How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence

Article
05/03/2011

Applies To: System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

You create a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 operating system deployment task sequence by creating an instance of the SMS_TaskSequence class.

A task sequence contains one or more steps that are run sequentially on the client computer. For more information, see Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Object Model.

The task sequence is then packaged in an SMS_TaskSequencePackage Server WMI Class and advertised to the client computer.

To create a task sequence

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see About the SMS Provider in Configuration Manager.
Create a task sequence (SMS_TaskSequence) object.
Add actions and, as required, add groups to the action. For more information, see How to Add an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Action.
Associate the task sequence with a task sequence package. For more information, see How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Package.
Advertise the task sequence to the client computer. For more information, see How to Create an Advertisement.

Example

The following example method creates a task sequence that installs a software program. The example also creates a task sequence package by calling the example that is defined in How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Package.

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

Sub CreateInstallSoftwareTaskSequence(connection,name, description, packageID, programName)
    
    ' Create the task sequence.
    set taskSequence = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence").SpawnInstance_
    
    ' Create the action.
    set action = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_InstallSoftwareAction").SpawnInstance_
    
    action.ProgramName=programName
    action.PackageID=packageID
    action.Name=name
    action.Enabled=true
    action.ContinueOnError=false
    
    ' Create an array to hold the action.
    actionSteps= array(action)
    ' Add the array to the task sequence.
    taskSequence.Steps=actionSteps
    
    wscript.echo taskSequence.Steps(0).Name
    call CreateTaskSequencePackage (connection, taskSequence)
    
 End Sub

public void CreateInstallSoftwareTaskSequence(
    WqlConnectionManager connection, 
    string name, 
    string packageId, 
    string programName)
{
    try
    {
        // Create the task sequence.
        IResultObject taskSequence = connection.CreateInstance("SMS_TaskSequence");

        IResultObject ro = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_InstallSoftwareAction");
        ro["ProgramName"].StringValue = programName;
        ro["packageId"].StringValue = packageId;
        ro["Name"].StringValue = name;
        ro["Enabled"].BooleanValue = true;
        ro["ContinueOnError"].BooleanValue = false;

        // Add the step to the task sequence.
        List<IResultObject> array = taskSequence.GetArrayItems("Steps");

        array.Add(ro);

        taskSequence.SetArrayItems("Steps", array);

        // Create the task sequence package.
        this.CreateTaskSequencePackage(connection, taskSequence);
    }
    catch (SmsException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to create Task Sequence: " + 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.
name	Managed: String VBScript: String	The task sequence step name.
packageID	Managed: String VBScript: String	The package identifier containing the software to be installed. Obtained from SMS_Package.PackageID.
programName	Managed: String VBScript: String	The name of the program to be installed. Obtained from SMS_Program.ProgramName.

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.

Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see About Securing Configuration Manager Applications.