How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence

Article
10/04/2022

You create a Configuration Manager 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 and advertised to the client computer.

To create a task sequence

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see SMS Provider fundamentals.
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.
`description`	- VBScript: `String`	The task sequence step description.
`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.

.NET Framework Security

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