Dell Server Deployment Pack Installation Error – InstallSccmComponents unexpectedly closed the hInstall handle

We’re on a project at the moment automating a Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V Server build to Dell M610 blades using the OSD features of ConfigMgr. We figured we’d extend the functionality of the Task Sequence using the Dell Server Deployment Pack v1.2 so we could configure the BIOS and RAID settings of the servers. However, when we tried to install the DDP on our ConfigMgr Server it failed with the following error in the MSI log;

InstallSccmComponents unexpectedly closed the hInstall handle (type MSIHANDLE) provided to it. The custom action should be fixed to not close that handle.

InstallSccmComponents is a custom action in the MSI which uses some InstallShield scripting to, well, install the SCCM components. Anyway, the above error points to potential issues with the script or the way it’s being executed, so the long and short of it is we need to fire up Orca and do the following;

Firstly, decompress the files from the downloaded Deployment Pack executable. Then, download Orca from here, http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2004/07/12/180792.aspx. Once Orca is installed, right click the MSI and select, “Edit with Orca”. Once Orca launches, don’t panic, just click on the menu at the top and select, “Transform”, then select, “New Transform”. Then, go to the “Custom Actions” Table on the left and find the “InstallSccmComponents” entry on the right; change the value in the “Type” column to 3073, then go to, “Transform” and select, “Generate Transform”, save the transform to the same directory as your MSI and then close Orca.

To Install use the following command line;

msiexec.exe /i <PATH>\Dell_Server_Deployment_Pack_v1.2_for_ConfigMgr_A01.msi TRANSFORMS=<PATH>\<NAME OF YOUR MST FILE> /qb-

<PATH>=The path to the directory containing the Deployment pack install files and your MST.

The install should now complete successfully, which is nice.

When the App-V Virtualization Management Server Service Fails to Start

I’ve been doing a few App-V demos recently. This has entailed building lots of App-V Management Servers back to back in a lab. It’s for that reason the whole App Virt Management Server Service not automatically starting even though it is set to automatically start has been brassing me off no end, it’s all about SQL being on the same server and the App-V Service starting before SQL, not usually an issue in a production environment with dedicated SQL Clusters but it was causing havoc in my lab. Something had to be done.

Ordinarily you’d set a DependOnService entry for the service in the registry but I thought I’d try the “Automatic (Delayed Start)” option on the service, a new feature with Windows 2008. Well, I’m happy to report it worked a treat.

Now the App-V server service starts everytime without fail, everyone’s a winner.

Packaging the App-V User Self Service Tool

The Login Consultants created a great little Freeware utility that by-passes the need for users to get involved with the App-V client MMC snap-in, which they probably can’t use anyway due to policies denying access to MMC’s. It allows users to repair, refresh and cache App-V applications, the latter being especially useful for laptop users.

App-V Self Service Tool

The tool comes as a group of files so I thought I’d package it up into an MSI to ease deployment issues. You can add your own corporate banner and amend the language in the App-VSelfSupportTool_settings.xml file in the package root directory.

You can download the package from the Login Consultants website, (registration required).

There is a readme.txt that details installation and configuration details.

List of ConfigMgr Reports

A mate rang today asking if I could send him a list of default ConfigMgr reports as he was in a meeting and unable to access a ConfigMgr server. I exported the list of reports from the console, (Right Click the “Reports” list, click “View”, click “Export List”). I then had a quick look on the net to see of there was a list of default ConfigMgr reports and, as far as I could see, there isn’t, so, there is now and you can find it here.

The Closer Look Series: Windows 7 – The Problem Steps Recorder

I thought I’d have a go at doing some kind of ongoing Windows 7 review piece. There are some great new features in 7 that warrant a closer look, so I thought I’d put together a series of videos highlighting some of these new features.

In the first VidCast, (I’m hoping that’s the right word, I’m fairly new to all this stuff), we’re looking at the Problem Steps Recorder, a great little utility with a couple of useful applications.

Script for Adding/Deleting App-V Apps

I wrote a VBScript that will ADD/DELETE an App-V sequenced application to/from the client. I was just a bit brassed off with using the MSI created by the sequencer when I was testing packages, it’s a lot of bulk for running a few custom actions and I found it clunky and slow. I did look around for an alternative and, other than adding the SFTMIME command line to a batch file, there wasn’t much else out there. If anyone knows of something which achieves this in a more impressive way or extends the functionality, let me know, so I can shed tears over a wasted evening.

Using a /p switch the script will also add the necessary permissions for adding/deleting the app along with the permission to allow streaming from a file.

Get the script.

I recorded a video demo of the script as well, more because I felt like it than anything else. Enjoy!