Searching for smsts.log... again

When I troubleshoot operating system deployments that are failing I usually start looking in the smsts.log for obvious errors or clues for what might have gone wrong. But ever so often I keep looking for the correct path to the log file...

smsts.log moves around during the different phases of the task sequence as described in the table below

Task Sequence Phase	Location of smsts.log
WinPE before disk is formatted	X:\Windows\temp\SMSTSLog\
WinPE after disk is formatted	C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\SMSTSLog\
Windows OS prior to installation of SCCM agent	C:\_SMSTaskSequence\Logs\SMSTSLog\
Windows OS after installation of SCCM agent	C:\Windows\System32\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\
Windows OS x64 after installation of SCCM agent	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\
Windows OS after task sequence has completed	C:\Windows\System32\CCM\Logs\
Windows OS x64 after Task Sequence has completed	C:\Windows\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs\

You can also create a step in you task sequence that will copy the logs to a network share if the deployment fails. More about that in a later post.