How to Set an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Variable

Article
10/04/2022

In Configuration Manager, you create an operating system deployment task sequence variable by creating an instance of the SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction class, adding to a task sequence. You can also create task sequence variables while the task sequence is running on the client. For more information, see How to Use Task Sequence Variables in a Running Configuration Manager Task Sequence.

A task sequence variable is a name/value pair that you can access by task sequence steps. You can also create computer and collection-specific variables. For more information, see How to Create a Collection Variable in Configuration Manager and How to Create a Computer Variable in Configuration Manager.

Note

Variables that are set with the SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction class override variables that are set elsewhere. For example, if a collection variable and a SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction have the same name, the value of the SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction variable takes precedence.

To set a task sequence variable

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see SMS Provider fundamentals.
Get a task sequence to add the task sequence variable to. For more information, see How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence.
Create an instance of SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction.
Set the VariableName and VariableValue properties for the variable that you are adding.
Add the SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction object to the task sequence.

Example

The following example method sets a task sequence variable name and value.

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

Sub AddTaskSequenceVariable(connection, taskSequence, variableName, variableValue)     

    Dim variable  
    Dim steps  

    Set variable = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction").SpawnInstance_  

    variable.Name="MyTaskSequenceVariable"  
    variable.Description = "A task sequence variable"  
    variable.Enabled=True  
    variable.ContinueOnError=False  
    variable.VariableName=variableName  
    variable.VariableValue=variableValue  

    steps= Array(taskSequence.Steps)  

    ReDim steps (UBound (taskSequence.Steps)+1)    

    taskSequence.Steps(UBound(steps))=variable  

End Sub

public void AddTaskSequenceVariable(  
    WqlConnectionManager connection,   
    IResultObject taskSequence,   
    string variableName,   
    string variableValue)  
{  
    try  
    {  
        // Create the task sequence variable object.  
        IResultObject variable = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction");  

        // Populate the properties.  
        variable["Name"].StringValue = "MyTaskSequenceVariable";  
        variable["ContinueOnError"].BooleanValue = false;  
        variable["Description"].StringValue = "A task sequence variable set with SMS_TaskSequence_SetVariableAction";  
        variable["Enabled"].BooleanValue = true;  
        variable["VariableName"].StringValue = variableName;  
        variable["VariableValue"].StringValue = variableValue;  

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

        array.Add(variable);  
        taskSequence.SetArrayItems("Steps", array);  
    }  
    catch (SmsException e)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to set task sequence variable: " + e.Message);  
        throw;  
    }  
}

This example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`connection`	- Managed: `WqlConnectionManager` - VBScript: SWbemServices	- A valid connection to the SMS Provider.
`taskSequence`	- Managed: `WqlConnectionManager` - VBScript: `SWbemServices`	- The task sequence the variable is added to.
`variableName`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	The name of the variable.
`variableValue`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	The value for the variable.

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.