CustomSettings.ini naming of computer

Question

_{Tuesday, July 7, 2015 5:29 PM}

The SCCM environment is MDT integrated and uses CustomSettings.ini to modify the name of a computer.

When I image a client machine that has a gateway not defined in the CustomSettings.ini file, imaging fails.

I thought imaging will continue and complete successfully with the computer name as %Loc%xxxxxxxx because the final name of the computer is less than 15 characters.
However, I received the error of "Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer."

What did I configure wrong?

CustomSettings.ini:

[Settings]
Priority=Init, DefaultGateway, Default
Properties=Loc,SNum

[Init]
SNum=%SerialNumber%

[DefaultGateway]
10.1.0.1=ABC
10.1.1.1=XYZ

[ABC]
Loc=ABC

[XYZ]
Loc=XYZ

[Default]
OSDComputerName=%Loc%%SNum%
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=NO
SkipProductKey=YES

All replies (5)

_{Tuesday, July 7, 2015 9:49 PM ✅Answered}

I still like to use CustomSettings.INI when I have MDT integrated into SCCM, for just the sort of stuff you're doing. A few things to check out:

• Make sure you have a Gather step that references your CustomSettings.ini file package, particularly if you have any reboots before your Apply Windows Settings step
• You can echo the OSDComputerName value right before your Apply Windows Settings step to make sure it looks right
• I suspect the issue is that your %LOC% variable is not set and therefor your computername value actually has a "%" in it, which is invalid. As a troubleshooting step, try some more static values first so you know it's working and then you can troubleshoot your variables. Why do you need to set SNum anyway, since it's the same value as SerialNumber?

[Settings]
Priority=Init, DefaultGateway, Default
Properties=Loc,SNum

[Init]
SNum=%SerialNumber%

[DefaultGateway]
10.1.0.1=ABC
10.1.1.1=XYZ

[ABC]
Loc=ABCOSDComputerName=ABC%SerialNumber%
[XYZ]
Loc=XYZOSDComputerName=XYZ%SerialNumber%

[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=NO
SkipProductKey=YES

_{Tuesday, July 7, 2015 5:51 PM}

Examine ZTIGather.log and the windows setup logs that can be found in %windir%\panther and \debug.

Torsten Meringer | http://www.mssccmfaq.de

_{Tuesday, July 7, 2015 7:10 PM}

I made a mistake, the error that I actually got was "Windows Could Not parse or process unattend answer file for pass [specialize]. The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied."

At the beginning of the imaging, the log in X:\Windows\Temp\SMSTS\ZTIGather.log states that following:

OSDCOMPUTERNAME=%Loc%LR034MJC

Once the imaging failed and I check the log from _SMSTask Sequence\Logs\ZTIGather.log:

Property HostName is now = MININT-0MGD84K

%windir%\Panther\setuperr.txt:

Unattend action failed with exit code 4
Execution of unattend GCs failed; hr = 0x0; pResults->hrResult = 0x8030000b

%windir%\Panther\UnattendGC\setuperr.txt:

CommitConnectedUser failed [hr=0x80070490]; cleaning up
ComputerName: failed to set the computer name [hr=0x80070057][gle=0x00000057]

_{Tuesday, July 7, 2015 8:31 PM}

This is totally my own opinion, but during MDT/ConfMgr integration I would not touch MDT config-files at all. Try to do all configuration with TS Steps and UDI. It´s way different approach when you configure MDT stand-alone versus MDT/ConfMgr integration.

If you go with default customsettings.ini and unattend.xml, that step should go through with no problem, you´re having problems now.

If you need to create different setups for different locations, I would go with UDI custom pages and variables.

_{Friday, July 10, 2015 1:31 PM}

I think you are correct in that the % character is causing chaos.

Can I add the variable Loc in the Init section for initialization.  So if a computer doesn't belong to one of the gateway defined, then it will use the initial value?  Such as below?

[Settings]
Priority=Init, DefaultGateway, Default
Properties=Loc

[Init]
Loc=AAA

[DefaultGateway]
10.1.0.1=ABC
10.1.1.1=XYZ

[ABC]
Loc=ABC

[XYZ]
Loc=XYZ

[Default]
OSDComputerName=%Loc%%SNum%
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=NO
SkipProductKey=YES