Applies to LANDesk Management Suite 9 SP3 and newer
Issue
When selecting a template to run on a WinPE device, or scheduling a template to a machine in WinPE, the template will not start and usually goes through the 40 retries. Looking in the LANDesk Management Console, the machine appears in the task and may show as "Failed" and/or "Off". Often this same template worked just fine in LANDesk Management Suite 9 SP2.
The Prov_Schedule.exe.log file on the Core Server often says "GetDeviceNameAndIP failed" or "Failed to preprod machine"
Cause
This issue is caused by attempting to run a Provisioning template that contains actions in the System Migration section on a machine in WinPE. Most commonly this is seen in a template that has a vBoot or Reboot action in the System Migration section to start the template. Normally this is so that machines that are still in Windows can get into WinPE.
Because the machine is in WinPE, the processes that normally start the template don't function and cause the template to fail, since the first action (Reboot) cannot be run.
Why did this work before?
Many times the exact same template worked perfectly in previous versions of LANDesk 9, and started having problems in SP3. Prior to SP3, there were significant issues on getting accurate and correct status information to the Core server in a timely manner. Many times, all of the machine in the task would have had a status of "Delayed". This status was incorrect and would often persist even after the task had started. However this particular problem allowed templates that contained System Migration actions to skip the entire section when started on a client already in WinPE. Basically another problem allowed functionality that shouldn't have existed. In SP3, the status and task information is much more correct and timely, meaning machines in WinPE can no longer take advantage of the error and skip the System Migration step.
This is the intended functionality. While many templates simply have a Reboot action to get the machine to WinPE, the System Migration section could contain other actions that could be vital. For example, it could be capturing a profile or backing up files prior to imaging the machine. Skipping those actions could be detrimental.
Solution
At present, the best solution is to remove the Reboot (or vBoot) action from the System Migration section of the provisioning template if you would like to start the template on machine in WinPE. That would apply to machines where the template is manually selected from the menu, or the template is scheduled and the machine booted to WinPE.
Another template that DOES contain the Reboot (or vBoot) action can be created and used to target clients that are still in Windows and should be rebooted to get into WinPE. The simplest way to do this is to right-click the current template and select Clone and modify it as needed. Alternatively, the WinPE template (the one without the Reboot action) could be included in another template. Then just add a Reboot action at the beginning. That way any changes to the overall process can be made in just the WinPE template and will automatically "sync" with the template containing the Reboot.