action
t. This process can take a couple of minutes and if successful a system tray bubble will prompt you that a new OS Deployment is available.
Initiate OS Deployment
u. Open Control Panel
v. Double Click on Run Advertised Programs
w. Select <<Advertisement name required to run>>
x. Click Run
y. Click Agree to run the deployment when prompted to begin the deployment.
i. The deployment will take around 1hr 30mins to complete without consideration to profile data backup. The users of the user profiles on the machine will vary the total time taken.

23. How to monitor the OS deployment progress?

Solution:
a. In the Computer Management tree in SCCM ConfigMgr Console expand System Status.
b. Expand Advertisement Status
c. Click on <<Advertisement name to monitor the status>>
d. In the main contents window Right Click on <<Site name – Database name>>
e. From the Show Messages menu select All
f. You will now see status messages from all the deployments with the most recent ones at the top. If the machine hasn’t reported back for a long period e.g. 20mins that contact the user to investigate what is showing on screen as during the deployment this is your only visibility to the progress.
g. Errors and warnings show in the Status for the advert don’t always mean a complete failure however each error should be evaluated appropriately.

24. How to run an advertisement through “Run advertised program” item in the control panel?

Solution:
This “Run advertised program” in the control panel will have all the advertisement queued up in it which can be initiated manually.

Open control panel, navigate to Run advertised program and click on it. You will see a similar prompt as shown below. Select the advertisement name that is listed and click run which is located at the bottom right of the window.

Now the selected advertisement will start running on the client computer.

25.  How to take remote control of the client computer using SCCM console?

Solution:

Open SCCM console; navigate to “All systems” collections where your client computer will be populated. Right click on the client computer->Start->Remote tools.

Now you can be able to remotely connect the client computer to troubleshoot.