Apr 27, 2016

Download and view SMSTS.log on a Virtual Machine

This post is about how to download and view the SMSTS.log file when imaging a Virtual Machine.  Viewing the SMST.log file helps you troubleshoot Operating System Deployment (OSD) steps when you run into issues.

Saving the SMSTS.log file on a physical machine is not that difficult because you can just attach a USB jump drive to the physical system and copy the log.  On a virtual machine you don't have this option because its virtual.

The first thing you need to do is "enable command support" on your PXE boot image ( You need to do this for both physical or virtual machines ).

In the SCCM 2012 console open "Software Library / Operating System / Boot Images".  Right click on your PXE boot image and open the "Customization" tab.  Check the "Enable Command Support" check box and click on the "Ok" button to save the change.



During your OSD you want to get to a command prompt by hitting the "F8" key.  This will bring up a command prompt window.  From this windows you can copy or view any files that are already installed on the system.


The SMSTS.log file is located in "%systemdrive%\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs" directory during PXE imageing.  

Since this is a virtual system you will have to manually map a network drive to copy the SMSTS.log file out of the PXE environment.  Below is the command to map a network drive by command line.

net use I: \\Server\Shared Folder\  /user:mydomain.com\username

You will have to add you server name and share folder for your environment to the command line.  

Just copy the SMSTS.log file over the your newly mapped network drive and you will be able to view it with your CMTrace program on your system.  This is not live data but you can view all the steps in the task sequence up until you copied the file.

A BIG Thanks to this TechNet post for helping me with this issue.


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