How to Add an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Action

An operating system deployment task sequence action is added to a task sequence, in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, by creating an instance of an SMS_TaskSequence_Action derived class and then adding it to the steps of the task sequence.

Note
System Center 2012 Configuration Manager has a number of built-in actions that you can use. For example the command-line action class is SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLineAction. These classes derive from the SMS_TaskSequence_Action class.

SMS_TaskSequenceAction derives from the SMS_TaskSequence_Step class, which is the base class for both actions and groups. The task sequence stores its steps in an array of SMS_TaskSequence_Step, thus allowing actions and groups to be stored together.

To add a task sequence action

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information see, About the SMS Provider in Configuration Manager.
Create a task sequence (SMS_TaskSequence) object. For more information, see How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence.
Create an SMS_TaskSequenceAction derived class instance, for example, SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLine, for the action you want.
Populate the action as appropriate.
Add the action to the task sequences steps. This is stored the SMS_TaskSequence class Steps property.

Example

The following example method creates a command-line action and adds it to the supplied task sequence.

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

Visual Basic Script	Copy Code
Sub AddTaskSequenceActionCommandLine(connection, taskSequence, name, description) Dim steps Dim action Set action = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLineAction").SpawnInstance_ action.CommandLine = "cmd /c Echo Hello" action.Name=name action.Description=description action.Enabled=True action.ContinueOnError=False If IsNull(taskSequence.Steps) Then steps = Array(action) taskSequence.Steps=steps Else steps= Array(taskSequence.Steps) ReDim steps (UBound (taskSequence.Steps)+1) taskSequence.Steps(UBound(steps))=action End if End Sub

Visual Basic Script

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Sub AddTaskSequenceActionCommandLine(connection, taskSequence, name, description)   

	Dim steps
	Dim action  

	Set action = connection.Get("SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLineAction").SpawnInstance_

	action.CommandLine = "cmd /c Echo Hello"
	action.Name=name
	action.Description=description
	action.Enabled=True
	action.ContinueOnError=False
  
	If IsNull(taskSequence.Steps) Then
		steps = Array(action)
		taskSequence.Steps=steps
	Else
		steps= Array(taskSequence.Steps)
		ReDim steps (UBound (taskSequence.Steps)+1) 
		taskSequence.Steps(UBound(steps))=action
	End if  

End Sub

C#	Copy Code
public IResultObject AddTaskSequenceActionCommandLine( WqlConnectionManager connection, IResultObject taskSequence, string name, string description) { try { // Create the new step. IResultObject ro; ro = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLineAction"); ro["CommandLine"].StringValue = @"cmd /c Echo Hello"; ro["Name"].StringValue = name; ro["Description"].StringValue = description; 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); return ro; } catch (SmsException e) { Console.WriteLine("Failed to add action: " + e.Message); throw; } }

Copy Code

public IResultObject AddTaskSequenceActionCommandLine(
	WqlConnectionManager connection, 
	IResultObject taskSequence,
	string name, 
	string description)
{
	try
	{
		// Create the new step.
		IResultObject ro;

		ro = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_TaskSequence_RunCommandLineAction");
		ro["CommandLine"].StringValue = @"cmd /c Echo Hello";

		ro["Name"].StringValue = name;
		ro["Description"].StringValue = description;
		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);

		return ro;
}
	catch (SmsException e)
	{
		Console.WriteLine("Failed to add action: " + 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.
taskSequence	Managed: IResultObject VBScript: SWbemObject	A valid task sequence (SMS_TaskSequence).
Name	Managed: String VBScript: String	A name for the new action.
Description	Managed: String VBScript: String	A description for the action.

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.

Security

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