Just a quick reference for finding the client logs during an Operating System Deployment.
As we all know ConfigMgr moves the logs during a deployment depending on the stage of deployment.
We can define 4 major stages in regard to the log file locations:
- System has started in WinPE, no hard drive configuration has taken place:
“x:\windows\temp\smstslog” folder - System has started in WinPE, hard drive has been partitioned and formatted:
“x:\smstslog” folder
“c:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\Smstslog” folder - System has started in Windows but ConfigMgr is NOT yet installed:
“c:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\Smstslog” folder - System has started in Windows and ConfigMgr IS installed:
“c:\windows\ccm\logs\Smstslog” folder
After the completion of the OSD the Task Sequence log file can be found in:
“c:\windows\ccm\logs\smsts.log
Probably you will find 2 of those, 1 with a date appended. This is because log files can’t grow unlimited!