Hi,
I'm new to MDT 2013 and very impressed with this tool, but, I'm stuck on the following issue.
Quick basics about the MDT environment. Can't use DHCP, we configure static IP on all Windows servers. Not a big issue since we have a small Windows environment. So booting each server to the LightTouchPE iso is perfectly acceptable for our needs.
I've created a task sequence which installs Windows Server 2012 R2, renames the computer, joins it to a domain (specified in the customsettings.ini), and then installs a few applications. All of this works and the end result is a new server configured exactly as desired. The issue is that after MDT installs the OS, it does the first reboot, but, seems to sit forever at the "Getting ready" screen. It sits here for about 15 minutes, then continues and the rest of the deployment completes without issue.
An examination of the setupact.log shows the following messages over and over and corresponds to the 15 minute delay:
2014-04-02 12:36:32, Warning [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, will retry in 10 seconds...
2014-04-02 12:36:42, Warning [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, will retry in 10 seconds...
2014-04-02 12:36:52, Warning [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, will retry in 10 seconds...
2014-04-02 12:50:44, Info [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Calling DsGetDcName for bobst.lib...
2014-04-02 12:50:44, Warning [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, will retry in 10 seconds...
2014-04-02 12:50:54, Error [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: NetJoinDomain failed error code is [1355]
2014-04-02 12:50:54, Error [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Unable to join; gdwError = 0x54b
2014-04-02 12:50:54, Info [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Exit, returning 0x0
2014-04-02 12:50:55, Info [windeploy.exe] Process exited with exit code [0x0]
My research of these errors says that it can't reach the domain to join, however, at some point it does because after the 15 minute delay is over, the server boots and has successfully joined the domain.
I do have MDT customsettings.ini configured to display the BDD Welcome screen so it prompts me to specify all the static IP address information, which I'm certain I enter correctly each time.
When the deployment is sitting at the "Getting ready" screen, I hit SHIFT + F10 to bring up a command prompt where I run ipconfig /all. And this is where I think the issue is occurring. It shows that the static IP, subnet, and gateway are all set correctly according to what I specified in the wizard, however, it shows that DHCP is enabled (shouldn't be) and has the wrong DNS servers listed showing top-level University DNS servers, which do use DHCP. My DNS servers forward up to those. So because the DNS servers are wrong, then naturally it won't be able to find my domain to join.
My guess is the static network information I provide in the wizard isn't yet coming into play at the time when the reboot occurs and reaches the "Getting ready" stage. Eventually, that network information is being applied which explains how it can eventually join the domain. Just can't figure out how to resolve this delay and get it to use my static information, instead of looking to the wrong DNS servers.
My customsettings.ini. Note, I've been playing with specifying the OSDAdapter information. No luck with that, but, I'm not sure if I'm using it in the proper context.
[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty
[Default]
_SMSTSOrgName=%TaskSequenceName%
OSInstall=YES
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipComputerBackup=YES
SkipBitLocker=YES
SkipComputerName=NO
SkipDomainMembership=NO
SkipUserData=YES
DoCapture=NO
SkipLocaleSelection=YES
SkipTaskSequence=NO
SkipRoles=YES
SkipTimeZone=YES
SkipApplications=YES
SkipSummary=YES
SkipBDDWelcome=NO
TimeZone=005
TimeZoneName=Eastern Standard Time
OSDAdapterCount=1
OSDAdapter0Name=Ethernet
OSDAdapter0EnableDHCP=FALSE
OSDAdapter0SubnetMask=<redacted>
OSDAdapter0Gateways=<redacted>
OSDAdapter0DNSServerList=<redacted>
JoinDomain=domain.local
DomainAdmin=<redacted>
DomainAdminPassword=<redacted>
DomainAdminDomain=DOMAIN
MachineObjectOU=<redacted>
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you