How to increase the SMSTS.Log file size for PXE OS Deployments?

1. Create a new text file called SMSTS.ini in notepad with the following text.

[Logging]
LOGLEVEL=0
LOGMAXSIZE=5242880
LOGMAXHISTORY=3
DEBUGLOGGING=1
ENABLELOGGING=True

Make sure the file name is SMSTS.ini but NOT SMSTS.ini.txt.

2. Identity your boot image to be used in the task sequence and locate its wim file from its Properties in SCCM console.

By default this file is located on Configuration Manager primary server in the following path:

<SCCM-INSTALL-DIR>\OSD\boot\i386\boot.wim
<SCCM-INSTALL-DIR>\OSD\boot\x64\boot.wim

If you are using customized, do it the same way. All you need to do is to locate the customized wim image.

Note: Make a backup copy of the file before making any changes to it.

3. Mount wim image file. Refer to – https://wordpress.com/posts/sccmpeek.wordpress.com

4. Copy the SMSTS.INI file to the Windows directory

After entering the PXE password and before selecting a task sequence, SMSTS.log file shows the following message:

4. Update Distribution Points

Location of Task Sequence log smsts.log

The location of the task sequence log file smsts.log varies depending upon the phase of the task sequence:

• In Windows PE BEFORE Format and Partition Disk step: X:\Windows\temp\smstslog\smsts.log (X is the Windows PE RAM drive)
• In Windows PE AFTER Format and Partition Disk step: X:\smstslog\smsts.log, then copied to C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\smstslog\smsts.log when drive is ready
• In the new Windows OS BEFORE the client is installed: C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\smstslog\smsts.log
• In Windows AFTER the client is installed: C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\smstslog\smsts.log
• In Windows AFTER the task sequence completes: C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\smsts.log

References

• Task sequence log locations

Using task sequence to upgrade computers to 1909 failed with exit code hexadecimal 0x80070032

Sometimes you may encounter upgrade to 1909 failure via task sequence with the following exceptions in smsts.log –

OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) Windows Setup completed with exit code hexadecimal 0x80070032 (decimal 2147942450)
OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) Saving exit code of Windows upgrade - hexadecimal 0x80070032 (decimal 2147942450) - to Task sequence environment variable '_SMSTSOSUpgradeActionReturnCode', as decimal string
OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) Windows Setup failed with hexadecimal exit code 0x80070032 (decimal 2147942450). To identify the type of issue, lookup it against the table of known values of Windows Setup errors online.
OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) Failing this task sequence step
OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) upgrade.Run(), HRESULT=80004005 (upgradewindows.cpp,1727)
OSDUpgradeWindows 15052 (0x3acc) Exiting with code 0x80004005
TSManager 15264 (0x3ba0) Process completed with exit code 2147500037
TSManager 15264 (0x3ba0) Failed to run the action: Upgrade Operating System - zh-CN OS Lang only. Error -2147467259

0x80070032 refers to –

Error Code: 0x32 (50)
Error Name: ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
Error Source: Windows
Error Message: The request is not supported.

The setuperr.log contains the following –

Info MOUPG Mapped Global progress: [95%]
……
Warning VdsPlatform::IsAvailable: Couldn't create VDS loader instance (0x80080005)
Warning WMI Helper Library: Wmi::OpenNamespace: Too late to initialize COM security (0x80010119)
Error WMI Helper Library: Getting WMI Uint16 property DriveLetter: unexpected VARIANT type 1
Error Failed to read MSFT_Volume.DriveLetter, although the property exists; unexpected type? (0x8007070c)
Warning SmPlatform::IsAvailable: Couldn't initialize SM API (0x8007070c)
Error SP CSetupPlatform::Initialize: Disk provisioning is not available; hr = 0x80070032
Error SP ResurrectSetupPlatform: Cannot initialize deserialized setup platform. Error: 0x80070032

If you see the same messages, uninstall LanDesk from the client computer and try again.