Understanding Log Files

Article
12/19/2007

Before effective troubleshooting of Microsoft Deployment can begin, team members should have a clear understanding of the many logs used during an operating system deployment. When it is clear which .log files must be researched for what failure condition and at what time, certain issues that were once mysterious and difficult to understand may become clear and understandable.

The Microsoft Deployment .log file format is designed to be read by Trace32, which is part of the Systems Management Server 2003 Toolkit 2 (available for download from https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61e4e21f-2652-42dd-a04d-b67f0573751d). This tool should be used whenever possible to read the logs, because it makes finding errors much easier.

The rest of this section details the .log files created during the deployment as well as during Windows Setup. This section also provides examples of when the files can be used for troubleshooting.

Microsoft Deployment Log Files

Each Microsoft Deployment script automatically creates log files during its execution. The names of these log files match the name of the script—for example, ZTIGather.wsf creates a log file named ZTIGather.log. Each script also updates a common master log file (BDD.log) that aggregates the contents of logs that Microsoft Deployment scripts create. Microsoft Deployment logs reside in the C:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS folder during the deployment process. Depending on the type of deployment being conducted, the logs are moved at the completion of the deployment to either the %WINDIR%\SMSOSD folder or the %WINDIR%\TEMP\SMSOSD folder. Microsoft Deployment creates the following log files:

BDD.log. This is the aggregated Microsoft Deployment log file that is copied to a network location at the end of the deployment if the SLShare property is specified in the Customsettings.ini file.
DeployUpdates_ Platform. log. This file is created when deployment points are updated or when updating Windows PE. Platform represents the platform being updated—either x86 or x64. This log is useful when troubleshooting Windows PE driver-integration issues. It resides in the %TEMP% folder.
LiteTouch.log. This file is created during LTI deployments. It resides in the %WINDIR%\Temp\BDDLogs folder unless the /debug:true option was specified.
Scriptname .log. This file is created by each Microsoft Deployment script. Scriptname represents the name of the script in question.
SMSTS.log. This file is created by the Task Sequencer and describes all Task Sequencer transactions. Depending on the deployment scenario, it may reside in %TEMP%, %WINDIR%\System32\ccm\logs, or C:\SMSTSLog.
Wizard.log. The deployment wizards create and update this file.
WPEinit.log. This file is created during the Windows PE initialization process. This log file is useful for troubleshooting errors encountered while starting Windows PE.
ZeroTouchInstallation.log. This file is created during ZTI deployments. It may reside in C:\Temp\SMSOSD or C:\SMSOSD unless the C:\MININT\Archive_OSD.SMS file is found.

Operating System Logs

Team members must review several Windows Setup log files during troubleshooting activities.

Windows Vista

The following list is a subset of the Windows Setup log files that are most useful for troubleshooting deployment issues. For more detailed information about Windows Vista Setup log files, see the Microsoft Help and Support article, “Windows Vista setup log file locations,” at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/927521.

Netsetup.log. Resides in %WINDIR%\Debug; useful when troubleshooting domain join issues
Setupact.log. Resides in %WINDIR%\panther; lists installation actions and is useful when investigating failed installations
Setupapi.dev.log. Resides in %WINDIR%\inf; useful when investigating failed driver installations
Setuperr.log. Resides in %WINDIR%\panther; details errors that occurred during installation

Windows XP

The following log files, located in the %WINDIR% folder, are the most useful when troubleshooting Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2):

Netsetup.log. Resides in %WINDIR%\Debug; useful when troubleshooting domain join issues
Setupact.log. Lists installation actions; useful when investigating failed installations
Setupapi.log. Contains information about hardware detection during the installation; useful for investigating failed driver installations
Setuperr.txt. Contains information about Setup errors during the installation
Setuperr.log. Details errors that occurred during installation
Setuplog.txt. Contains information about Setup actions during the installation

SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack Logs

The following logs, located in the C:\MININT\SMSOSD\OSDLOGS folder, are created during the deployment phases of the SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack. After the log name is the information contained in the log:

IDUser.log. Provides information about user notifications
IDUserNotification.log. Provides information about user notifications
MachineState.log. Contains computer state migration information (computer name, IP address, registered owner and organization)
OSDAgent.log. The primary log; the first place to look to determine which step failed
OSDBootstrap.log. Will contain errors if the Advanced Client Network Access account is not configured correctly
OSDEnv.log. Details which SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack environment variables are set
OSDInstallWIM.log. Details image-installation options
OSDInstallWizard.log. Details startup operations
OSDLaunch.log. Will contain errors if the Advanced Client Network Access account is not configured correctly
OSDShell.log. Details the start of the OSD Install Wizard
OSDSWDProgramExec.log. Details the running of the Run SWD Program actions
OSDUsmtLoadstate.log. Details USMT Restore operations
OSDUsmtScanstate.log. Details USMT Capture operations
ScanState.log. Details USMT ScanState information
SMSCMT.log. Details Systems Management Server 2003 client migration information such as site code and client globally unique identifiers (GUIDs)
WinPEInstall.log. Details Windows PE installation information

Note The C:\minint folder is lost during the disk partitioning process. To troubleshoot issues that occur before this point, disable the disk partitioning task in the Task Sequencer.

USMT Logs

When executing USMT operations, Microsoft Deployment automatically adds the logging switches to save the USMT logs to the Microsoft Deployment log file locations. The logs and when they are created are as follows:

USMTEstimate.log. Created when estimating the USMT requirements
USMTCapture.log. Created by the USMT when capturing data
USMTRestore.log. Created by the USMT when restoring data

Sample Log Review

Failure to Access the Database

An error occurred while executing a deployment that used a CustomSettings.ini file containing numerous sections and specifying, via the Priority property, the priority of each section to be processed. BDD.log contained the following error messages:

ERROR - Opening Record Set (Error Number = -2147217911) (Error Description: The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'ComputerAdministrators', database 'AdminDB', schema 'dbo'.)
ADO error: The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'ComputerAdministrators', database 'AdminDB', schema 'dbo'. (Error #-2147217911; Source: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server; SQL State: 42000; NativeError: 229
ERROR - Unhandled error returned by ZTIGather: Object required (424)

Note For clarity, the .log contents above have been represented as they appear while being viewed using Trace32.

The issue, as pointed out on the first line of the .log sample, is that permission to access the database was denied. Therefore, the script could not establish a secure connection to the database, because OSDConnectToUNC.exe was not available; nor was a user ID and password. As a result, the database access was attempted using the computer account. It was determined that the easiest way to work around this issue was to grant everyone Read access to the database.

Implement the Windows Update Script

If team members decide to implement the ZTIWindowsUpdate.wsf script to apply software updates during deployment, note that this script communicates directly with the Microsoft Update Web site to download and install the required Windows Update Agent binaries, scan for applicable software updates, download the binaries for the applicable software updates, and then install the downloaded binaries. This process requires that the organization’s networking infrastructure be configured to allow the target computer to gain access to the Microsoft Update Web site.

If the target computer does not have appropriate Internet access, the following error is reported in the ZTIWindowsUpdate.log and BDD.log files: wuredist.cab not found.