[clivebuckwheat]

I have a lab of Dell Optiplex 755's 40 of them to be exact. I built my reference image in a virtual. I sealed the image with sysprep and then deployed it. When I came in today, I saw that 30 pc's were ok, but on 10 of them, I got a sysprep error Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass windows-setup at the specialize pass. I have uninstalled vmware tools before I sealed my image.

What I do not understand is the following, I have 40 Optiplex's 755's how can 30 of them be ok, and 10 crash. They are all the same hardware.

If you need anymore log files let me know.

I am severely stumped.

Here is my answer file

?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="specialize">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
<Identification>
<JoinWorkgroup>LABS</JoinWorkgroup>
</Identification>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
<ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
<RegisteredOrganization>My Organization</RegisteredOrganization>
<RegisteredOwner>My Organization</RegisteredOwner>
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
<RunSynchronous>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Description>UIU-COMMAND-ID={4dec1d91-5b7c-4f41-91e1-ee8d57db943e}</Description>
<Order>1</Order>
<Path>reg add &quot;HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\NewNetworks&quot; /v NetworkList /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d &quot;&quot; /f</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Path>net user administrator /active:yes</Path>
<Order>2</Order>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
</RunSynchronous>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
<UserAccounts>
<AdministratorPassword>
<Value>aABjAG0AaABzAD8AQQBkAG0AaQBuAGkAcwB0AHIAYQB0AG8AcgBQAGEAcwBzAHcAbwByAGQA</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</AdministratorPassword>
<LocalAccounts>
<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
<Password>
<Value>dABlAGEAYwBoAGUAcgBQAGEAcwBzAHcAbwByAGQA</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</Password>
<Description>Faculty</Description>
<DisplayName>Faculty</DisplayName>
<Group>Administrator</Group>
<Name>Faculty</Name>
</LocalAccount>
<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
<Password>
<Value>aABjAG0AaABzAD8AUABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</Password>
<Description>Admin</Description>
<DisplayName>Admin</DisplayName>
<Group>Administrator</Group>
<Name>Admin</Name>
</LocalAccount>
</LocalAccounts>
</UserAccounts>
<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
<NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
<ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
</OOBE>
<TimeZone>Eastern Standard Time</TimeZone>
<AutoLogon>
<Password>
<Value>aABjAG0AaABzAD8AUABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</Password>
<Enabled>true</Enabled>
<Username>Administrator</Username>
</AutoLogon>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
<InputLocale>0409:00000409;1009:00001009;0c0c:00000c0c</InputLocale>
<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/winpro764bit/install.wim#Windows 7 ENTERPRISE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>



Setuperr.log

2011-08-08 16:46:05, Error SYSPRP SPPNP: Error 0x2 setting SDDL on driver file C:\Windows\system32\drivers\vmaudio.sys!
2011-08-08 16:46:05, Error SYSPRP SPPNP: Error 0x2 setting SDDL on driver file C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\vmci.sys!

[Tripredacus]

Of course we all know not all hardware is really the same, even if they have the same model number. Why it worked on most isn't a concern really, but it is obvious there are still VM files in the image if they are being referenced in the log file.

Anyways, you can just try to redo those 10 again to see what happens.

Please remember to use code tags (even though you left a character out at the beginning of your paste)

[clivebuckwheat]

Actually no those two vm files do not exist in the image. I did a double check. I did uninstall vmware tools BEFORE sealing the image.

But there is reference to them in the registry I will delete all references to them (4 Places)

and try again. I will post back later today.

Thank you for the reply.

This post has been edited by clivebuckwheat: 19 August 2011 - 11:14 AM

[IcemanND]

verify the bios level on the ten machines is the same as the other 30. We used to have this problem regularly with windows xp and Dell systems when motherboards were replaced under warranty and were a different BIOS revision or HW build revision.

[Kel]

Hi clivebuckwheat

I was pretty sure that the 755 was intel based and not AMD... Was the inage captured on intel or AMD? I had a similar issue when we bought our first AMD machines and applied an intel image. There's a device driver that needs to be disabled when doing this as I found out. Anyway if that's your issue this might help. The device was IntelPPM from memory.

[clivebuckwheat]

Well I am in big trouble

I just tried my image on 8 more Dell Optiplex 755's and all of them crashed

This post has been edited by clivebuckwheat: 22 August 2011 - 05:23 AM

[myselfidem]

About your Unattend.xml file, change for Admin and Faculty:

<Group>Administrators</Group>

Remove: <SkipMachineOOBE> and <SkipUserOOBE>. These values are DEPRECATED for Windows 7.
You can choose inside OOBE section the values you need!

<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
<ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE> (remove)
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE> (remove)
</OOBE>

About drivers, you can try to add:

Quote

Persisting Plug and Play Device Drivers During generalize

You can persist device drivers when you run the sysprep command with the /generalize option by specifying the PersistAllDeviceInstalls setting in the Microsoft-Windows-PnPSysprep component.
During the specialize configuration pass, Plug and Play scans the computer for devices and installs device drivers for the detected devices.
By default, these device drivers are removed from the system when you generalize the system.
If you set PersistAllDeviceInstalls to true in an answer file, Sysprep will not remove the detected device drivers.
For more information, see the Unattended Windows Setup Reference (Unattend.chm).

http://technet.micro...512(WS.10).aspx

About <RegisteredOrganisation>, it seems it's better to not add a space!

<RegisteredOrganization>My_Organization</RegisteredOrganization>

I hope that can help you!

*Edit: Please ATTACH your files and no paste them. Your script "setupact.log" freeze the loading page site and must be stopped !

This post has been edited by myselfidem: 22 August 2011 - 03:41 AM

[clivebuckwheat]

Thanks myselfidem, but I built my reference image in a VM so how would PersistAllDeviceInstalls help, should I not be generalizing everything?, as you can see above sysprep is complaining about two files vmaudio and vmcmi.sys

myselfidem, on 21 August 2011 - 11:54 PM, said:

About your Unattend.xml file, change for Admin and Faculty:

<Group>Administrators</Group>

Remove: <SkipMachineOOBE> and <SkipUserOOBE>. These values are DEPRECATED for Windows 7.
You can choose inside OOBE section the values you need!

<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
<ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE> (remove)
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE> (remove)
</OOBE>

About drivers, you can try to add:

Quote

Persisting Plug and Play Device Drivers During generalize

You can persist device drivers when you run the sysprep command with the /generalize option by specifying the PersistAllDeviceInstalls setting in the Microsoft-Windows-PnPSysprep component.
During the specialize configuration pass, Plug and Play scans the computer for devices and installs device drivers for the detected devices.
By default, these device drivers are removed from the system when you generalize the system.
If you set PersistAllDeviceInstalls to true in an answer file, Sysprep will not remove the detected device drivers.
For more information, see the Unattended Windows Setup Reference (Unattend.chm).

http://technet.micro...512(WS.10).aspx

About <RegisteredOrganisation>, it seems it's better to not add a space!

<RegisteredOrganization>My_Organization</RegisteredOrganization>

I hope that can help you!

*Edit: Please ATTACH your files and no paste them. Your script "setupact.log" freeze the loading page site and must be stopped !

[myselfidem]

clivebuckwheat, on 19 August 2011 - 06:03 AM, said:

Setuperr.log

2011-08-08 16:46:05, Error SYSPRP SPPNP: Error 0x2 setting SDDL on driver file C:\Windows\system32\drivers\vmaudio.sys!
2011-08-08 16:46:05, Error SYSPRP SPPNP: Error 0x2 setting SDDL on driver file C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\vmci.sys!

I made some search and I saw that these files are specific drivers for VMware Virtual Machine!

Maybe there is an update to fix this issue with VMware? Or it's possible to remove those files inside your image before capturing or after with DISM?

http://kb.vmware.com...ernalId=1009826

Maybe this video can give you some help:

NEW Videos:
http://www.wincert.n...nt-101-updated/

About SDDL:

http://blogs.dirteam...dl-strings.aspx

http://networkadmink...ACE_String.aspx

http://technet.micro...325(WS.10).aspx (about SID)

You can also, as I see inside the forum (I don't remember where is this thread!):

Quote

Another way is to access OFFLINE the Windows 7 Registry and delete all keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

(they will be re-initialized correctly if your is a "standard" install, there may be problems with "strange" partitioning setups and/or drive letter changed during original install).

Regards

This post has been edited by myselfidem: 22 August 2011 - 11:23 AM

[clivebuckwheat]

Tonight I cleaned up my answer file. Out of 10 computers I had 1 crash on the specialize pass of my answer. I then checked the setuperr.log and it was empty

Here is my cleaned up answer file. I will attached my panther log files if anyone would be so kind as to take a look. Nothing seems out of the ordinary to me. The problem occurs sporadically on Dell Optiplex Models 755, 760 and 780'S.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
            <Identification>
                <JoinWorkgroup>LABS</JoinWorkgroup>
            </Identification>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
            <ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
            <RegisteredOrganization>DC</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>DC</RegisteredOwner>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
            <RunSynchronous>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Description>UIU-COMMAND-ID={4dec1d91-5b7c-4f41-91e1-ee8d57db943e}</Description>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                    <Path>reg add &quot;HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\NewNetworks&quot; /v NetworkList /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d &quot;&quot; /f</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
				 <Order>2</Order>
                    <Path>net user administrator /active:yes</Path>            
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
            </RunSynchronous>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
            <UserAccounts>
                <AdministratorPassword>
                    <Value>aABjAG0AaABzAD8AQQBkAG0AaQBuAGkAcwB0AHIAYQB0AG8AcgBQAGEAcwBzAHcAbwByAGQA</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </AdministratorPassword>
            </UserAccounts>
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
                <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
                <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <TimeZone>Eastern Standard Time</TimeZone>
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>aABjAG0AaABzAD8AUABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Enabled>true</Enabled>
                <Username>Administrator</Username>
            </AutoLogon>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <InputLocale>0409:00000409;1009:00001009;0c0c:00000c0c</InputLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/winpro764bit/install.wim#Windows 7 ENTERPRISE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Attached File(s)

•  Panther.zip (13.96K)
  Number of downloads: 3

[IcemanND]

I still maintain that it is a hardware failure or difference (bios, hw build, etc, Dell has caused this issue for me for years), if you had it work without error on 90% of the systems it is not your image or your answer file.

Are you using the Universal Imaging Utility in creating your image?

[clivebuckwheat]

We use to use UIU but not any longer. So the best thing I can do is make sure BIOS are up to date I guess. The strange thing is after sysprep has crashed. If I re-image the same machine again it usually works.

Also to get out of the sysprep crash. I do SHIFT+F10.

Net user Administrator /active:yes

The go to regedit

HKLMSystemSetup

Clear the cmdline entry in the registry

and set all other values in this branch to 0 and reboot and windows will boot.

I guess this is a mystery that I will never solve.

[Tripredacus]

The situation you are running into is hardly rare. In my last company and my current company I always have to tell our techs that if an image fails, try it again. If it fails again then there is something wrong with the system. This is because the images (and boot environments) are known to work across multiple hardware platforms. If the problem is persistant, get that PC into repair to find out what is wrong and get it fixed.

[clivebuckwheat]

Thanks you made me feel a little better. I have spent 3 weeks on this problem but the problem is so random. I have been over my answer file with a fine tooth comb and the image is so clean yet sometimes it crashes on the specialize pass. This problem makes after hours imaging rather impossible. Someone told me it might be the copy profile bombing. Is there anyway to check this out?

This post has been edited by clivebuckwheat: 08 September 2011 - 08:22 AM

[maxXPsoft]

1. Make sure you burn any MS iso at 4x max. I had errors with Dell mainly burning faster
2. never in the setuperr.log. Look for error in setupact.log. I don't see anything in the setupact.log. Did you copy this from C:\Windows\Panther? Sometimes the error reflects in C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC
http://www.msfn.org/...486#entry888486

[clivebuckwheat]

I built it straight from the iso mount so burn speed is not the issue.

The logs I zip are from

C:\Windows\system32\Sysprep\Panther

I will check C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC next time it occurs.

This post has been edited by clivebuckwheat: 08 September 2011 - 09:34 AM

[clivebuckwheat]

The Sysprep crashed happened again.

This time I will upload the logs from C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC thanks for the tip. It seems that sysprep is crashing on the copy profile.

I have looked for any extra profiles in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ProfileList there are none

also no extra users in computer management-->Local Users and Groups

There is only Administrator and Guest.

[windeploy.exe] WinDeploy.exe launched with command-line
2011-09-09 21:14:05, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Setup has not completed, adding pending reboot.
2011-09-09 21:14:05, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Found generalization state [0x4], setup.exe completion flag [False] --> launching setup.exe.
2011-09-09 21:14:05, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Launching [C:\Windows\system32\oobe\setup.exe]...
2011-09-09 21:30:25, Info                         [Shell Unattend] Running 'specialize' pass
2011-09-09 21:30:25, Info                         [Shell Unattend] ComputerName: generating computer name from user name
2011-09-09 21:30:25, Info                         [Shell Unattend] ComputerName: generated name 'DCDC-G5GMRBVM30'
2011-09-09 21:30:26, Info                         [Shell Unattend] ComputerName set to DCDC-G5GMRBVM30 
2011-09-09 21:32:21, Error                        [Shell Unattend] CopyProfileDirectory from C:\Users\Administrator failed (0x8007012b) [gle=0x0000012b]
2011-09-09 21:32:21, Error                        [Shell Unattend] _CopyToDefaultProfile failed (0x8007012b) [gle=0x0000012b]
2011-09-09 21:32:21, Error                        [Shell Unattend] CopyProfile failed (0x8007012b) [gle=0x0000012b]
2011-09-09 21:32:21, Info                         [Shell Unattend] Exiting 'specialize' pass with status 0x8007012b
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Process exited with exit code [0x1f]
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Error                        [windeploy.exe] Setup.exe failed, returning exit code [0x1f]
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Error                        [windeploy.exe] Failure occured during online installation.  Online installation cannot complete at this time.; hr = 0x80004005
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Flushing registry to disk...
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Info                         [windeploy.exe] Flush took 265 ms.
2011-09-09 21:42:00, Info                         [windeploy.exe] WinDeploy.exe exiting with code [0x80004005]

Attached File(s)

•  Panther.zip (59.39K)
  Number of downloads: 3

This post has been edited by clivebuckwheat: 10 September 2011 - 07:36 AM

[maxXPsoft]

Some things that bother me but I don't know why you say it work on 30 of 40

It seem that you should have used CopyProfile on original image.
To copy the Administrator profile I think you need to AutoLogon with Admin or his profile folder don't exist.

This post has been edited by maxXPsoft: 10 September 2011 - 10:21 AM

[cluberti]

CopyProfile needs to be done in the sysprep that is laying the image down onto new hardware. You can't, and shouldn't, try to do it during capture - only deploy. Also, you do not need to autologon, because the profile will exist if you logged on as admin in the original image and made the requisite modifications to have required CopyProfile in the first place.

As to the error, it at least tells us something - that error code means "ERROR_PARTIAL_COPY", which is stating that it is having an issue either reading or writing some of what it is attempting to write from memory to disk. I don't know why, but either there's an issue with the profile in the captured image (not totally impossible), or there could be hardware issues with the destination machines.

[clivebuckwheat]

cluberti, on 10 September 2011 - 07:10 PM, said:

CopyProfile needs to be done in the sysprep that is laying the image down onto new hardware. You can't, and shouldn't, try to do it during capture - only deploy. Also, you do not need to autologon, because the profile will exist if you logged on as admin in the original image and made the requisite modifications to have required CopyProfile in the first place.

As to the error, it at least tells us something - that error code means "ERROR_PARTIAL_COPY", which is stating that it is having an issue either reading or writing some of what it is attempting to write from memory to disk. I don't know why, but either there's an issue with the profile in the captured image (not totally impossible), or there could be hardware issues with the destination machines.

Thanks Cluberti,

It works on 98% of the hardware I have thrown the image at. It seems to dislike the Dell Optiplex 755, 760, and 780 Models. On a lab of 40 pc's I get maybe 5 with the sysprep crash. All machines have been brought up to the latest BIOS. Hopefully I'll figure it out.