[Seeking Volunteers] Bench Testing! Our trip to the best results!

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer said in [Seeking Volunteers] Bench Testing! Our trip to the best results!:

but when it wants to mount FOG

Lets just be sure I understand correctly.

You can pxe boot into the fog iPXE menu. When you select something like full registration or pick imaging both bzImage and init.xz is transferred to the target computer. The target computer then starts FOS Linux, but during the boot of FOS, you get to a point where it can’t get an IP address or contact the fog server, it tries 3 times then gives up? Is that where its failing?

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Yes!

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer Something happened with the picture upload. You need to wait until the image appears in the right edit panel before submitting your post.

OK it sounds like FOS Linux doesn’t have the driver for your network adapter.

Lets start out by having your schedule a debug deploy/capture to this target computer. When you schedule the task tick the debug checkbox before you press the schedule task button.

PXE boot the target computer, after several screens of text where you have to clear by pressing the enter key you should be dropped to the FOS Linux command prompt.

At the FOS Linux command prompt key in the following and post a the screen shots here.

ip link show

lspci -nn|grep -i net

Also what model of 10G adapter are you using?

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421 said in [Seeking Volunteers] Bench Testing! Our trip to the best results!:

When you schedule the task tick the debug checkbox before you press the schedule task button.

*Doing it now (debug).
*Nic X550T1BLK
https://www.kommago.nl/intel-x550-t1-10-gigabit-netwerk-adapter/pid=51799

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer If you have this nic in a running windows box. Will you get the hardware ID of it? OR from the FOS Linux run the lspci command as I’ve outlined below. I’ll look it up to see if linux supports that card.

The 10G stuff is new and may not be enabled in FOS Linux. Having the hardware ID will help (i.e. 8086:1AF2 made up number, but that is what I’m looking for)

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer That card driver should be included with FOS Linux it has been in the linux kernel since 4.7. I checked and its enabled in the FOS Linux build config: https://github.com/FOGProject/fos/blob/master/configs/kernelx64.config#L1447

From the FOS Linux command prompt key in
ip addr show

uname -a

and post the results

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Okey.

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer Well this is a good one. It should be working.

At the fos linux command prompt key in

/sbin/udhcpc -i enp11s0 --now

then do an
ip addr show

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421
Done

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer Ok at this point, time fixes your problem.

So if this was a 1GbE network I would say on the switch you are connected to has standard spanning tree enabled. Again if this was a 1GbE network I would recommend that you enable one of the fast spanning tree protocols like RSTP, MSTP, fast-STP. I don’t know if that translates to a 10GbE switch or not. I know on our hybrid switch 100/1000/10000 I have MSTP enabled because we have multiple stp zones.

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Reboot? or a command to start cast? Checking out our switches meanwhile

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer You are probably better to cancel the task on the fog server then reboot. If you were unicasting and wanted to single step through deployment you would enter fog at the FOS linux command prompt. You may be able to do that with a multicast, but I never tried.

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Resolved. Spanning-tree was not enabled on the switch port that was directly attached to system.
spanning-tree portfast on the port solved it.

What for 10GBe switches are you using? i might purchase the same ones ( we’re seeking for 10GBe switch to test deployment)

[fry_p]

@Mokerhamer I wanted to clear up my first reply. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to seem so negative and I didn’t fully understand what this encompassed. I apologize if I came off as a meanie. I now see you have really good ideas/plans (and the equipment to back it up). Thank you for supporting the community through awareness and testing. I wish you the best for your trials and await the results!

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer said in [Seeking Volunteers] Bench Testing! Our trip to the best results!:

What for 10GBe switches are you using?

Its an older kit, Procurve 5412zl at our core switch and inside data center.

That’s great it was something simple like spanning tree. The issue is with standard spanning tree is that it doesn’t start forwarding data for 27 seconds once the link is established. Well during the pxe booting process the link “winks” 2 times. The first as iPXE takes over from the PXE rom, and the second time is when FOS Linux takes over from iPXE. FOS Linux boots so fast that by the time the port starts forwarding data FOS Linux has already given up.

Standard STP listens for a BPU then forwards. Fast-STP forwards first then listens for the BPU.

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Procurve 5412zl does not have 10GB poorts? or i might have the wrong product infront of me

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer There are 10GbE modules for it.

[Mokerhamer]

@george1421

Ever tried multi-casting on a full 10 GBE network, including clients having 10 GBE? i am really wondering what ZSTD with high compression on a 10GBE network. Prepared several machines, from 16 GB till 64 GB with strong cpu’s.

Hardware will come in Monday/Tuesday and we will push the limits curious!

[george1421]

@Mokerhamer I have never tried this since we only have 10G in the network core and not to the access layer switches so you will be the first one.

With zstd there has to be a sweet spot (a point where there is the best of both compressed file size and speed because compression is about compromise) in the compression ratio. For gzip I think its 6 and for zstd its 11 (I have no foundation to say this is accurate because I have not personally tested).

Understand that the compression ratio is only used during image capture. On image deployment the decompression engine only expands the file that is compressed at full speed. So if you change the compression ratio number you will have to recapture the image to see the results of 1. file size on the FOG server. 2. The speed of the compression engine when deploying.

At the moment the FOS Linux kernel is restricted to 8 cpu cores and less. If you run FOS Linux (the OS that run on the target computer to capture and deploy images) it will only use up to 8 (v)CPUs even if your workstation has 14 cores.

FOS Linux is a true linux OS, meaning you could do this to monitor the system during image capture and deployment.

1. Schedule a debug capture/deployment. Just be for you submit the task on the FOG UI, tick the debug checkbox then schedule the task.

2. PXE boot the target computer

3. After a few enter key presses you will be dropped to a linux command prompt.

4. Key in ip addr show and collect the IP address of the target computer.

5. Give root a password, something simple like hello with this command passwd

6. Now you can connect to FOS Linux via ssh or putty

7. Now you can do this either by the target computer console or via putty key in fog this will start the image capture or deployment. You will then have to hit enter at each step in the task sequence.

What this will give you is a chance to run top from the other session to see how well partclone is using the system resources. You don’t have to do these steps, but if you are curious about the impact of your changes this is one way to see what the target computer is doing in regards to system resources.