Kernel Confusion

2008 I installed a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 environment at a customer’s site. In the end, we had quite large task sequences with dozens of “install software” entries to automate OS deployments as good as possible. A “feature” of ConfigMgr was to wait 90 seconds in between each task. Imagine 50 software packages… and do the math. It took much too long. A hotfix (KB955955) was released by Microsoft and I deployed it on the SCCM Server. It extended the CCM Client Agent with a MSP file that is applied while the agent is installed. The 90-sec limitation was gone.

So far, so good. This works well, until you upgrade to service pack 2! This will update the Client Agent and render it incompatible with the MSP file. Unfortunately, if you didn’t touch that software package for several months, you may forget about the MSP file. As a result, all your deployments will fail at the “Setup windows and ConfigMgr” task. Pretty simple: removing the MSP will solve the issue. The way to this solution took me a little longer than just a quick bing’ing, anyone who debugs System Center products knows what I’m talking about.

Here are screenshots from the smsts.log, which was logged on the failing client:

Tags: Configuration Manager, Microsoft, System Center