How to Add a Condition to an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Step

Article
05/03/2011

Applies To: System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1, System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

Conditions can be added to an operating system deployment step (action and group), in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, by creating a SMS_TaskSequence_Condition class instance and then associating it with the step. If the condition operands are all met, then the step is processed; otherwise it is not. The condition can have one or more operands that are instances of SMS_TaskSequence_Condition derived classes. You specify operators for the operands with instances of SMS_TaskSequence_ConditionOperator.

Note

Configuration Manager 2007 provides several classes that provide useful expressions such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) queries and file operations. For more information, see Operating System Deployment Server WMI Classes.

To add a condition to a step

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see About the SMS Provider in Configuration Manager.
Obtain a task sequence step object. This can be an SMS_TaskSequence_Group object for a group, or a SMS_TaskSequenceAction derived class object for an action, for more information, see How to Add an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Action.
Create a new condition by creating an instance of SMS_TaskSequence_Condition.
Create an expression for the condition by creating an instance of an SMS_TaskSequence_ConditionExpression derived class. For example, SMS_TaskSequence_RegistryConditionExpression.
Populate the expression properties.
Add the expression to the condition Operands property.
Add the condition to the task sequence step class Condition property.

Example

The following example method adds a condition to a supplied step that determines if the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MICROSOFT registry key exists. The SMS_TaskSequenc_RegistryCondition Expression is used to specify the condition.

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

Sub AddRegistryCondition (connection, taskSequenceStep)

    Dim condition
    Dim registryExpression
    Dim operands
   
    ' Get or create the condition.
    if IsNull ( taskSequenceStep.Condition) Then
       Set condition = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_Condition").SpawnInstance_
    Else
        Set condition = taskSequenceStep.Condition
    End If   
         
    ' Populate the condition.
    Set registryExpression=connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_RegistryConditionExpression").SpawnInstance_
    registryExpression.KeyPath="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MICROSOFT"
    registryExpression.Operator="exists"
    registryExpression.Type="REG_SZ"
    registryExpression.Data=Null
    
    ' Add the condition.
    operands=Array(registryExpression)
    condition.Operands=operands
    taskSequenceStep.Condition=condition

End Sub

public void AddRegistryCondition(
    WqlConnectionManager connection, 
    IResultObject taskSequenceStep)
{
    try
    {
        IResultObject condition;

        if (taskSequenceStep["Condition"].ObjectValue == null)
        {
            // Create a new condition.
            condition = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_Condition");
        }
        else
        {   // Get the existing condition.
            condition = taskSequenceStep.GetSingleItem("Condition");
        }

        // Create and populate the expression.
        IResultObject registryExpression = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_RegistryConditionExpression");

        registryExpression["KeyPath"].StringValue = @"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MICROSOFT";
        registryExpression["Operator"].StringValue = "exists";
        registryExpression["Type"].StringValue = "REG_SZ";
        registryExpression["Data"].StringValue = null;

        // Get the operands and add the expression.
        List<IResultObject> operands = condition.GetArrayItems("Operands");
        operands.Add(registryExpression);

        // Add the expresssion to the list of operands.
        condition.SetArrayItems("Operands", operands);

        // Add the condition to the sequence.
        taskSequenceStep.SetSingleItem("Condition", condition);
    }
    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.
taskSequenceStep	Managed: IResultObject VBScript: SWbemObject	A valid task sequence step (SMS_TaskSequenceStep).

Compiling the Code

The C# example has the following compilation requirements:

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.

Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see About Securing Configuration Manager Applications.

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