FOG Server Communications Issues
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Today I got around to installing FOG on our test machine. It runs in a Debian 7.3 virtual machine (VMware Player) with the Host OS being Windows 7. The computer is networked to two other machines via a TrendNet TEW-731BR router. One runs Windows 7 and is intended to be used as a reference machine for uploading images and the second is a Windows XP machine I am hoping to image. This mini network is totally separate from the campus network and not connected to the internet. The install seemed to go well, but I suspect I did not do something correctly because the following issues have cropped up.
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At the log in screen in the box below the username and password fields, which says “Number of Fog sites and version number” both report an error connecting to the server. I dared to plug the computer into the campus network for a brief instant and the issue disappeared.
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After entering the two other computers as hosts in FOG, the program is unable to resolve the host names of either one. I used the name of the computers for this field. Adding exemptions, turning off the Windows firewall, and disabling the access protection feature of McAfee did little. The only development was that I was able to get the Windows 7 machine to go from “unable to resolve host name” to “host down” despite it being on. These are not domain machines, but I also added “search workgroup” to the resolv.conf file to no effect. And both can be pinged from the command prompt.
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My understanding is that when a computer is PXE booted from a FOG server some sort of splash screen comes up. It does not for either of the test machines although the FOG client is not installed on them.
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I am not able to connect to the server via Filezilla from the Windows XP machine. It seems to establish a connection, but does not get a “welcome message” and returns a connection error.
My theory is that I did not set up DHCP correctly. Since the router is essentially a DHCP server in a box I did not install one during the FOG installation, but specified its IP address. Also I did not know what to put for the DNS address field since there is no DNS server (as far as I am aware - correct me if I am wrong) in the mini-network and left that field blank. And I accidently put the wrong IP address for the FOG server. During install the fact that VMware player is set to use NAT slipped my mind.
Any help would be much appreciated.
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When I get home I will try to help you. What version of fog did you use?
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.32. It made sense to use the latest one. The only thing I did not try was uninstalling and then reinstalling it since it is not readily obvious how to do so.
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Works for me.
When you’re doing the install, are you connected to the internet? It has to be to download all the proper packages for installation.
You don’t need to have a Router IP or DNS, though I’d recommend setting up a false router ip within the same subnet as your fog server.
So if you’re making your fog server as IP 192.168.20.1 (or something like that) make the Router IP as 192.168.20.2
I’d also recommend installing DHCP Server so that it makes a range within that distributes ip’s within the same range. (192.168.20.3-253)
This should help you out as everything is internal.
It is expected that the web gui will go slow if you add a DNS IP as it’s trying to translate the URL through that IP. If you don’t set an ip, it should fail instantly which will make things much faster for you, just remember to turn off host-lookups on the FOG GUI so it doesn’t try to translate all the system names through nothing.
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Tom, I did the install while connected to the internet. Then once everything was done I unplugged the WAN and set up the mini network. My goal was to avoid conflicts with the campus DHCP server (in the future the library will have its own instance, but does not now). On that note wouldn’t having DHCP enabled on the router as well as a DHCP server on the computer cause problems? It seems like I should simply use the router as a switch and install DHCP on the FOG computer.
Actually now that I think about it, the FOG machine is not on the same subnet as the router due to NAT being enabled in VMware. Could that be the issue? Also I have Firestarter installed in Debian. Could that be causing issues as well?
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Mike,
If you are using a router, then you wouldn’t necessarily need to have a DHCP Server, but you would need to tell the router to look at the FOG Server for when systems pxeboot.
I have dd-wrt installed on my routers, and under DNSMasq options I have the line:
dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0,[DNSHOSTNAME],[SER.VER.IP.ADDR]
I believe, for FOG to work properly, you should have your VM Box (The fog server) set to Bridged Networking and specify with LAN Port it’s actually connecting to. Firestarter (I’m assuming is a firewall) should also, until all things get sorted out, be disabled.
For your specific case, I’d just recommend Having the FOG Server Set to Bridged Network Mode, find the LAN Port it’s actually using, perform your install. Once install is complete, setup your static IP on the FOG Server, take that LAN Cable and connect it to a miniswitch (not a router if you can help it.) And connect the items you’re trying to image through that same switch. If you installed the DHCP Server utils on the FOG Server, your fog server should provide IP Addresses for the systems connected to that switch.
This method provides, I think, your best options as you’re then able to segregate the Campus Network and the FOG Network. So the only time you’re using the FOG Network is when you’re doing images. It won’t impact the main network because they’re not even connected.
Once the imaging is complete, then you can reconnect those systems to the Campus network so Internet and such will work appropriately.
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I use PFsense as my routers, and all but one of my installations of FOG are virtual.
Definitely use bridged mode, I use virtualbox but VMware player/workstation should work similarly.
For 0.32 Iuse Ubuntu (as it was what I always used at the time) I now use Debian for 0.33b and it’s lovely on ym test network.
About the boot logo, you can also customize this to show your corp/school logo.
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The next question is: how does one uninstall FOG? Having not installed the DHCP server I wish to start from scratch (but not delete the whole VM if possible). I believe the DHCP function on the router can be disabled thus turning it into a miniswitch. At that point it will be possible to do an isolated network install as per the instructions on the wiki (which seems to be the thrust of your suggestion).
As for firestarter, my understanding is that it is basically a GUI wrapper for IP Tables. I do not know enough to edit them by hand and feel more comfortable using the program.
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I reran the install and installed the DHCP server then disabled that functionality on the router to avoid conflicts. Thus the router is now acting like a switch. But problems persist. I am still not able to resolve hostnames. Furthermore the computers do not seem to be talking to one another. After rebooting the server I was initially unable to connect to anything. After changing the computers IP address and then manually entering in the IP addresses of the other computers on the network I was able to ping the Windows 7 machine. But the XP one will not respond and apparently doesn’t have an IP address. Is this a problem with the DHCP server? Would it help to post the configuration file for it?
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It may help with the configuration yes.
The reason you’re unable to resolve hostnames is because you don’t have a DNS Server, so this is expected. If you’re unsure whether or not the XP machine has an IP, check it and also verify that the Windows Firewall is turned off on that machine.
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[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 21246, member: 7271”]
The reason you’re unable to resolve hostnames is because you don’t have a DNS Server, so this is expected. If you’re unsure whether or not the XP machine has an IP, check it and also verify that the Windows Firewall is turned off on that machine.[/quote]So is it possible to image a handful of machines without a DNS server or should I install one on the FOG machine? Given that all of the (4) computers are in one room it seems like overkill to do so. This setup is only for testing purposes; the production machine will use the campus infrastructure. My config file is as follows:
#DHCP Server Configuration File.
#see /usr/share/doc/dhcp*/dhcpd.conf.sample
#This file was created by FOG
use-host-decl-names on;
ddns-updates-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
next -server 192.168.10.2subnet 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.10.10 192.168.10.254
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x;
option routers x.x.x.x;
filename "pxelinux.0";}
According to IP config the XP machine has no IP address. I believe the firewall is off, but there wasn’t the time to go through the network setup again. Doing so may fix the problem.
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If you turn off HOSTNAME_LOOKUPS on the FOG Configuration page, the hostname’s won’t try to be resolved. It will still work without the DNS Server as the tasks are created by the MAC address, not the IP or the Hostname.
For your dhcp file try this:
[code]# DHCP Server Configuration file.
see /usr/share/doc/dhcp*/dhcpd.conf.sample
This file was created by FOG
use-host-decl-names on;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
next-server 192.168.10.2;subnet 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.10.10 192.168.10.254;
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x;
option routers x.x.x.x;
option routers 192.168.10.2; #<- I ASSUME YOUR FOG SERVER IP ADDRESS (OR JUST LEAVE THIS LINE OUT) filename "pxelinux.0";}[/code]
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Thank you for all of your help Tom. It seems I over thought the problem with the hostnames a bit. As for the config file, none of the computers have an IP address of 192.168.10.2. The router is 192.168.10.1 and all the rest are well above 10.10 .
What about the two fields on the login page that return an error? Do you think those are related to the DHCP server or can I ignore them?
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The error’s you’re seeing are because your network’s not connected to the network.
Just the same as if you try to go to the kernel updates page. You don’t have internet access so you won’t see any of the updates available.
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Ok so it seems 3 out of the 4 issues in my original post weren’t really all that serious. All that remains is to do is fix the networking issue and check to make sure I can connect to the FOG server via ftp. Then the imaging test can begin.
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Well I’ve got all of the computers talking to one another and initialized tftp, but problems persist. I cannot PXE boot either of the other two computers. When attempting to do so, the process errors out with the code PXE-E51 No DHCP or ProxyDHCP offers were received. Curiously when I type “service dhcp restart” in terminal on the FOG server it says that service is unrecognized. But I KNOW I installed it as the configuration file above shows. Any thoughts? Perhaps the DHCP server is not installed or configured properly?
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I think you need:
[code]sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart[/code] -
Indeed I did, Tom. Turns out the service was not actually started and there was a syntax error in the config file. Both computers have PXE booted successfully. The FOG splash screen did not come up, however, possibly because the client is not installed on them. Tomorrow I will endeavor to do that, register the computers in FOG and hopefully attempt to upload my first image. Once again thank you for your help.
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Glad I could be of some help.
The PXE Boot screen should be displayed. It shouldn’t matter if the client is or isn’t installed on the clients. The image is a part of the system. Though my guess is your default file can’t find the image file. Maybe antivirus removed it or something?
