When a deployment fails after the image was successfully applied ( All Pre Install tasks and Mid Level tasks complete) either with a Blue Screen or some other error at boot time or while going through setup or OOBE, gathering the correct set of logs will help speed your issue to a solution.
The logs needed for problem diagnostics are generated, for the most part, during the Mid Level Tasks phase and the final phase when the machine reboots it goes through setup and start the Post Install Tasks. Logs must be gathered in both phases making collecting all the needed logs via a single deployment tedious.
This article will attempt to make gathering needed diagnostic logs easier by breaking the process into 5 steps.
Note: This article applies only to Image deployment ( WIM or Kimage ) not to Scripted Installs.
Gathering Debug Logs: Steps to take:
Step one : Import the Mid Level Task
Included in the zip file attached to this article (bottom) is a PKG file for a Mid level task called : PO_collect_debug_log.pkg
Copy the pkg file to the KACE SDA restore share ( \\SDA\restore)
On the KACE SDA go to settings > package management > import packages
Scroll down until you see the PO_collect_debug_log PKG file and click the check box for that item on the left.
Go to the "choose action" drop down menu and pick "import selected" this should only take a minute to run
Add the mid level task to the failing deployment
On the KACE SDA go to deployments > system images
Click on the image you want to debug
Scroll down to the "run Mid-Level Tasks" section and drag the "collect_debug_log" task to the dashed box
Ensure Task Error Handling is set to "prompt on error "
Ensure "use driver feed " box is checked
Save the image
This task will create a batch file called collect_debug_logs.bat on the T: drive ( \\SDA\petemp\collect_debug_logs.bat)
to be used in step three.
Note: to debug an image is it best to test first with NO Post install tasks and only the “collect_debug_log “ task as mid level if you can avoid it.
Step Two : Recreate the failure and collect screenshot or camera shot of the error text as it appears on the screen
Deploy Image to machine
Boot target machine into KBE
Click Imaging > deploy image to this machine
Ensure the “Restart automatically after deployment” box is NOT checked.
Select the image to be debugged from the drop down box.
Click “start deploy”
Recreate Failure
Once the image has been deployed to the KBE go back to the main menu and click "restart machine "
Take a picture of the error to be included in the debug folder
For example, if your image is missing drivers get screenshots showing the missing drivers on the machine
If you get a blue screen at boot, get a screenshot (or take a picture ) of all the text of the error.
Take multiple pictures if needed to gather all the error text.
Step Three : collect Logs from the failed deployment
Once you have taken the picture of the failure, boot the machine back into KBE
then click on Recovery and open Command Prompt
Change drives to the T: drive ( \\SDA\petemp)
run collect_debug_logs.bat to collect the Post install logs.
Once this command has completed, shutdown the machine. Then mount the KACE SDA share PETEMP to your local laptop
once it is mounted, scroll down until you find the debuglogs.zip file on the T: drive (\\SDA\petemp\debuglogs.zip)
Copy debuglogs.zip to your local machine (not the machine with the failed deployment but to your local workstation )
Step 4 : Add screenshots of the error text to the archive file
In this example the error message is captured in a file called error.jpg and will be added to the debuglogs.zip
file using 7zip. You may need multiple screenshots/camera shots to capture all the error text when the
deployment failure was recreated. If that is the case use some number sequencing in the picture names
to clearly show which order they were taken in. You may also use something other than 7zip to open the
zip file and add your images. This is just an example.
If using 7zip, right click on the screenshot ( error.jpg) scroll down to 7-zip > add to archive
7-zip will pick a default name to create a new archive. Click on the browse button on the right
Select the debuglogs.zip archive Click OK to get back to the main screen and click OK once more to add the file to the archive
You will see this screen briefly while the archive is updated.
Step 5 : upload the debuglogs.zip file to your ticket
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