Translating Error Codes for Windows and Configuration Manager

As a Windows and Configuration Manager administrator, I often come across error codes that need translating into their more friendly descriptions.  In Configuration Manager, sometimes these codes are translated for you in the log files, reports and the ConfigMgr console, but sometimes they are not.  Sometimes they will be in decimal format, and sometimes hexadecimal.  For Windows error codes, there are a number of methods to return the friendly descriptions, for example the “net helpmsg”:

But it can only handle decimal codes:

In PowerShell, there is the .Net namespace ComponentModel.Win32Exception, which can handle both decimal and hex:

Common Windows error codes are also documented in MSDN:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms681381(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc231199.aspx

However, for error codes that are specific to Configuration Manager, you can use the handy CMTRACE utility in the Configuration Manager toolkit, which has an error lookup.  This returns error descriptions for both Windows and Configuration Manager, supports decimal and hex, and supports error codes from more sources too, including WMI and Windows Update Agent:

But if you are scripting and want to translate an error code, how can you do that?  Well there is a handy little dll file called SrsResources.dll that comes with the installation of the Configuration Manager Console, and can be found here: %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\SrsResources.dll.  Using this dll, we can translate error codes for Windows, Configuration Manager, WMI etc, and even translate status message IDs.  It will call other dll files when it needs to, to find the error string.

Using PowerShell, we can create the following simple function which will use the SrsResources.dll to translate a decimal or hex error code for us:

function Get-CMErrorMessage {
[CmdletBinding()]
    param
        (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ValueFromPipeline=$True,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True)]
            [int64]$ErrorCode
        )

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\SrsResources.dll")
[SrsResources.Localization]::GetErrorMessage($ErrorCode,"en-US")
}

To take it further, we can export a list of error codes, for example here we will use the same function to enumerate all decimal codes between 0 and 50, and also output the equivalent hex codes:

$errorcodes = @()
$i = -1
Do
    {
        $i ++
        $description = Get-CMErrorMessage -ErrorCode $i
        if ($description -notlike "Unknown Error*")
            {
                $hex = '{0:x}' -f $i
                $errorcode = New-Object psobject
                Add-Member -InputObject $errorcode -MemberType NoteProperty -Name DecimalErrorCode -Value $i
                Add-Member -InputObject $errorcode -MemberType NoteProperty -Name HexErrorCode -Value ("0x" + $hex)
                Add-Member -InputObject $errorcode -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ErrorDescription -Value $description
                $errorcodes += $errorcode
            }

    }
Until ($i -eq 50)
$errorcodes | ft -AutoSize

Pretty cool 🙂  Using this SrsResources.dll creates a log file in your %TEMP% directory called SCCMReporting.log, and this log quickly increases in size, so if you use it a lot check the size of this log file from time to time.  The logging can be useful for identifying which dll was used to find the error string.

To convert between decimal and hexadecimal and vice-versa, we can use this simple function. With PowerShell, you can convert to decimal natively in the console just by entering the hexadecimal code,  but using this function allows us to convert both ways, and is more useful for scripts.

function Convert-ErrorCode {
[CmdletBinding()]
    param
        (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ParameterSetName='Decimal')]
            [int64]$DecimalErrorCode,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ParameterSetName='Hex')]
            $HexErrorCode
        )
if ($DecimalErrorCode)
    {
        $hex = '{0:x}' -f $DecimalErrorCode
        $hex = "0x" + $hex
        $hex
    }

if ($HexErrorCode)
    {
        $DecErrorCode = $HexErrorCode.ToString()
        $DecErrorCode
    }
}

Finally, wrapping all this together, here is a script that uses both functions we have created earlier, and will return all the machines that are in an error state for a ConfigMgr application deployment, with the error code and description.  Because we filter using the current application revision, this actually returns more accurate results than the ConfigMgr console > Deployments node, as that data will include previous application revisions where no data is available for the current revision, which produces misleading results.

First, we query WMI on the ConfigMgr site server for the list of applications and choose the one we want:

Then we query for the deployments and deployment types for that application, and choose the one we want.  The numbers of errors is returned, but as previously mentioned, this may not be completely accurate at this stage.

Then we return the results translating the error codes into their descriptions.

Cool 🙂

Note that WMI stores the error codes as unsigned integers, but the ConfigMgr console displays errors as signed integers, so we do a conversion and include both in our results.

In the next blog, I describe how to create a SQL database of these error codes for easy referencing in SQL queries: Create a database of error codes and descriptions for Windows and Configmgr

Here’s the complete script:

<#

.SYNOPSIS
    Returns the error code and error descriptions for all computers in an error state for an application deployment

.DESCRIPTION
    This script asks you to choose a ConfigrMgr application, then choose a deployment / deployment type for that application, then returns all the computers that are in an error state for that
    deployment, with the error code and error description.
    Requires to be run on a computer with the ConfigMgr console installed, and the path to the SrsResources.dll needs to be specified in the "Get-CMErrorMessage" function.  You may also
    need to change the localization in this function to your region, eg "en-US".

.PARAMETER SiteServer
    The name of the ConfigMgr Site server

.PARAMETER SiteCode
    The ConfigMgr Site Code

.NOTES
    Script name: Get-CMAppDeploymentErrors.ps1
    Author:      Trevor Jones
    Contact:     @trevor_smsagent
    DateCreated: 2015-06-17
    Link:        https://smsagent.wordpress.com

#>

[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True)]
    param
        (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
            [string]$SiteServer="sccmserver-01",
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
            [string]$SiteCode="ABC"
        )

function Get-CMErrorMessage {
[CmdletBinding()]
    param
        (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ValueFromPipeline=$True,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True)]
            [int64]$ErrorCode
        )

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\SrsResources.dll")
[SrsResources.Localization]::GetErrorMessage($ErrorCode,"en-US")
}

function Convert-ErrorCode {
[CmdletBinding()]
    param
        (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ParameterSetName='Decimal')]
            [int64]$DecimalErrorCode,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,ParameterSetName='Hex')]
            $HexErrorCode
        )
if ($DecimalErrorCode)
    {
        $hex = '{0:x}' -f $DecimalErrorCode
        $hex = "0x" + $hex
        $hex
    }

if ($HexErrorCode)
    {
        $DecErrorCode = $HexErrorCode.ToString()
        $DecErrorCode
    }
}

# Get Application
$App = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $SiteServer -Namespace ROOT\sms\Site_$SiteCode -Class SMS_ApplicationLatest |
    Sort LocalizedDisplayName |
    Select LocalizedDisplayName,SDMPackageVersion,ModelName |
    Out-GridView -Title "Choose an Application" -OutputMode Single

# Get Deployment Types and Deployments for Application
$DT = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $SiteServer -Namespace ROOT\sms\Site_$SiteCode -query "Select * from SMS_AppDTDeploymentSummary where AppModelName = '$($App.ModelName)'" |
    Select Description,CollectionName,CollectionID,NumberErrors,AssignmentID |
    Out-GridView -Title "Choose a Deployment / Deployment Type" -OutputMode Single

# Get Errors
$Errors = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $SiteServer -Namespace ROOT\sms\Site_$SiteCode -query "Select * from SMS_AppDeploymentErrorAssetDetails where AssignmentID = '$($DT.AssignmentID)' and DTName = '$($DT.Description)' and Revision = '$($App.SDMPackageVersion)' and Errorcode <> 0" |
    Sort Machinename |
    Select MachineName,Username,Starttime,Errorcode

if ($Errors -ne $null)
{
    # Create new object with error descriptions in
    $AllErrors = @()
    foreach ($item in $Errors)
        {
            $errordescription = Get-CMErrorMessage -ErrorCode $item.Errorcode
            $hex = Convert-ErrorCode -DecimalErrorCode $item.Errorcode
            $int = [int]$hex
            $obj = New-Object psobject
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ComputerName -Value $item.MachineName
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name UserName -Value $item.Username
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name StartTime -Value $([management.managementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime($item.Starttime))
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name UnsignedIntErrorCode -Value $item.Errorcode
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name SignedIntErrorCode -Value $int
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name HexErrorCode -Value $hex
            Add-Member -InputObject $obj -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ErrorDescription -Value $errordescription
            $AllErrors += $obj
        }
    # Return results
    write-host "Application: $($App.LocalizedDisplayName)"
    write-host "DeploymentType: $($DT.Description)"
    write-host "TargetedCollection: $($DT.CollectionName)"
    $AllErrors | ft -AutoSize
}
Else {Write-host "No results returned."}