FOG Project instead of CloneZilla Lite Server

[Orfeous]

Hi!

I was recommended FOG Project from someone.
I’m currently trying to use CloneZilla Live and boot up from USB thumb drive and run Lite Server.

Configure to use a CloneZilla Image saved from a client machine.

Tried to Netboot with PXE on the client machine that the image will be deployed to but I can’t get PXE to boot in UEFI mode it seams. It uses legacy mode and there is no progress.

A hassle to run CloneZilla Lite Server. No feedback, status or such.

So… I figure… it is worth a try to use FOG Project to do the same thing. This has a nice web interface if I understand correct? It have a better management… images and clients… etc.

I can install it on a small Debian/Ubuntu install. I’m not a fan of booting on a USB drive and if you restart all settings etc are gone.

My goal here is to install Debian or Ubuntu on a PC to be run as a Server. I have a couple of NUCs that I want o deploy an image to via isolated network. Server and Client machines connected to the same switch. No router or such in play.

I want this Server to run a DHCP server and broadcast ips to the client machines that will be netbooting via PXE.

I want to use those NUCs to boot via PXE and then automatically disk will be restored from image.

If i get other PC vendors and models I want to use another image for those.

Is it possible to use my CloneZilla disk image that has already been saved?

Client NUCs uses NVme ssd and Windows 10 or 11 is located on the disk image.

I hope I described my questions and my goal somewhat.

Is this possible with FOG Project?

[george1421]

@Orfeous said in FOG Project instead of CloneZilla Lite Server:

My goal here is to install Debian or Ubuntu on a PC to be run as a Server. I have a couple of NUCs that I want o deploy an image to via isolated network. Server and Client machines connected to the same switch. No router or such in play.

You can do this on an isolated network completely or install 2 nics in your FOG server and have one connected to your imaging network and one to your business network for remote management on the fog server.

You can also set this up on your business network without interfering with your business network communications. So it can work either way. In some instances you might need access to your business network for AD integration as your target computers boot during its first boot. I understand your goal is linux so AD is not required. But the point is either way FOG will work.

I want this Server to run a DHCP server and broadcast ips to the client machines that will be netbooting via PXE.

If you want to run on an isolated imaging network, just pick to include the FOG DHCP server and the installer script will install the dhcp server and configure it for you.

I want to use those NUCs to boot via PXE and then automatically disk will be restored from image.

If i get other PC vendors and models I want to use another image for those.

No problem on multiple vendors. You just need to really be mindful of the firmware on the target computer bios or uefi modes because the target image is handled a little bit differently between the two firmware classes. FWIW you can not deploy a bios computer captured image to a uefi based computer. The same holds true in reverse.

Is it possible to use my CloneZilla disk image that has already been saved?

While Clonezilla and FOG both use partclone to capture the disk image, the images are stored and compressed differently on either platform. So you can not share the images between the two environments. You will need to capture with FOG if you want to deploy with FOG, or capture with Clonezilla if you want to deploy with clonezilla.

Client NUCs uses NVme ssd and Windows 10 or 11 is located on the disk image.

Now you introduced Windows 10 into the picture. No problem, but that also might mean needing AD during firstboot. You have to remember that the FOS engine (the OS that boots on the target computer) is linux based. So nvme drives have a different disk label that sata drives. But you can capture from a sata drive and deploy to an nvme drive, but that is not a common situation.

Is this possible with FOG Project?

Yes it is