Skip to main content

Shopping 6.1

Creating an In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment Application

Who can do this? Shopping administrators with the privileges to create WSA applications in Shopping. What is it for? To enable users to self-service their OS deployments using the Windows Servicing Assistant. Before you start You must create the deployment task sequence in Configuration Manager – you'll need this for the General Details screen.

Preparation
Before creating an In-place Upgrade Windows Servicing Assistant Deployment Application in Shopping, ensure you have completed the following in Configuration Manager

  1. Create an In-place Upgrade Task Sequence following the guidelines referenced in Creating an In-place Upgrade task sequence.

  2. Create an empty Collection that will be targeted with a deployment of the In-place Upgrade WSA Task Sequence.

  3. Deploy the WSA In-place Upgrade Task Sequence created in step 1 to the empty Collection created in step 2.

The deployment should be configured as Available (not Required), and scheduled to become available 10 years in the future as indicated below. This prevents the deployment from appearing in Software Center until the available date, thereby preventing the user from executing the task sequence outside of the Windows Servicing Assistant.

Specifying the settings to control your your deployment
Setting a schedule for your deployment
Creating the In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment Application

  1. In the Shopping Admin Console, right-click the Applications node and from its context menu, choose New Windows Servicing Assistant Deployment.

    230740810.png

  2. On the Welcome screen, click Next

  3. On the General Details screen:

    Populating the General Details screen

    1. Select In-place Upgrade from the Type of Windows Servicing Deployment drop-down.

    2. In the Name field, enter the name of this application as you want it to appear to the end-user in the wizard.

    3. Optionally enter a brief description in the Description field (the description, cost and icon are never displayed to the end-user for WSA Deployment Applications).

    4. Click Next.

  4. On the Config Mgr collection screen:

    Configuring the deployment in the Config Mgr collection tab

    1. Select the Collection that the In-place Upgrade Task Sequence was deployed to (see Preparation above).

    2. From the Deployment drop-down list, select the deployment that was created to deploy the In-place Upgrade Task Sequence to the Collection selected previously.

    3. Click Next.

  5. On the Permissions screen:

    Setting restrictions for the deployment in the Permissions screen

    1. To set permissions on this deployment:

      • If you want this In-place Upgrade Deployment to be available to everyone, go to step b (i.e. do not restrict the deployment to any users or computers)

      • If you want to restrict this In-place Upgrade Deployment to specific users, click Add to the right of the User Permissions list and add the user or group that you want to restrict access to. Repeat to add multiple users or groups.

      • If you want to restrict this In-place Upgrade Deployment to specific computers, click Add to the right of the Machine Permissions list and add the computer or group that you want to restrict access to. Alternatively, click Add OU to add the OU that contains the computers that you want to restrict access to. Repeat to add multiple computers, groups or OUs.

    2. Click Next.

  6. On the Completing the Windows Servicing Assistant Deployment Wizard screen, click Finish.

Configuring the In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment
Locating the Windows Servicing Suite Assistant you just created

Once the In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment has been created, it may be necessary to configure additional properties that are applicable specifically to In-place Upgrade deployments.

In the Shopping Admin Console, select the Applications node and double-click the In-place Upgrade WSA application you just created (it will be listed under WSA as illustrated – use the search feature if necessary) to open the Properties dialog box.

We are going to walk you through each of the tabs in the Properties dialog for the In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment and show you what the respective settings do and how they impact the behavior of the deployment in terms of the user experience. There is a masterclass in how to create this deployment at the end of this section.

The General tab

Properties in the General tab

The General tab is populated with the settings defined when the application was created. It controls what is displayed in the Start screen. You can change the name of the deployment (changing the description, cost and icon has no effect as these are never displayed to the end-user). However, Type cannot be changed.

For example, if you change the name of the deployment from Upgrade my PC to Windows 10 1703 to Upgrade to Windows 1703, users see this when in the Start screen:

Your browser does not support the HTML5 video element

The ConfigMgr Collection tab

Properties in the ConfigMgr Collection tab

The ConfigMgr Collection tab is populated with the selections made when the application was created.

These can be modified if necessary, but not recommended unless it is to correct an error. If you do modify these, ensure you select a deployment of an In-place Upgrade Task Sequence.

The Permissions tab

Properties in the Permissions tab

The Permissions tab is populated with the selections made when the application was created. You can modify the permissions from this tab to restrict access to specific users and/or computers.

The Applications tab

Properties in the Applications tab

The Applications tab controls what users see on the Applications screen.

Your browser does not support the HTML5 video element

Only displayed:

  • if the Display Application Migration list to WSA User option is selected

  • if you do not select the Display Application Migration list to WSA User option, any application exceptions that are encountered are displayed when you click Next on the Location screen when you run the deployment

  • If the In-place Upgrade Task Sequence includes steps to install additional applications, you can let the user know which applications will be installed automatically by adding them to the Applications in OS Image list.

    Note

    Core Applications - Applications in OS Image is simply a list of free text strings entered by the administrator. The user is shown the list as it appears in this dialog. This is usually not relevant in an In-place Upgrade scenario.

  • If the In-place Upgrade Task Sequence includes the 1E Application Migration steps to upgrade or replace applications during the OS upgrade and you want Application Migration to run for this In-place Upgrade deployment:

    1. Check the Migrate Applications check box.

    2. Optionally, check the Display Application Migration list to WSA User option. When selected, the user will see the applications to be upgraded or replaced on the Applications screen of the Windows Servicing Assistant

      Note

      If Migrate Applications is unchecked, when the task sequence runs, the WSA Initialize step will set the 1EWSA_AppMigrationEnabled task sequence variable to False. This variable should therefore be used in a condition on the Migrate Applications group in the task sequence, so the group does not execute if 1EWSA_AppMigrationEnabled=False. If this condition is not applied to the Migrate Applications group in the task sequence, Application Migration steps will be executed even though the Migrate applications option was unchecked in the WSA Deployment properties.

Applications exceptions and how to fix them

These must be resolved before the deployment can continue:

  • We've found something that prevents us from continuing at this time. Please retry later, or contact your administrator if the issue continues to occur.

    Error code

    Likely causes

    Remedial action

    0x00001001

    Communication error – failure to send a size estimation message to the Tachyon service.

    Ensure the Tachyon service is up and running.

    0x00001002

    Timeout duration exceeded – the Tachyon service was not able to send a size estimation message for over the 1 minute timeout duration.

    -1

    Task is cancelled.

    0x0100

    Unable to retrieve task sequence references from the Shopping API.

    1. Ensure that the Shopping Web is up and running.

    2. In Configuration Manager, ensure that the Shopping AppPool user is granted the Read-only Analyst role.

    0x0101

    1. Source machine does not exist in the SLA platform.

    2. Missing or invalid SLA platform credentials under Settings in the Shopping Admin Console.

    1. Ensure that the source machine exists in the SLA platform. If it does not, run a synchronization to refresh the data.

    2. Ensure that the SLA platform credentials are correct under Settings in the Shopping Admin Console.

      Setting the SLA platform credentials in the Shopping Admin Console

    0x0103

    Unable to get the task sequence XML as:

    1. The Shopping server is unavailable.

    2. The Shopping AppPool user has not been granted the Read-only Analyst role in Configuration Manager.

    1. Ensure that the Shopping Web is up and running.

    2. In Configuration Manager, ensure that the Shopping AppPool user is granted the Read-only Analyst role.

    0x0204

    Missing details in the WSA order.

    Contact 1E Support for assistance.

    0x0300

    Unable to fetch Nomad cache size details.

    Ensure that the Nomad service is running and get the user to retry.

    0x0301

    Unable to get content location.

    Ensure that Nomad service is running, and the client machine is present in the required boundary groups, and get the user to retry.

    0x0302

    Unable to find PBA host.

    Ensure that the PBA hosts are responsive by running a ping, check the PBA configuration and get the user to retry.

    0x0409

    Unable to identify an applicable OS Upgrade package

    If the option Download only applicable OS Upgrade packages is checked on the Storage tab, ensure that one of the OS upgrade packages matches the locale and architecture of the OS being upgraded.

    0x0602

    ScanState.exe unable to estimate user state data size.

    Ensure that the Tachyon service is up and running. If it is running, check scanstate.log (its location is found in TachyonAgent.log).

    0x0603

    Unable to locate a compatible version of Nomad.

    Ensure that you have Nomad 6.3.200 or later installed.

The Storage tab

The Storage Tab

The Storage tab controls what options are available to the user depending on whether they are in the office or remote (connected via VPN with no local peers).

The USB Media screen

Only displayed:

  • if the use of USB media is not prohibited in your environment

  • if there is insufficient disk space to store content

  • if the Use USB media if insufficient disk space option is selected

For Office based users:

  • Check the Download content if not available in local network option (default) to ensure the WSA downloads any reference content for the task sequence (including any dynamic content required for Application Migration) that is not available in its own Nomad cache or from any peers on the local network

    • Check the Download content if not available in local cache option to ensure the WSA downloads all reference content for the task sequence to the local Nomad cache. This is likely to increase the time to complete the readiness stage of the wizard, but will speed up the actual deployment once the task sequence is executed.

      Note

      For In-place Upgrade deployments, this option must be selected if your In-place Upgrade task sequence includes one or more reboots into Windows PE and you have enabled deployments over WiFi on the Connection tab.

    • Check the Use USB media if insufficient disk space option (default) if you want to enable users to use USB media to store content to be downloaded if there is insufficient space on the hard disk. If USB drives are prohibited in your environment, you will need to uncheck this option – the WSA wizard will prevent the user from executing the task sequence if there is insufficient disk space to download all required task sequence content.

      USB media must be NTFS format

      USB media must be formatted to the NTFS file system to be able to store content. When prompted to insert/select USB media, the user will not be able to select USB media with any other format.

      • Check the Clean USB when finished option (only enabled if Use USB media if insufficient disk space is checked) to have the WSA remove any content it added to the USB media when the task sequence has finished

For Remote users:

Content will always be downloaded to the local Nomad cache as the assumption is there will be no local peers:

  • Check the Use USB media if insufficient disk space option (default) if you want to enable users to use USB media to store content to be downloaded if there is insufficient space on the hard disk. If USB drives are prohibited in your environment you will need to uncheck this option – the WSA wizard will prevent the user from executing the task sequence if there is insufficient disk space to download all required task sequence content

    USB media must be NTFS format

    USB media must be formatted to the NTFS file system to be able to store content. When prompted to insert/select USB media, the user will not be able to select USB media with any other format.

    • Check the Clean USB when finished option (only enabled if Use USB media if insufficient disk space is checked) to have the WSA remove any content it added to the USB media when the task sequence has finished

Driver Packages:

  • Check the Download only applicable driver packages if the task sequence includes any Install Driver Package or Download Driver Package steps and you want to reduce the amount of content downloaded. By default, the WSA will download all driver packages referenced in the task sequence. With Download only applicable driver packages enabled, the WSA will parse the task sequence and only download drivers that meet the condition defined on the Install Driver Package or Download Driver Package steps. If unchecked, the WSA will download all referenced driver packages and may therefore require more time and disk space.

    Note

    WSA is only able to evaluate single WMI conditions in the Install Driver Package steps. If multiple conditions are defined, only the first will be evaluated.

  • Check the Fail readiness check if no applicable driver package is found option to fail the readiness checks if the Task Sequence does not include any drivers applicable to the current device.

    Note

    Typically, virtual machines will not have any applicable drivers, so ensure the Fail readiness check if no applicable driver package is found option is not selected when testing with virtual machines.

OS Upgrade Packages:

  • Check the Download only applicable OS upgrade packages if the task sequence includes multiple Upgrade Operating System steps and you want to reduce the amount of content downloaded. By default, the WSA will download all operating system (OS) packages referenced in the task sequence. With Download only applicable OS upgrade packages enabled, the WSA will parse the task sequence and only download OS upgrade packages that match the locale and architecture of the current OS. If unchecked, the WSA will download all referenced OS upgrade packages and may therefore require more time and disk space.

    Note

    If this option is selected and the task sequence does not include an Upgrade Operating System that references an upgrade package that matches the architecture and locale of the current OS, or if a single, applicable Upgrade Operating System step cannot be determined, the upgrade will not be attempted and error 0x0409 will be returned.

The Minimum disk space required for In-place Upgrade value defines the amount of disk space that the WSA will allocate, in addition to space required for Task Sequence Content, for an In-place Upgrade. This value is set to the Microsoft recommended minimum (20GB).

Hash checking:

WSA will perform a content hash check on all downloaded content as part of the readiness checks. As the readiness checks may be run a second time (when the user actually starts the deployment), you can avoid the hash checks being repeated within the time period defined in the Do not repeat hash check within option. The value is defined in minutes between 0 and 480 minutes (8 hours) - 0 will result in hash checks always being performed.

The Readiness Checks tab

The Readiness Tab

The Readiness Checks tab controls what is run on the Readiness screen when it checks for machine readiness.

The Readiness screen

  • Check Do not start the task sequence if this device is currently storing data captured from another device if you want the WSA to prevent the task sequence from executing if the Nomad agent on the local machine is currently storing user data from one or more peers.

  • Check Do not start the task sequence if this device is currently serving a boot image to another device if you want the WSA to prevent the task sequence from executing if the local machine is currently serving a boot image to a peer.

  • Check Do not start the task sequence if this device is currently running on battery if you want the WSA to prevent the task sequence from executing if the local machine is currently running on battery.

  • Check Run an upgrade compatibility check and do not start the task sequence if the compatibility check reports any errors if you want to prevent the task sequence from executing if upgrade compatibility issues are identified. By default, when this option is selected, Ignore any dismissible compatibility messages is also selected. This will allow the task sequence to execute if the compatibility checks report any warnings but not errors. This setting should correspond to the same setting defined in the Upgrade Operating System step in the task sequence.

  • Check Allow upgrade even if the current version is the same or newer if you want the upgrade task sequence to execute when the currently installed OS is at the same or a newer version than the applicable upgrade package in the task sequence.

The Connection tab

The Connection Tab

The Connection tab controls whether users can execute the deployment on a wireless connection and if they need to provide their VPN or wireless connection details.

230740840.png

Only displayed:

  • if Location is I am out of the office:

    • and if Require user enter VPN credentials is enabled on the Connection tab

    • or if over Wifi and if Require user enter SSID and password is enabled on the Connection tab

  • Check Require user enter VPN credentials if the task sequence includes a step to establish a VPN connection that requires user credentials.

    Note

    If this option is enabled and if the user selects remote location (i.e. not in the office) they will be required to enter their VPN credentials in the WSA Connection screen. When the task sequence executes the WSA Initialize step, these credentials are stored in the 1EWSA_VpnUserName and 1EWSA_VpnPassword Task Sequence variables.

  • Check Allow deployments over WiFi if you want users to be able to execute the deployment on a wireless connection.

    Note

    If you enable In-place Upgrade deployments over WiFi and your In-place Upgrade task sequence includes one or more reboots into Windows PE, you must also enable Download content if not available in local cache on the Storage tab.

    • The Require user enter SSID and password option is only enabled if Allow deployments over WiFi is checked. Check this option if the task sequence includes a step to establish a wireless connection that requires the SSID and password to be entered.

      Note

      If this option is enabled, when the WSA runs it will prompt the user to select a WiFi SSID (from those currently available) and enter the password. When the task sequence executes the WSA Initialize step, these credentials are stored in the 1EWSA_WifiSsid and 1EWSA_WifiPassword Task Sequence variables.

The Location tab

The Location tab

The Location tab controls is displayed for the user to tell us where they are initiating the deployment. If you choose to hide the Location page you must specify the location users will see, either Office or Remote.

The Location screen
Why can't I see the Location screen?

You will not see this screen if:

  • You asked for data to be moved from your old PC to a new one and you chose the Restore My Data and Apps to a New PC option on the Start screen. You will however, see the Old PC screen.

  • The Location page has been set to hidden and the location has been restricted to either Office or Remote.

Other operational errors

Exceptions on Completion screen and how to fix them

Error code

Likely causes

Remedial action

0xA0070700

The task sequence failed to start.

This is not likely to happen happen unless the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is corrupted. If this happens, get the user to rerun the deployment.

Error is displayed on the Completion screen as follows:

  • Something went wrong with the deployment. Please contact your local administrator.

0xA0070701

SCCM execution history is missing.

Check the status messages in Configuration Manager for the task sequence deployment as well as the ExitCode in the WSA execution history for the Task Sequence package id ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\1E\WSA\TSExecutionHistory\TSPkgID)

Error is displayed on the Completion screen as follows:

  • Something went wrong with the deployment. Please contact your local administrator.

0xA0070702

WSA execution history is missing – most likely cause is that the task sequence failed in WinPE.

Check the status messages in Configuration Manager.

Error displayed on the Completion screen as follows:

  • Something went wrong with the deployment. Please contact your local administrator.

0xA0070703

Unable to establish a WIFI connection.

Get the user to run the deployment again with the emphasis on providing their correct connection credentials – on the Connection screen, click Reveal to check the accuracy of the password they entered.

Error displayed on the Completion screen:

There was a problem connecting to the WiFi network. Please rerun the Assistant and ensure that the WiFi connection details are entered correctly

0xA0070704

Unable to establish a VPN connection.

Get the user to run the deployment again with the emphasis on providing their correct connection credentials – on the Connection screen, click Reveal to check the accuracy of the password they entered.

Error displayed on the Completion screen:

There was a problem connecting to the VPN. Please rerun the Assistant and ensure that the VPN connection details are entered correctly

0xA0070705

WSA execution history is invalid.

Contact 1E Support for assistance.

Error displayed on the Completion screen as follows:

  • Something went wrong with the deployment. Please contact your local administrator.

A masterclass in creating an In-place Upgrade WSA Deployment Application

In this section: