How to Delete an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence Action

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

You delete an operating system deployment task sequence action, in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, by removing the action from the task sequence steps.

To delete a task sequence action

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see About the SMS Provider in Configuration Manager.
Obtain a task sequence (SMS_TaskSequence Server WMI Class) object. For more information, see How to Create an Operating System Deployment Task Sequence.
Remove the action from the SMS_TaskSequence.Steps array property.

Example

The following example method deletes an action from the task sequence. The action is identified as an action by checking the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) property __SUPERCLASS to ensure it derives from SMS_TaskSequenceAction.

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

Sub RemoveAction (connection, taskSequence, actionName)
      
    Dim i
    Dim newArray
    Dim actionStep
    
    If taskSequence.SystemProperties_("__CLASS")<>"SMS_TaskSequence" Then
        wscript.echo "Not a task sequence"
        Exit Sub
    End If
         
    if IsNull(taskSequence.Steps) Then
        Wscript.Echo "No steps"
        Exit Sub
    End If
        
    ' Create an array to hold copied steps.
    newArray = Array(taskSequence.Steps)
    ReDim newArray(UBound(taskSequence.Steps))
         
    ' Copy the steps into the array and remove the matching action.
    i=0
    for each  actionStep in taskSequence.Steps
        If actionStep.Name = actionName and _
          actionStep.SystemProperties_("__SUPERCLASS") = "SMS_TaskSequence_Action" Then
             ReDim preserve newArray(UBound(newArray)-1) ' shrink the Array
        else
           Set newArray(i)=actionStep ' copy it
           i=i+1
        End If   
     Next
      
     ' Assign new array back to the task sequence.
     taskSequence.Steps=newArray         
  
End Sub

public void RemoveAction(
    IResultObject taskSequence, 
    string actionName)
{
    try
    {
        // Get a list of steps.
        List<IResultObject> actionSteps = taskSequence.GetArrayItems("Steps");

        // Find the action to be deleted.
        foreach (IResultObject actionStep in actionSteps)
        {
            if (actionStep["Name"].StringValue == actionName && actionStep["__SUPERCLASS"].StringValue == "SMS_TaskSequence_Action")
            {
                // Delete the action.
                actionSteps.Remove(actionStep);
                break;
            }
        }

        // Update the task sequence.
        taskSequence.SetArrayItems("Steps", actionSteps);
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to remove 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	The task sequence containing the action to be deleted.
actionName	Managed: String VBScript: String	The name of the action to be deleted. This can be obtained from the SMS_TaskSequenceAction.Name property.

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 About Securing Configuration Manager Applications.