Monitoring OS deployments in SCCM

Since the introduction of the Monitoring function of MDT back with MDT 2012 i have searched for a comparable function in SCCM.


i found the following blogs: http://www.mockbox.net/configmgr-sccm/348-sccm-os-deployment-how-to-monitor-the-task-sequence
and http://www.ronnipedersen.com/2012/03/monitoring-configmgr-2012-os-deployment-using-state-messages/


After reading more of these kind of blogs i desided to install a monitoring instance in the deployment workbench as suggested by: http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrdogs/archive/2013/01/25/mdt-monitoring-another-reason-to-implement-mdt-2012-update-1-into-your-configmgr-2012-sp1-environment.aspx

Cumbersome

After i got all communication running and the MDT monitoring functioning i found out it did not really work as expected. most of the time the Monitor would, once of twice during the deployment, update its status but it would not exit it.

The easy solution

While browsing through the SCCM 2012 R2 console i found out SCCM has all the MDT alike monitoring stached away under: Monitoring - Overview- Deployments -the name of the deployment of the OS deployment
Just browse to the in progress tab (when the deployment is running), access the Asset Details and double click the asset, in the new Asset Message window. The second tab called Status will inform you the exact step of the task sequence.

There are no task sequences available to this computer (SCCM)

Case: you are refreshing a Operating System on a SCCM (2012) device, you start the machine in WinPE (PXE) reapply the Operating System and reinstall the machine.

During the deployment something goes wrong and the task sequence fails: you decide to reinstall the machine and boot it again in WinPE.

During the startup of WinPE (at the moment WinPE tries to get the available task sequences for this device) you get the message: "There are no task sequences available to this computer"

How come?

Explanation:

What happened that you are unaware of is that Config Manager created a NEW SMS ID using the GUID of your computer and placed it in the default "All Systems" collection that probably does not have any task sequence deployed to it. that's the reason there are no task sequences available for it.

Solution:

The best solution will be to use the newly created computer device of SCCM and place it in a collection that has a task sequence deployed to it. DO NOT TRY to delete the new SCCM device because you the old one, the one on the right place, has got the right deployment on it because SCCM recreated a new device ON PURPOSE. the meaning is that the old device got obsolete (property obsolete 'true') so a new fresh device was needed.
I have tried to delete the new device and get this property of the old device to false but that's a faulty and hard way because SCCM does other things to obsolete device too. by the way; there is no standardized way to change there properties. even if you're using PowerShell these properties are well hidden again on purpose.