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Shopping 6.1

Creating a Capture Data and Settings 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 a Replace Capture Windows Servicing Assistant Deployment Application in Shopping, ensure you have completed the following in Configuration Manager:

  1. Create a capture task sequence following the guidelines for creating a Capture Data and Settings Task Sequence.

  2. Create an empty Collection that will be targeted with a deployment of the WSA Replace Capture Task Sequence

  3. Deploy the WSA Replace Capture 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 Replace Capture 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 for your deployment

    1. Select Replace Capture 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 (note that 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 screen

    1. Select the Collection that the Capture Task Sequence was deployed to (see Preparation above).

    2. From the Deployment drop-down, select the deployment that was created to deploy the Capture 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 Replace Capture WSA 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 Replace Capture WSA 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 Replace Capture WSA 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 Replace Capture WSA Deployment
Locating the WSA application you just created

Once the Replace Capture WSA Deployment has been created, it may be necessary to configure additional properties that are applicable specifically to Replace Capture deployments.

In the Shopping Admin Console, select the Applications node and double-click the Replace Capture 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 Replace Capture 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 Backup my data to Prepare My Old PC for Replacement, users see this on the Start screen.

The ConfigMgr Colletion tab

ConfigMgr Collection

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 a Replace Capture Task Sequence.

If a Zero-touch Restore Deployment has been created and you want to enable zero-touch restore:

  1. Select the Enable Zero-touch restore option.

  2. Select the restore deployment from the Restore Deployment drop-down. Refer to Creating a Restore User Data and Applications WSA Deployment Application - for more detail about preparing and configuring a Zero-touch restore.

  3. Allow user to enter new machine name will enable the user to enter the target machine name if computer association is not defined in the Configuration Manager for the machine being captured.

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.

  • If there are standard applications that will be included on the user's replacement machine, you can let the user know which applications are included 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.

  • If 1E Application Migration is being used (specifically, if the Replace Restore Task Sequence includes the 1E Application Migration steps):

    1. check the Migrate Applications option.

    2. optionally, check the Display Application Migration list to WSA User option. When this option is selected, the user will see the applications that will be migrated to their new computer 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 it 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.

The Storage tab

The Storage Tab

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

The USB Media screen
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 Capture Task Sequence that is not available in its own Nomad cache or from any peers on the local network.

    Note

    If Zero-touch Restore has been enabled in this Replace Capture deployment and the new computer can be contacted when the WSA runs the Replace Capture readiness checks, it will also download reference content for the Restore Task Sequence (and any Application Migration content) if there is sufficient disk space. This ensures the content is available on the local network for the new computer to execute the Restore Task Sequence. If there is insufficient disk space on the old computer, or the old computer cannot contact the new computer when the WSA runs the Replace Capture readiness checks, zero-touch restore will not be possible and the user will have to manually launch the WSA on the new computer to initiate the restore.

    • 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 will potentially increase the time to complete the readiness stage of the wizard but will speed up the actual deployment once the task sequence is executed.

    • 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 ot 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 ot the USB media when the task sequence has finished.

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), including the hash check at this time can be time consuming and confusing to the user. This option prevents content hash checks if they have already been done in the last 30 minutes. The value is configurable between 0 and 480 minutes (8 hours) - 0 will result in hash checks always being performed.

The Data Capture tab

The Data Tab

The Data Capture tab controls the options available to the user on the User Backup screen.

  • Check Do not capture user files and settings if the users do not have local files or settings that must be preserved. If this option is checked the other options are disabled and the following points do not apply.

    Note

    When you select this option, WSA will not attempt to calculate space required for user data. When the WSA Actions - Initialize step runs in the task sequence, a variable named 1ESkipUserStateCapture will be created and set to true. If the task sequence includes steps to capture data, these should be conditioned to only execute if 1ESkipUserStateCapture is not true.

    Specifically for a Replace Capture WSA application, if you select this option, Migrate Applications will be enforced on the Applications page. This is by design - the Replace Capture application only migrates data and applications. If data migration is not required, application migration is the only thing that WSA will be doing.

  • The message the user sees on the WSA User Backup screen (the default is Select the folders and files you want backed up) can be customized by modifying the contents in the text box under The following message will be displayed to users heading.

Note

If you do not want users to select their files and folders to be backed-up, modify this message as they will not be prompted to do so and no controls are displayed apart from this message. It is useful to warn the user that it is likely to take several minutes to calculate the storage requirements when they click Next.

  • Check the Allow user to backup folders option to allow users to select which folders they want to be included in the capture. To prevent them from selecting certain folders, enter the name of the folders, separated with the pipe (|) character, in the text box using under the Enter excluded folder path heading.

    The greyed-out text box lists the global folder exlcusions defined in the WSA System Folder Exclusions setting in Shopping. These can be modified in the Shopping Admin Console as illustrated below.

    Global folder exclusions

  • Check the Encrypt user data option if you want the captured user data to be encrypted.

    Note

    If a Computer Association exists in Configuration Manager for the machine being captured, the encryption key defined in the Computer Association will be used. If there is no Computer Association in Configuration Manager, the WSA will create an encryption key and store it in the Shopping database in a 'custom Computer Association'.

For the office location:

For machines in the office, select one of the following:

  • Nomad PBA only – user data will only be stored on a local peer using Nomad Peer Backup Assistant. If no local peers are available to store the user data, the WSA will prevent the user from executing the capture.

  • USB Media only – user data will only be stored on USB media. The user will be required to insert an NTFS format USB disk to store the captured data, and will need to insert the same USB disk into the new machine when they run the WSA for the restore.

  • Use USB if PBA poll unsuccessful (default) – the WSA will attempt to find an available peer to store user data on. If that is unsuccessful the user will be prompted to insert USB media.

For the remote location:

For machines that are remote (Remote Location), select one of the following:

  • USB Media only – user data will only be stored on USB media. The user will be required to insert an NTFS format USB disk to store the captured data, and will need to insert the same USB disk into the new machine when they run the WSA for the restore.

  • Use USB if PBA poll unsuccessful (default) – the WSA will attempt to find an available peer to store user data on. If that is unsuccessful the user will be prompted to insert USB media

Data capture 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 get 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 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 sync 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

    0x0102

    Unable to get USMT Capture step configuration.

    Ensure that the task sequence contains a Capture step.

    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.

    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 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:

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 capturing your data. 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 capturing your data. 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 capturing your data. 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 for assistance.

Error displayed on the Completion screen as follows:

  • Something went wrong with capturing your data. Please contact your local administrator.

A masterclass in creating a Capture Data and Settings WSA Deployment Application

In this section: