How to Delete an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Action

Article
10/04/2022

You delete an operating system deployment task sequence action, in Configuration Manager, by removing the action from the task sequence steps.

To delete a task sequence action

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see SMS Provider fundamentals.
Obtain a task sequence (SMS_TaskSequence) object. For more information, see How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence.
Remove the action from the SMS_TaskSequence.Steps array property.

Example

The following example method deletes an action from the task sequence. The action is identified as an action by checking the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) property __SUPERCLASS to ensure it derives from SMS_TaskSequenceAction.

For information about calling the sample code, see Calling Configuration Manager Code Snippets.

Sub RemoveAction (connection, taskSequence, actionName)  

    Dim i  
    Dim newArray  
    Dim actionStep  

    If taskSequence.SystemProperties_("__CLASS")<>"SMS_TaskSequence" Then  
        wscript.echo "Not a task sequence"  
        Exit Sub  
    End If  

    if IsNull(taskSequence.Steps) Then  
        Wscript.Echo "No steps"  
        Exit Sub  
    End If  

    ' Create an array to hold copied steps.  
    newArray = Array(taskSequence.Steps)  
    ReDim newArray(UBound(taskSequence.Steps))  

    ' Copy the steps into the array and remove the matching action.  
    i=0  
    for each  actionStep in taskSequence.Steps  
        If actionStep.Name = actionName and _  
          actionStep.SystemProperties_("__SUPERCLASS") = "SMS_TaskSequence_Action" Then  
             ReDim preserve newArray(UBound(newArray)-1) ' shrink the Array  
        else  
           Set newArray(i)=actionStep ' copy it  
           i=i+1  
        End If     
     Next  

     ' Assign new array back to the task sequence.  
     taskSequence.Steps=newArray           

End Sub

public void RemoveAction(  
    IResultObject taskSequence,   
    string actionName)  
{  
    try  
    {  
        // Get a list of steps.  
        List<IResultObject> actionSteps = taskSequence.GetArrayItems("Steps");  

        // Find the action to be deleted.  
        foreach (IResultObject actionStep in actionSteps)  
        {  
            if (actionStep["Name"].StringValue == actionName && actionStep["__SUPERCLASS"].StringValue == "SMS_TaskSequence_Action")  
            {  
                // Delete the action.  
                actionSteps.Remove(actionStep);  
                break;  
            }  
        }  

        // Update the task sequence.  
        taskSequence.SetArrayItems("Steps", actionSteps);  
    }  
    catch (Exception e)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to remove action: " + e.Message);  
        throw;  
    }  
}

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`Connection`	- Managed:`WqlConnectionManager` - VBScript: SWbemServices	A valid connection to the SMS Provider.
`taskSequence`	- Managed: `IResultObject` - VBScript: SWbemObject	The task sequence containing the action to be deleted.
`actionName`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	The name of the action to be deleted. This can be obtained from the `SMS_TaskSequenceAction.Name` property.

Compiling the Code

This C# example requires:

Namespaces

System

System.Collections.Generic

System.Text

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine

Assembly

microsoft.configurationmanagement.managementprovider

adminui.wqlqueryengine

Robust Programming

For more information about error handling, see About Configuration Manager Errors.

.NET Framework Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see Configuration Manager role-based administration.

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