Image and Join AD Multiple Devices using a single USB Network Adapter

[Pikmin]

Hey there,
Have’t really used this feature before. The plan was to set the AD bind in a newly created group but the settings don’t stick.
I had a read on the forum and noticed a host has to be added to be persistent but if I add another host to the group the settings get cleared (hypothetically if I had another network adapter)
What do you guys usually do in this situation?
Export the single host and import the csv with identical settings but different names? what do I do about mac address?

[Sebastian Roth]

@Pikmin Here we go. The concept of groups in FOG is not as strong as you might expect or hope it would be. You can use groups to adjust settings or schedule a task for a couple of hosts but it’s not like group settings are stored and inherited to hosts within that group. Hope this helps you understand why it is not working the way you expect it to.

Groups are complex. For example you have two hosts with different AD settings and you put both in the same group with the group also having some kind of AD settings. Which values do you expect to “shine through”? And again, if you remove one of the hosts form that group, should it have it’s original settings back? One can argue about those questions for hours and I guess this is one reason why FOG never implemented this kind of strong group concept but simply uses groups as a tool to set values or schedule tasks for a couple of hosts in a batch.

[Sebastian Roth]

@Pikmin said in Image and Join AD Multiple Devices using a single USB Network Adapter:

The plan was to set the AD bind in a newly created group but the settings don’t stick.

What exactly do you mean by that? Please explain in more detail.

but if I add another host to the group the settings get cleared

What do you mean by “get cleared”? Possibly use screenshots to explain what happens and tell us what you’d expect.

[Pikmin]

Sorry about not being clear.
What I mean is on the Fog Web Interface there’s a Groups section

The plan was to fill out the Active Directory details in there

Active Directory
Clear all fields? Ticked
Join Domain after deploy
Domain name
Organizational Unit
(Blank for default)
Domain Username
Domain Password
Domain Password Legacy
(Must be encrypted)
Name Change/AD Join Forced reboot?
Make changes?

However, if no hosts are a members of this group when I Update (to save my AD details for the bind) the fields are all blank when I go back to Groups > Active Directory

If I add a host1 to the Membership of the group, the Active Directory settings are saved, but once I add a second host2 they are blank for that host, while retained for host1.

I guess the question is what do I do to retain the Active Directory username and password so that it is used for any host I register.

(I’ll worry about the issue of having one USB Network Adapter later)

[Sebastian Roth]

@Pikmin Here we go. The concept of groups in FOG is not as strong as you might expect or hope it would be. You can use groups to adjust settings or schedule a task for a couple of hosts but it’s not like group settings are stored and inherited to hosts within that group. Hope this helps you understand why it is not working the way you expect it to.

Groups are complex. For example you have two hosts with different AD settings and you put both in the same group with the group also having some kind of AD settings. Which values do you expect to “shine through”? And again, if you remove one of the hosts form that group, should it have it’s original settings back? One can argue about those questions for hours and I guess this is one reason why FOG never implemented this kind of strong group concept but simply uses groups as a tool to set values or schedule tasks for a couple of hosts in a batch.

[Pikmin]

@Sebastian-Roth Thanks for the explanation.

I noticed there’s also FOG Configuration > FOG System Settings > Active Directory Defaults

Does that mean all hosts will be joined to the domain if the FOG Client is installed?

The other option is to register one host and set the Active Directory settings on the host, and just export, delete and import since I’m using one NIC

[Sebastian Roth]

@Pikmin said in Image and Join AD Multiple Devices using a single USB Network Adapter:

Does that mean all hosts will be joined to the domain if the FOG Client is installed?

Check “Service Settings” tab in the host’s settings. As far as I know from the top of my head the “Hostname Changer” needs to be enabled for the client. As well there is a global hostname changer setting in FOG configuration.

The other option is to register one host and set the Active Directory settings on the host, and just export, delete and import since I’m using one NIC

Don’t think you actually need to delete and import. Why not just scheduling another deploy job for the same registered host (USB adapter MAC) and boot up the next client with the same adapter to run the deploy job? Not sure if I properly understand what you are trying to achieve so this might be not what you are up to. Please explain where exactly you are headed with this.

[Pikmin]

@Sebastian-Roth
Lets say I deploy an image to host1 and join it to the domain. I want to image host2 next, so I thought maybe delete or just rename the host1 to host2 and start the deployment?

Looks like that worked, so I am just renaming the host since I’m using the same mac address