Disconnected Template Best Practices And How To Troubleshoot USB Creation Errors

What are we going through?

This article will cover best practices for creating a disconnected template and to help prevent some of the "gotchas" that commonly occur when creating one.

Items needed:

You will need a thumb drive large enough to fit all of the boot wims and image files.

Patience.

Step by Step:

1. Make sure the core is configured as a preferred server in the content replication tool.
   1. The disconnected template tool needs to use credentials to authenticate with the core server when copying the files to the thumb drive.
   2. Add the core servers FQDN, Shortname, and IP address with valid read credentials (this is a best practice for provisioning):
      
2. Go through your template and remove any actions that require communication to the core server. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
   • HII Actions
   • Public Variables (Including variables in the Unattend.xml)
   • Actions that require pulling preferred server credentials
   • Patching Actions
   • Software Distribution Actions
   • Device Name Prompter
     • As an alternative to the device name prompter, you can add a wait after the unattend is injected and then manually add the desired computer name to the unattend xml. Or you can rename the computer after the image is laid down.

   3. If you are creating a Deploy template, make sure the following is done before attempting creation of the disconnected template USB:

1. Make sure the image is captured or split into 2 GB chunks
   1. If using ImageW TBI, use the following command line syntax when capturing the image (This cannot be done after the image is captured):/b /d:0 /rb:0 /max:2GB /f:\\Your_Image_Path\Capture.tbi
   2. If using an ImageX WIM, open an admin CMD window and use the following command to split the WIM into multiple SWM files: Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:C:\YOUR_WIM_PATH\YOUR.WIM /SWMFile:C:\YOUR_WIM_PATH\YOUR.SWM /FileSize:2000

            b. If deploying a WIM/SWM file, make sure the deploy command line syntax is correct for split SWM file. See my example below:

            c. If you plan on installing an agent in the template, use the option "Use Self-Contained Client..." and point the template action to a self contained agent executable.

   4. Once your template has been sanitized of any actions that require communication to core server, grab your thumb drive, plug it into your Core Server or Remote Console, and right click the sanitized template and select "Create Disconnected Template".

• Once you hit create, all data on the drive will be wiped and the thumb drive will be formatted into a disconnected template.
• If everything is successful, you will have a functioning disconnected template!

Troubleshooting steps when the disconnected template fails creation:

Assuming that you are using a functioning sanitized template, there are a few errors that can occur when trying to create a disconnected template. The first place to look would be the disconnected template log:

C:\Program Files\LANDesk\ManagementSuite\log\provisioning\Disconnectedprovisioning.log

Check the log and see what errors are occurring during creation of the USB media. Here is a few snippets of errors that can occur and the ways to fix them:

ERROR BootMediaHelper  10/16/2018 3:06:08 PM  : Error Mapping drive, lddwnld returned: 100003
ERROR PActionOffline  10/16/2018 3:06:08 PM  : Could not copy image file: \\ps-ldms-us\Images\SvrStd_2012R2_16gb.tbi

 

The above error can be resolved by splitting the image file into 2GB chunks.

 

ERROR   PActionOffline      10/16/2018 11:46:31 AM   : Could not copy agent deploy to media.  This will not fail media creation but template will not work correctly.  Please manually fix this issue.

ERROR   POfflineProvisiong      10/16/2018 11:46:31 AM   : Could not copy some files referenced in the template. Template may have exported correctly, but the media will be missing some files.  Please manually copy files to media or fix configuration and retry.

 

The above error can be resolved by using a self contained agent in the template and verifying the path to the EXE is reachable through UNC.

 

ERROR   BootMediaHelper     10/16/2018 11:46:37 AM   : Error Mapping drive, lddwnld returned: 100003

ERROR   POfflineProvisiong      10/16/2018 11:46:37 AM   : Could not download provisioning tools. Template may have exported correctly, but the media will be missing some files.  Please manually copy files to media or fix configuration and retry.

 

The above error can be resolved by adding the core server to preferred server tool and verifying that the read credentials are valid. If using a remote console, make sure there is an agent installed on the remote console computer