Community Solutions: ISMIF on images

warpster had an issue where SCCM ran great for years for 6000+ clients, but all-of-a-sudden, after developing a standard Windows 7 image, MIF matching failed.

Read through the issue and solution below, but remember, putting your images under close scrutiny is important, particularly for use in a SCCM environment.

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Issue:

We have a strange problem that I would like to ask for assistance with….We have been running SCCM for years (6000+ clients) running mainly on Windows 7 SP1 workstations. Everything is working as it should….now the issue…we built a new base (windows 7) incorporating service pack one. This base works with our SCCM infrastructure also except for one small thing almost all of our adverts fail mif matching at the end of running except for a few that cause a reboot at the end of running. After enabling extended logging I have noticed, in the execmgr.log, that when it fails to match the mif it first looks in C:\Windows and then C:\Windows\System32 and then gives up and returns the exit code as the status. The few that cause a reboot at the end of running (once rebooted) SCCM looks in C:\Windows then C:\Windows\System32 then C:\Windows\Temp and finds the mif. All of the mifs that were not found still exist in the C:\Windows\Temp directory. Also all adverts run under system authority when no user is logged on. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance 
  
snippits from execmgr.log 
(Failed advert) 
Program exit code 0    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
CExecutionStatus::CExecutionStatus    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
Looking for MIF file to get program status    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
Looking for MIF file in directory C:\WINDOWS\    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
Looking for MIF file in directory C:\WINDOWS\system32\    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
Script for  Package:20001114, Program: Flash Player-(XPW7) succeeded with exit code 0    execmgr    08/09/2012 11:09:02 AM    3004 (0x0BBC) 
(Successful advert) 
?CExecutionStatus::CExecutionStatus    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Looking for MIF file to get program status    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Looking for MIF file in directory C:\WINDOWS\    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Looking for MIF file in directory C:\WINDOWS\system32\    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Looking for MIF file in directory C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Found MIF File OMCI.mif, Checking for match    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 
Successfully parsed name START COMPONENT from MIF File Line    execmgr    08/09/2012 12:55:58 PM    3688 (0x0E68) 

 

Solution:

Resolved…..It seems our problem was created by the our new Image build that got the ISMIF32.DLL included in the image but from a previous version of SCCM. To further complicate that the DLL was copied and registered in the wrong directory so when the client reinstalled it it must not have registered the new one and left the wrong older version registered. Behind the scenes, in an admin context, the new ISMIF process creates the MIF in C:\Windows whereas the old ISMIF32 created them in C:\Windows\Temp and when SCCM looks for the MIF (after program/advert completion) it currently quits looking past C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System32 except on a package that reboots the machine where SCCM will look in C:\Windows, C:\Windows\System32, and C:\Windows\Temp upon startup. 

Original thread:  SCCM 2007 not finding MIF files in Windows\Temp