Recently, I wanted to revisit the process of installing the SCCM client during an MDT task sequence. At first, I tried to use the SCCM PowerShell module to initiate the install. I learned during testing that it does not work if a system is not present in SCCM. The process needed to include initializing the client deployment, waiting for the ccmsetup to begin, and then waiting until the ccmsetup disappears and ccmexec is running. An additional step was to run the install directly from the source folder on the SCCM server so the latest version will always get installed. I wanted SCCM to wait until the setup is complete before continuing because there is still the possibility that it could screw up if the task sequence proceeded to another task, and the system rebooted.
Once I finished rewriting this installer and verified it ran from the command line, I encountered the issue of the task failing. After several attempts, I realized it not only needed to be executed from a domain admin account, but the profile also needed to be loaded, as shown below. Once that was checked, the task completed without any errors. The reason this must be executed using a domain account is that in my environment, MDT is on a different server than SCCM, thereby not having access to it. One additional note is that I also shared out the folder where the client installer exists so that I can use \\<SCCM Server>\SCCMInstaller as the path to the ccmsetup.exe file.
In the script below, it first initializes the ccmsetup.exe. It then waits for ccmsetup.exe to appear as a running task. It waits for ccmsetup.exe to disappear, and ccmexec.exe appears in the task list for the script to end with an error code 0. I included error codes in this so that I will know if something happens that causes the script to begin failing in order to mitigate the problem.
The script below can be downloaded from my GitHub site.
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Install SCCM Client
.DESCRIPTION
Install the SCCM client from the client installation folder located on the SCCM server.
.PARAMETER MP
Management Point
.PARAMETER FSP
Fallback Status Point
.PARAMETER SiteCode
Three letter SiteCode
.PARAMETER ClientPath
Network location on the SCCM server where the client resides
.NOTES
===========================================================================
Created with: SAPIEN Technologies, Inc., PowerShell Studio 2017 v5.4.142
Created on: 11/21/2019 4:14 PM
Created by: Mick Pletcher
Filename: SCCMClientInstaller.ps1
===========================================================================
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
param
(
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string]$MP,
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string]$FSP,
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string]$SiteCode,
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[string]$ClientPath
)
#Add backslash to end of $ClientPath if it does not exist
If ($ClientPath.Substring($ClientPath.Length - 1) -ne '\') {
$ClientPath += '\'
}
Write-Host 'Initiating SCCM Client Installation.....'
#Execute the ccmsetup.exe file
$ExitCode=(Start-Process -FilePath ($ClientPath + 'ccmsetup.exe') -ArgumentList ('/mp:' + $MP + [char]32 + 'SMSSITECODE=' + $SiteCode + [char]32 + 'FSP=' + $FSP) -PassThru -WindowStyle Minimized -Wait).ExitCode
If ($ExitCode -eq 0) {
Write-Host 'Waiting for installation to begin.....'
$StartTime = Get-Date
#Wait until the ccmsetup.exe appears in the task manager
Do {
$Process = (Get-Process -Name ccm*).Name
$TimeSpan = New-TimeSpan -Start $StartTime -End (Get-Date)
#Exit if it takes more than 300 seconds for the ccmsetup.exe to begin
If ($TimeSpan.TotalSeconds -gt 300) {
Exit 2
}
} While ($Process -notcontains 'ccmsetup')
Write-Host 'Installing SCCM Client.....' -NoNewline
$StartTime = Get-Date
#Wait until ccmsetup.exe closes
Do {
$Process = (Get-Process -Name ccm*).Name
$TimeSpan = New-TimeSpan -Start $StartTime -End (Get-Date)
#Exit with error code 3 if the ccmsetup.exe runs longer than 600 seconds
If ($TimeSpan.TotalSeconds -gt 600) {
Exit 3
}
} While ($Process -contains 'ccmsetup')
} else {
Exit 1
}
#Exit with error code 0 if ccmexec.exe is running in the task manager, otherwise exit with an error code 4
If ((Get-Process -Name CcmExec) -ne $null) {
Write-Host 'SCCM Client Successfully installed' -ForegroundColor Yellow
}
else {
Write-Host 'SCCM Client installation failed' -ForegroundColor Red
Exit 4
}
