Host Name Changing, FOG Client, and the FOG Web GUI

[Wayne Workman]

On the new client,

I’d like some sort of option to disable name changing if said host is ALREADY joined to a domain. The option to change the hostname in the GUI should be greyed out or something.

Also, say for instance, a technician manually changes the host name (of a machine not on the domain) at the host itself, using windows GUI. Why can’t the client just detect the new name and update the FOG database? I think that’d be sweet.

Then, you wound’t be tied to just ONE way to change names… the traditional name changing method really should work without complications.

Maybe this is already a feature in the works or already implemented but, just covering bases.

[Tom Elliott]

The hostname changer is supposed to rename, then rejoin if that is the case. Of course this would mean your AD account would need admin permissions to allow the change/update properly I believe.

[Wayne Workman]

[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 43712, member: 7271”]The hostname changer is supposed to rename, then rejoin if that is the case. Of course this would mean your AD account would need admin permissions to allow the change/update properly I believe.[/quote]

But what if a tech that isn’t familiar with FOG comes in and changes a host name at an actual host, using windows…

and then it reboots, and changes back to the old name automatically… And their like wtf???

The new FOG client should detect that and change the hostname in the FOG database to the new one.

[Junkhacker]

[quote=“Wayne Workman, post: 43720, member: 28155”]But what if a tech that isn’t familiar with FOG comes in and changes a host name at an actual host, using windows…

and then it reboots, and changes back to the old name automatically… And their like wtf???

The new FOG client should detect that and change the hostname in the FOG database to the new one.[/quote]

if you want the tech to have rights to do this, they can log into fog to do the change from the computer they’re sitting at. if the tech isn’t familiar with operational procedures, why is he changing computer names?
that’s my opinion, anyway

[Wayne Workman]

[quote=“Junkhacker, post: 43722, member: 21583”]if you want the tech to have rights to do this, they can log into fog to do the change from the computer they’re sitting at. if the tech isn’t familiar with operational procedures, why is he changing computer names?
that’s my opinion, anyway[/quote]

They have the rights to do it, this person just hasn’t fully accepted FOG yet, and might even be intimidated by it.

So, I brought this whole suggestion up because this actually happened today. I got it cleared up, was not a big issue.

But, I was thinking, obviously the FOG client checks the host name, because otherwise how would it know to change it?

If it checks the host name, and sees that a change has been recently changed at the host itself, yet no imaging has occurred, why couldn’t the FOG client change the host name in the FOG database instead of on the host itself?

Could be a check box in the Web GUI… “If client detects manual host name change, update FOG database instead of client”

[Joe Schmitt]

The idea of the hostname changer is to make the client reflect the server, preventing techs from tampering with host names when they shouldn’t be. What you suggest is plausible, but I would need to see a larger ‘backing’ of this feature before implementing it. Now that’s not to say you can’t. A beta of the new client is coming out soon and it would be more than possible for someone to implement this concept if they wanted it.

There’s also a security concern. With the client in current circulation, anyone could ‘pretend’ to be the host and change the hostname to whatever they want with 0 privileges. The next problem is that how do you distinguish between a tech changing the hostname locally and changing it on the server? From the client’s perspective if someone changes it on the server, then with the suggested model in this thread, the change would be undone by the client, as it would think that a tech changed the hostname locally.

I can sympathize with people having this issue, but in my personal opinion new techs simply need to learn the system their company uses, if thats FOG, then learn to change the hostname on the FOG web portal.

[Bill Rice]

Any system in our enviroment is AD joined, and the only way anyone gets to change the name is using the Fog server to automate that process. specifically set to keep the name should someone attempt to change it out. our policies are based on Machine ID.
That being said the PXE boot option to register the name for the domain could be modified I would think to allow a name change at boot up which would be directly connected to the fog server and which will force the system to automatically update (IE re-registering the system to fog under new name. _I would think this might be a simple script although Im not a programmer.) JBOB you might be able to better identify this option- since to image you need credentials to image you could also add the option to change name after authenticating in the similar fashion./

My .02

[Wayne Workman]

I haven’t tried this yet, but,

What happens if the name gets changed via the FOG web GUI if the client is already joined to the domain?

In my experience (prior to FOG), when you change a name on a computer without deleting the computer’s object in AD, the computer will re-use the old object which will still have the wrong name in AD, even though the client’s name is changed. This creates a huge mess in AD over time. So, I always un-join from the domain & then delete the computer object, then rename the computer, then re-join. This creates a new computer object in AD with the correct name.

I’ll rephrase the question… How does AD get updated with the new name when a name change is done while on the domain? I want the Object name itself (not just a property of that object) to show the computer’s name.

[Joe Schmitt]

Bill,
That option is pretty simple to build, but it would be something Tom would build if we add it, as I’m pretty busy with prepping the new client for a public beta.

Wayne, the way FOG handles renaming is that it first unjoins the domain, renames the computer, and then joins. It should prevent the AD issue you describe.

[Wayne Workman]

[quote=“Jbob, post: 44069, member: 21733”]Bill,
That option is pretty simple to build, but it would be something Tom would build if we add it, as I’m pretty busy with prepping the new client for a public beta.

Wayne, the way FOG handles renaming is that it first unjoins the domain, renames the computer, and then joins. It should prevent the AD issue you describe.[/quote]

Amazing.

FOG is definitely a winner.