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using Offline Mode in Windows PE using USMT 4 via a task sequence in SCCM 2007 SP2

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hi all,

 

Note: This post has been reproduced in a webcast, so if you'd like to see a video of Offline Mode in WinPE then click here

 

 

 

well this feature in USMT 4 is handy, as it allows you to do a scanstate while in Windows PE in other words, not in the OS so no problems with services running or applications running meaning that you get to backup everything you want without any locked files stopping from doing so.

 

Offline mode does however have some restrictions, read this page on Technet for details of that. To get around these restrictions and to migrate wallpaper see here, to migrate your network printers see here.

 

 

Great, but how do I do Offline Mode in Windows PE using SCCM ?

 

according to Microsoft, we can use the /offlinewindir switch in USMT 4 with scanstate.

 

/offlinewindir: "path to a windows directory"

 

 

This option specifies the offline Windows directory that the ScanState command gathers user state from. The offline directory can be Windows.old when you run the ScanState command in Windows or a Windows directory when you run the ScanState command in Windows PE. This option is incompatible with the /offline option.

 

However, implementing it isn't so straigtforward as you've probably already discovered and documentation about getting it to work within SCCM is as far as I can see pretty much non-existant,

so here courtesy of windows-noob.com is one way of doing it, feel free to show us other ways.

 

The theory behind this:-

 

As the Capture User State Step in a standard task sequence can only run in Windows, we cannot use that step to do our scanstate while in Windows PE, therefore we will use some tricks to run scanstate from WinPE.

 

To do this we create two special packages, the first package contains a batch file which calls the scanstate.exe file and the second package is the entire USMT X86 scanstate files and folders, (note: in this example we are using scanstate from the X86 folder).

 

This means that we create a separate package to the normal USMT4 package and this is only because this example is a workaround or proof of concept to prove that Offline Mode in Windows PE can be done via a Task Sequence in SCCM.

 

Update: If you would like sample code to check for and use the correct USMT architecture in offline mode then see Peters post here

 

 

Get your lab ready

 

We need a Windows XP client machine to test scanstate on and you should enable the F8 command prompt option in your boot.wim (you'll need it).

 

 

The Task Sequence

 

You can use this Task Sequence in SCCM by importing it. Please note this task sequence only has the 4 groups in it, if you want the 4 groups plus OSD then use the other Task Sequence further down.

 

Offline Mode in Windows PE using USMT 4.xml

 

The task sequence depends on three packages, the X86 bits from your USMT 4 (ie: copy everything in the X86 folder from C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\USMT folder. There are two versions, one for 32bit (X86) and one for 64bit (amd64), we are only using the X86 bits in this guide), the Batchfile

 

offline mode references.jpg

 

 

I break up my task sequence into four distinct groups, Set, Create, xcopy and Run

 

SET

 

 

In the Set group I set SystemDrive to c: (otherwise it will try and do this on the windows PE x: drive)

 

set systemdrive variable.jpg

 

Next we set the OSDStateStorePath Task Sequence Variable to %systemdrive%\USMToffline which translates to c:\USMToffline, this directory will store our migration data during scanstate operations and when the new os is being applied.

 

set osdstatestorepath.jpg

 

Finally we set the hardlink load parameters

 

set hardlink load parameters.jpg

 

 

CREATE

 

In the Create group we just create two folders, c:\USMToffline,

 

create usmt offline folder.jpg

 

and c:\USMTbits\X86

 

create usmt bits folder.jpg

 

 

the c:\USMTbits\X86 will store all our scanstate native files.

 

 

XCOPY

 

In the xcopy group we do the clever stuff, we copy the X86 USMT stuff to the newly created folder, and then we copy our batch file for later user.

 

xcopy usmtbits.jpg

 

The batch file itself has the following contents

 

 

@set USMT_WORKING_DIR=%~2%\USMTbits\x86

"%~2\USMTbits\x86\scanstate.exe" "%~1" /c /o /hardlink /efs:hardlink /nocompress /offlinewindir:c:\windows /v:5 /l:%~2\windows\TEMP\SMSTSLog\scanstate.log /progress:%~2\windows\TEMP\SMSTSLog\scanstateprogress.log /i:%~2\USMTbits\x86\miguser.xml /i:%~2\USMTbits\x86\migapp.xml

 

xcopy runscanstate.jpg

 

You can download the batchfile below however you must rename it back to .bat

 

runscanstate-offlinewindir.bat.txt

 

 

RUN

 

The Run group does the actual running of the batch file and passes two variables to the file.

 

do scanstate.jpg

 

 

 

Testing Offline Mode.

 

Create an optional advertisement to a Migrate XP to W7 X86 collection for the Task Sequence and PXE boot your XP client (press F12 first....), select the Task Sequence when the wizard appears,

 

ts wizard welcome.jpg

 

at this point press F8 to bring up the command prompt, you are doing this to verify that your data is getting migrated in OFFLINE mode. So here we can see the command prompt is open.

 

cmd prompt before ts starts.jpg

 

Ok switch back to the TS and start the task sequence. You will see it starts creating the folders, copying the USMT stuff and our batch file(s) and then actually running the scanstate command.

 

copying.jpg

 

do x86 scanstate.jpg

 

Once it is completed your migrated data will now be stored in C:\USMToffline\USMT

 

browse it and verify

 

migrated data stored in usmt offline folder.jpg

 

If you want to see a working SMSTS.log file from the above test see below

 

smsts.log

 

 

Ok now what ?

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hi all please take care my issue i am in a ccritical phase

 

I have to ask, did you open loadstate.log in notepad or Trace32 ? if you did you would have seen this error (search for the word failed)

 

2012-07-27 12:35:26, Error [0x000000] The account USMT_TEST\user is chosen for migration, but the target does not have account USMT_TEST\user. See documentation on /lac, /lae, /ui, /ue and /uel options.

2012-07-27 12:35:26, Info [0x000000] Failed.[gle=0x00000006]

2012-07-27 12:35:26, Info [0x000000] Unable to create a local account because /lac was not specified[gle=0x00000006]

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thanks for your reply, i have delete this account from my machine and then try again but same issue happend.another thing is that i used Win 7 Image from win7 soures directory , its installed in d:\ , and found my usmtoffline folder is there but i cann't open this from userlogin it needs admin rights..now what i have to do first ????

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first things first, create your Windows 7 master image using the step by step guide here. Secondly post your log files so that we can see what is wrong and explain what you expected to happen and what actually happened.

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"look for the loadstate.log file in this location, it's listed clearly in your smsts-.... log file (did you look at the contents of that log file?)

 

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\loadstate.log

 

post that loadstate.log file here and we'll help you."

 

 

When I go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs there is not another folder called SMSTSLog.

 

I even ran a search on the entire C: drive for loadstate.log and it didn't find it.

 

 

Just incase i messed up on the Task Sequence I have attached a copy of it.

offlineUSMT.xml

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i have upload the log file smsts_.log is before installing win 7 and smsts.log is after .......

 

you have the same error as before, have you looked into using /lac ?

 

2012-07-30 15:09:27, Info [0x000000] User MICRO\Shiv maps to S-1-5-21-2760556480-1000891799-448535303-1109

2012-07-30 15:09:27, Info [0x000000] User USER\Administrator maps to WIN7\Administrator

2012-07-30 15:09:27, Error [0x000000] The account USER\Shiv is chosen for migration, but the target does not have account WIN7\Shiv. See documentation on /lac, /lae, /ui, /ue and /uel options.

2012-07-30 15:09:27, Info [0x000000] Failed.[gle=0x00000006]

2012-07-30 15:09:27, Info [0x000000] Unable to create a local account because /lac was not specified[gle=0x00000006]

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