WDS and FOG

[A Former User]

I have been given the job of making FOG and WDS work happily together on the same network. Some of our techs love FOG some love WDS/MDT. They want to have a boot menu that will let them choose one or the other. I have found this webpage [url]http://www.vcritical.com/2011/06/peaceful-coexistence-wds-and-linux-pxe-servers/[/url] It works with the WDS part but since fog 1.2 no longer uses Prelinux.0. What would be the right commands to get it to point to the fog server. Or am I all wet and confused. Could really use some help from the FOG GODs…

Thanks

[Wayne Workman]

I tried a similar article a while back… I guess that article was crap because this one looks a lot better.

Try replacing pxelinux.0 with undionly.kpxe

that file is located in /tftpboot on your FOG server. However, I believe after that’s loaded, it chains to default.ipxe so you may/may not need that too.

You might or might not be able to just skip undionly.kpxe and just use default.ipxe I don’t know.

If you get it working, please do tell how.

[Jaymes Driver]

Another option is to use advanced menu options to point to your WDS server and add it as a boot menu item.

That is effectively what you are doing when you use pxelinux.0 with the default file.

OR

If you can figure out how to use DNSMASQ, it has a boot menu as well, you could use it to boot to WDS or FOG. This might be a bit more difficult because AFAIK you can only have one dhcp-boot option.

But in case you decide to use DNSMASQ the line you will need is:

[code]dhcp-boot=boot%5Cx64%5Cpxeboot.com,x.x.x.x[/code]
Where x.x.x.x is the ip address of your WDS server.

The %5 is a backslash, you have to encode the path using a backslash will cause issues.

There is a chance you will need to edit other files in order to accomplish this, but according to the man pages, they added in the ability to serve multiple TFTP servers on a single ip address or host name, you may want to look into it.

[Tom Elliott]

Also in the SVN versions of fog I’ve re-added the config directory and the default file all you would need to do is update that file

[A Former User]

Hey here is what I changed and had to do to my network to get it to work

changed from the web page directions
APPEND (FOGSERVERIP)::undionly.kpxe

turned off/remove the DHCP on FOG
sudo apt-get remove dhcp3-server or dhcp-server

Added options to Windows DHCP server
Server options added
066 Boot server Host name- (FOGSERVERIP)
067 Bootfile Name- undionly.kpxe

Hope this helps anyone trying to do this in the future and my thanks to all who looked and to those who responded to my plea for help… My thanks.

[need2]

Did that let it coexist with WDS, or just replace WDS without taking down the WDS server?

EDIT: Upon actually using my seeing organs and reading the page, it looks like it would just give you a menu that would allow you to select what, if any, network boot environment you want to use. However it doesn’t look like it has any way of handling if there is a WDS job or FOG job, and automatically going to said system.

AHHA! But that WOULD potentially allow, with further modification, a Windows Server environment to properly get UEFI devices and BIOS devices to boot off of FOG!

[Wayne Workman]

[quote=“need2, post: 46467, member: 21891”]Did that let it coexist with WDS, or just replace WDS without taking down the WDS server?

EDIT: Upon actually using my seeing organs and reading the page, it looks like it would just give you a menu that would allow you to select what, if any, network boot environment you want to use. However it doesn’t look like it has any way of handling if there is a WDS job or FOG job, and automatically going to said system.

AHHA! But that WOULD potentially allow, with further modification, a Windows Server environment to properly get UEFI devices and BIOS devices to boot off of FOG![/quote]

BOOM!

Now then, let’s take this to the next level.

I’m going to be all over this tomorrow.

[need2]

I can’t contain myself anymore. Working on this instead of other things I am supposed to.

[URL=‘https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7798420/Creating a legacy %2B EFI PXE boot server using pxelinux.pptx’]This is relevant[/URL]

[Wayne Workman]

Nice power point.

Why not zip that up and stick it in a thread?? Wouldn’t want it to disappear.

[need2]

Want to just hijack this one? Also that PowerPoint is in my Dropbox, but I’ll stick it here too.

EDIT: Ugh, Syslinux makes you compile your own files now.

[url=“/_imported_xf_attachments/1/1940_Creating a legacy + EFI PXE boot server using pxelinux.zip?:”]Creating a legacy + EFI PXE boot server using pxelinux.zip[/url]

[Wayne Workman]

Props to you if you make a script to do it for us…

[need2]

I found all of their bloody files. Way to move things about without documenting it guys.

[Tom Elliott]

It’s not hijacking if it’s pretty much on topic. Although it was supposed to be about WDS and FOG, not EFI/WDS/etc…"

[need2]

If I’m completely successful it will still encompass the original thing!

EDIT: Just for everyone’s reference, I am doing this setup in a Windows network, meaning with a Windows ADC and Windows DHCP.

[Wayne Workman]

Progress? I’m very interested in this, but I didn’t get to it today. I’m going to let you have at it since you’re already on it. I’ve got the same setup as you do at work, so whatever you come up with, I’m likely going to use.

I hope you’re documenting commands / actions as you go along. also your references.

[need2]

Some progress. I got interrupted. Got UEFI and BIOS systems booting from WDS without specifying a boot file. Tomorrow I’ll be working on another hunch to hijack that to chain load to fog.

[Wayne Workman]

This is great for WDS mixed with FOG…

But it does not help those that don’t have Windows Servers at their disposal.

I’m still super interested in this, but I think I still have to pursue the DHCP policies thing. I’m just holding off till I can actually get a UEFI system to frekkin boot with FOG.

[need2]

Well hopefully I will be getting that far today with my system. And yes, if you are not using Windows servers, then you need to use a Linux DHCP and do their version of handling of Option 93. I’ll admit I am not bothering to research that method at all, because we will not be using it.

EDIT: Making progress. Nearly have WDS passing to FOG for BIOS machines, but I’m getting an error that vanishes quite quickly. Hunting that down. Also trying hard to keep all of my references that I’m using straight. I have about 20 tabs open, and files across three monitors right now.

[need2]

Ran into technical roadblocks. Probably going to ditch Syslinux. Now looking for a way to get WDS to point straight to a boot file on another server. Hints welcomed.

[Wayne Workman]

I don’t know enough about it to offer advice. I couldn’t ever get WDS to work right, hence my newly found FOG excitement. The deeper I dive into the Linux pool, the more I think it was meant to be.