In this post I will be discussing on how to fix the issue “no task sequence found” for new devices. This is a very common error we see while trying to initiate the SCCM task sequence. Sometimes we see this error for old devices and sometimes for new devices. Let’s looking into it why it is caused.
Error No task sequence found for existing devices
In a scenario where you wanted to rebuild an existing system, once the boot image is loaded either through boot media or PXE boot, you will get error:
Failed to Run Task Sequence
No task sequence found
This is perfectly ok as the device is already there in SCCM database and the status is known to SCCM. Usually, task sequence is targeted to Unknown Computers, as the device already exist in SCCM database, you won’t be able to see list of task sequence targeted to All Unknown Computers collection.
To resolve the problem, delete the existing system from SCCM. If you are having trouble which device to delete, find the mac address of the device in smsts.log when you see error.
Press F8 to open command prompt, type:
Cmtrace.exe x:\windows\temp\smstslog\smsts.log
We can see the error in log file:
No assigned task sequence.
Search for phrase “Mac Address”, once found make a note of this.
Open Configuration Manager console and navigate to \Assets and Compliance\Overview\Devices, enable the column “MAC address” and search for mac address we saw in smsts.log.
Simply delete the entry. Now when you try pxe boot or load boot media, you will be able to see list of task sequence.
No task sequence found for new devices
Above mentioned example was pretty much easy to understand as it was related to existing device which needs to be removed from SCCM database. But what about a brand new device which your company procured and you see the error message “No Task Sequence found”, this could be quite confusing that why we are getting this error message even though device is brand new and not in SCCM database.
Why we see error No task sequence found for new device
If you are using Dongle / Ethernet adapter which is quite common nowadays as Rj-45 connector might not be present in new devices, then the chances are – you are using the same ethernet adapter multiple times for various devices. When you use the Ethernet adapter for first time for a device, the MAC address of adapter gets registered with the device which you have built. The device will be having 2 physical mac addresses registered with SCCM, one is for inbuilt network card and another for Ethernet adapter we used.
When we use same Ethernet adapter for another device, SCCM will check the hardware identifier of the device ie. Mac address / SMBIOS GUID. As the Mac address was already registered for previous device, it will be treated as known device and you will be represented with error “No task sequence found”.
To resolve the issues temporarily, you can delete the hostname of previous device which got registered along with MAC address of ethernet adapter. But that’s not a good approach, you have to delete the entry every time whenever you are trying to build new device.
Another approach would be to add this information into SCCM so that Configuration Manager is aware of this Mac address to ignore while initiating task sequence build.
Under Configuration Manager console, navigate to \Administration\Overview\Site Configuration\Sites, click on Hierarchy Settings.
Under Hierarchy Settings Properties, click on Client Approval and Conflicting Records. Under Duplicate hardware identifiers section click on Add to open Add Duplicate Hardware ID popup and proceed with adding with Hardware ID.
Using this technique is exactly same as we used to do for older versions of Configuration manager, ie. to add MAC address under following registry:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\COMPONENTS\SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER
The name of the key is ExcludeMACAddress, here you can add multiple MAC address.
This would be no longer required now as we have now feature available in SCCM console itself with the name Duplicate hardware identifiers.
