Stand-Alone Fog Server
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I know I have seen this before but can’t find it again. I have a fog sever set-up & it works fine, but I need to disconnect from the internet & put it on a cart for a mobile imaging station, but can’t find the steps that I used before any direction would be greatly appreciated.
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@creed954 said in Stand-Alone Fog Server:
but I need to disconnect from the internet & put it on a cart for a mobile imaging
The fog server only needs internet for installation of the linux distribution’s packages. It will run standalone after installed.
For your mobile imaging cart, will that have a dedicated imaging network not part of your campus network?
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The concept will be to mount everything to the cart, switch, cpu and monitor so I can move it from room to room to knock out the machines as needed. There was something I did before to change the settings on the server some it would still function disconnected. I originally had to build it at my house and take it to work. I just can’t remember what I did. I am a novice with Linux, so please excuse me if I sound like a dipshit.
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@creed954 Is your plan to directly connect the target computers to your rolling cart to reimage them, removing the target computer’s access to your campus network?
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Will you just roll your mobile deployment server into the room, plug it into the room switch and deploy the systems?More to the point of what I’m looking for in an answer, during image setup and pxe booting, what device will provide dhcp services to the pxe booting computers? Will that be your campus dhcp server or the FOG server?
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@george1421
So DHCP will be provided by the fog server these are completely standalone computers with no network connectivity and it’s kind of a shame we have to do it this way but I don’t have another choice because I cannot connect them to the campus Network -
@creed954 OK no worries, I now have enough information to make a recommendation.
So on your fog server it will function as a dhcp server. What I would recommend is you do this. In your mobile fog server (be it a laptop or desktop) install a second network interface for setting up FOG. If you have a laptop, wifi to the campus network and ethernet to your imaging network switch will do for the setup.
Your wifi connection will provide the fog server with internet connectivity to install FOG. For your imaging network, before you install FOG identify the linux name of your ethernet adapter.
ip a swill show you a list of network adapters, use the mac address to identify the kernel driver name of your ethernet adapter. Once you know the kernel driver name of the ethernet adapter, then configure your ethernet adapter with a static IP address. Do this before you install FOG. So at this point your wireless adapter will get its IP address from the campus network, and the IP address of your ethernet adapter will be for your dedicated imaging network.Now install FOG, when the FOG installer runs it will ask you the linux kernel name of the imaging network adapter, enter the name you gleaned from above. The installer will also ask you if you want to enable the FOG dhcp server answer yes. Now install FOG. The FOG installer will bind all of the imaging services to the network adapter you selected during the install, and then download all of the required linux distribution packages using hte wifi network.
Once the install is done, you can remove the wireless network connection since the FOG server will run standalone now and image using the ethernet adapter you defined. Now plug the mobile fog imaging server into your deployment switch on your mobile cart, and then connect a test computer and connect it to the imaging switch on the mobile cart. Now pxe boot the test computer. It should load up to the FOG iPXE menu.
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@george1421
Thank you for your help, so it’s already installed on the work station, can I change it without reinstalling it? -
@creed954 Well change it in what way?
FOG doesn’t like it when the server’s IP address is changed after FOG is installed. So you said that will be on an isolated network after install for deployment. That might imply that your imaging network will probably change after fog is installed. Its much cleaner if you have at least 2 network interfaces to set this up properly. But you can do it after the fact too.
Did you pick the option to install the FOG DHCP server when you installed FOG?
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@george1421
I will build a new machine Monday, I just ordered another card, thank you for all your help. -
@creed954 said in Stand-Alone Fog Server:
I just ordered another card
FWIW, you could use a usb to ethernet adapter to function as the second card. That way it can be portable between systems. As I said the second network card is only used during setup and can be removed afterwards, keeping the built in network adapter for the imaging network. But do what you feel is right for your company. You know better than I about your infrastructure.
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fwiw, there is a script that updates FOG’s IP.
https://github.com/FOGProject/fog-community-scripts/tree/master/updateIPthis will re-write your DHCP config on your fog server too. Should be perfect for this use case.
