SCCM 2012 Task Sequence for Failing Hard Drive

Now that you have collections created based S.M.A.R.T diagnostics or Disk event log entries baselines for failing hard drives... (See previous post)

We can create a custom Task Sequence to notify the user of the problem, when they log onto the computer.

Optionally, you could also deploy this as an available task sequence, for end users to manually check hard drive status.

Here are my suggestions for the task sequence...

Name: Hard Drive Diagnostic
Progress notification text: "Please submit a help desk ticket if the hard drive reports as failing."  (or use the standard "Running: <Task sequence name>")
Suppress task sequence notifications - Optional
Maximum run time: 5 minutes
Run on any platform.

Sequence of Tasks... (Keep in mind that the "Name" is what the end user will see on the screen)

1. Set Task Sequence Variable
1. Name: Testing hard drive health. Please wait.
2. Variable: HD Failure
3. Value: True
4. Options:Add a WMI query Condition
1. WMI Namespace: root\wmi
2. WQL Query: select * from MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus Where PredictFailure = True
2. Group 1:
1. Name: Hard Drive Diagnostic Finished
2. Options: Add a Task Sequence Variable
1. Variable: HD Failure
2. Condition: Equals
3. Value: True
3. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: The hard drive is failing
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30
1. Should last about 30 seconds on the screen
4. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: We recommend replacing the hard drive.
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 30
1. Should last about 30 seconds on the screen
3. Group 2:
1. Name: Hard drive Diagnostics Finished
2. Options: Add a Task Sequence Variable
1. Variable: HD Failure
2. Condition: Not Exists
3. Run Command Line (Under Group 1)
1. Name: Hard drive passed diagnostics
2. Command line: ping 127.0.0.1 -n 10
1. Should last about 10 seconds on the screen.

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Using SCCM 2012 Compliance Settings to Determine Hard Drive Health

As long as your computer has S.M.A.R.T hard drive diagnostic capabilities, the following can be used to track hard drive failures.

Configuration Item(s) in SCCM 2012.

Option 1 - Using WQL query

Name - Hard Drive Predictive Failure

Platforms - All (Although, if they are virtual machines this will not work.)

Settings -

• Name: Storage Driver Failure Prediction
• Type: WQL Query
• Data: String
• Namespace: root\wmi
• Class: MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus
• Property:PredictFailure

Compliance Rules

• Name: Possible Hard Drive Failure is True
• I named it this to remind me that "False" is the result we want.
• Rule: Storage Driver Failure Prediction Equals False
• Noncompliance severity: Critical

 Option 2 - Using PowerShell script to read system event log

This option will read the System event log and count any 'disk' source logs that are not Information level. 
Note: This will include issues with temporarily attached external hard drives or USB drives.

Name - Event Log Disk Errors
Platforms - All (This will work for servers and virtual machines)
Settings

• Name: Report disk errors found in Event Log
• Type: Script
• Discovery script (See end of post)
• Counts the events and writes that value.

Compliance Rules

• Name: Disk error count
• Rule: Less than 1 (That's a number one)
• Noncompliance severity: Critical

Now that you have created the Configuration Items, you can add (one or both) to a Configuration Baseline and deploy them to your collections.

Once deployed create collections for the non compliant systems and then use that information in reports for your help desk or create a Task sequence that alerts the end user that the hard drive is may be failing.

Here's the PowerShell script...
- Updated Feb 3, 2015 to exclude '*Device\Harddisk1\DR1*' event logs.

#Version 2.30 Feb 3, 2015
#Designed for SCCM Baseline
$AllEvents = 0
#Default Event Logs
$Provider = "disk"
$HourChange = 24 #Up to you how far back you want to go
$TimeNow = [DateTime]::Now
$TimeChange = [DateTime]::Now.AddHours(-$HourChange)
#Check Event Log for errors
$EventLogNames = "System"
ForEach ($log in $EventLogNames){
    $entry = " "
    #Search Event Logs
   
    $LogEntry = Get-WinEvent -LogName $log | Where-Object {$_.timeCreated -ge $TimeChange -and $_.ProviderName -contains $Provider -and ($_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Warning' -or $_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Error' -or $_.LevelDisplayName -eq 'Critical')}
        ForEach ($entry in $LogEntry){
            $EvLevel = "Level: `t" + $entry.LevelDisplayName + $nl
            $EvEventID = "EventID: `t" + $entry.ID + $nl
            $EvMessage = "Message: `t" + $entry.Message + $nl
            $EvSource = "Source: `t" + $entry.ProviderName + $nl
            $EvTime = "Time Created: `t" + $entry.TimeCreated + $nl
            #write-host $EvLevel + $EvEventID + $EvMessage + $EvSource +$EvTime + $nl

            #If ($entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Critical" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Warning" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Error"){
            If ($EvMessage.tostring() -like '*Device\Harddisk1\DR1*'){
                #nothing
            }
            ElseIf ($entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Critical" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Warning" -or $entry.LevelDisplayName -eq "Error"){
             $AllEvents += 1
            }
                       
        }
}
write-host $AllEvents


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Cleaning up CCMCache folder in SCCM 2012

One thing I have found with System Center Configuration Manager is that the client cache folder can take up a lot space on the hard drive.  Filled with updates or applications source files that no longer are needed.

Only way is to set the Cache size to smaller value using a vbs script (or powershell) that runs these commands...

set oUIResManager = createobject("UIResource.UIResourceMgr")
set oCache=oUIResManager.GetCacheInfo()
oCache.TotalSize=4096

However, if you were to install a program like AutoCAD that requires more than 4GB of cache storage, it would likely fail.

The PowerShell script listed at the bottom of this post (based on Kaido Järvemets posting at http://cm12sdk.net) will clean up the "old" content in ccmcache based on the LastReferenced WMI information. 

The '$ReferenceAge.Days -gt 30' section deletes anything not referenced in the last 30 days. 

The "#Change Cache size" section is optional and only included for reference.

The 'stop-process $pid -Force' command however is required as there have been cases where the PowerShell script fails to exit.

It can be run on a remote computer using the psexec program from Sysinternals.

Example.

copy the file over to hard drive of the remote system.

psexec.exe -s \\computername powershell -noprofile -file "c:\clear ccmcache.ps1"

Planned implementation... (other than manually running).

Compliance item for harddrives with less than x amount of free space that remediates with a PowerShell command.

or

Task sequence that runs every # of days.

#Based on http://cm12sdk.net/?p=1517

$Today = Get-Date
$CacheInfoQuery = Get-WmiObject -Namespace Root\ccm\SoftMgmtAgent -Class CacheInfoEx
ForEach ($Item in $CacheInfoQuery) {
    $LastDate = [Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime($Item.LastReferenced)
    $CacheElementID = "{" + $Item.CacheID + "}"
    $ReferenceAge = $Today - $LastDate
    $FolderLocation = $item.location
   
    if ($ReferenceAge.Days -gt 30) {
        #Write-Host Found $CacheElementID Last referenced $LastDate That is $ReferenceAge ago in $FolderLocation -ForegroundColor Red
        #Based on http://cm12sdk.net/?p=1526

  Write-Host Too old, deleting folder $FolderLocation -ForegroundColor Red
        $CMObject = New-Object -ComObject "UIResource.UIResourceMgr"
        $CMCacheObjects = $CMObject.GetCacheInfo()
        $CMCacheObjects.DeleteCacheElement($CacheElementID)
        }

    #Remove number sign from the next 2 lines to allow for more information
    #else {
  #Write-Host $FolderLocation was last referenced $LastDate  That is $ReferenceAge days ago  -ForegroundColor Green}
    }

#Change Cache size
$CacheQuery = Get-WmiObject -Namespace ROOT\CCM\SoftMgmtAgent -Class CacheConfig
$CacheQuery.Size = 1000
$CacheQuery.Put()
#Restart CcmExec service
Restart-Service -Name CcmExec

stop-process $pid -Force

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