Avoid running tasks when in audit mode

[AlexisPHC]

If you have the FOG client installed in an image and you boot a host into audit mode, and still have something like active directory join active for that host, the client will ignore the fact that it’s in audit mode and join the machine to the domain!

I’ve not tested it, but I assume that it will also try and deploy any snap-in’s configured also.

IMHO when in Audit mode the client should be in a paused state, and not respond to tasks.

[Tom Elliott]

@AlexisPHC The FOG client has no knowledge that the machine is in audit mode. All other normal services for audit mode still run similarly. (Not just FOG Client related, but networking, Antivirus, etc… etc…)

Now what we normally have people do when building their “golden” image is basically turn off Domain joining or disable any items for the machine. That or just ensure the machine you’re working on isn’t registered to the FOG server until you’re ready to capture the image.

This baseline machine should only be used for “golden image” creation and shouldn’t have any direct relationship to the FOG server until you’re ready to capture and deploy to that machine (after all your configurations are completed.)

I just want to be clear your expectation of “Well the fog client should know that the machine is in audit mode and not do actions it would normally do otherwise” doesn’t really make much sense in the context of programming. Or machines. All the FOG Client knows is “I’m supposed to do x, y, and z actions, I’m going to do x, y, and z actions”.

All of these things can be enabled/disabled in the FOG UI as well, so if you’re really wanting it to do these things, you should disable the items you don’t want happening there if you really much use a machine that’s already pre-configured in the UI. At least for the time you don’t want those things occurring.

[AlexisPHC]

@Tom-Elliott I believe it would be very simple to add a check in for this though, not all of us have the luxury of dedicated hardware for gold images!

The client could check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup for AuditInProgress - and if that matches then it can pause any tasks.

[Tom Elliott]

@AlexisPHC Sure, it might be possible to do this, but you can just disable the service from actively running, which is actually suggested anyway?

Install the service (while totally disconnected from the FOG Server.)

Set the service to a disabled state.

Load machine into “Audit Mode” Do work…

This would be independent of dedicated hardware or anything like that.

https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/FOG_Client#FOG_Client_with_Sysprep

[Tom Elliott]

Now I’m not saying this isn’t a feature that will (or will not) be added. I am not a C# programmer and wouldn’t really know how to start doing this.

That said, even if we did add this feature, you’d still need to disable the service for sysprep so that when the machine does boot you don’t have an issue.

Since you have to disable the service anyway, I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to put in a “stop” feature into the client.

Could even OOBE sysprep load/startup mode potentially be detected? Possibly, but why would we put that much into the FOG Client when it’s just as easy to disable to service when doing configuration stuff such as you’re doing?

[AlexisPHC]

@Tom-Elliott ah, that would work! Sorry, the documentation is such a mish-mash that it’s hard to find answers for some of this stuff!