fog with an existing pxe server

plegrand

Hello,
i actually use symantec ghost with a linux pxe server called PXE.
The PXE server is configure with dhcp (isc-dhcp-server), tftp (tftpd-hpa) and pxe (pxelinux.0 downloaded from syslinux 4.07)
I plan to test fog on another server called FOG
I’ve got some question :

Is it possible to use fog with an existing pxe server ?

What would be the configuration in my PXE server (default file in pxelinux.cfg directory)

Where are located client boot images ?

i saw that it could be better to use ipxe, it’s not possible to use pxelinux.0

Does fog support that my server is in 3 differents networks ? and what is the way to make it works like that ?

Thanks for your answers
Pascal

Mod edited title to fix spelling.

Wayne Workman

@plegrand

Is it possible to use fog with an existing pxe server ?

Depends on the setup, but generally Yes. The only thing that would prevent you is not being able or not knowing how to chain-load to other things. There is no one way to do it, and some things are harder than others to chain-load.

What would be the configuration in my PXE server (default file in pxelinux.cfg directory)

Normally when people have a pre-existing something that uses network booting and they want to add fog, we recommend setting up FOG as the next-server and setting one of the boot files used with FOG as DHCP option 067 (either in windows server or isc-dhcp). After this is in place, you can create menu items on the fog boot menu that will chain to other items on your network. For instance you can chain to DBAN or a Windows PE environment to install Win7, or a live Linux, or Symantec Ghost. And now thanks to @Tom-Elliott, you can now edit and create tasks via a plugin system in the FOG web interface. Meaning if you have a system setup to image via symantec - You’d create a task in FOG to tell that client to basically chain to your ghost server. I’m almost positive this can be done, although I haven’t done it myself… FOG has eliminated my need for symantec ghost completely.

Where are located client boot images ?

If you mean FOG’s boot files, they are in /tftpboot after you install FOG. If you mean the actual images that you upload from hosts to the fog server, generally, they are located in /images

i saw that it could be better to use ipxe, it’s not possible to use pxelinux.0

You might not need to use pxelinux.0 initially because of chain-loading abilities.

Does fog support that my server is in 3 differents networks ? and what is the way to make it works like that ?

You would configure the FOG Server’s single NIC as a trunk port, and then configure the port on the switch it connects to as a trunk port with all three vlan networks assigned to that port. Then create three virtual NICS on the fog server that connect through the physical NIC on the server. Assign each virtual NIC to a network… OR if you are lucky enough to have three physical NICs on the fog server, you could simply connect each one to a port on a switch assigned to the correct vlan. You would then configure your isc-dchp to operate properly on each network, handing out the correct 066 and 067 options. L3 routing takes care of the rest.

There is a thread somewhere here in the forums about this exact thing but… I apologize, our new forum’s search feature isn’t all that great… I’ve instead found examples from external sites for you to learn from. Feel free to do additional research though (and I would encourage additional research).
http://www.microhowto.info/howto/configure_an_ethernet_interface_as_a_vlan_trunk.html
http://www.microhowto.info/howto/configure_an_ethernet_interface_as_a_vlan_trunk_on_debian.html
http://www.microhowto.info/howto/configure_an_ethernet_interface_as_a_vlan_trunk_on_redhat.html

I can help with more exact configuration - but I need you to first choose a path and attempt the configuration yourself. If you have problems, come back and let us know. We’re here to help. Also, if you are successful, please come back and share how you did it. This is one way you can give back to the community - by leaving behind instructions on how you did it for others to read and use.

Also, for this endeavor, I’d really urge you to use FOG Trunk. Many of the FOG features I mentioned are only available in the Trunk version. Here is a link on that, and no it requires no prior fog installation to be used: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Upgrade_to_trunk

plegrand

Hello,
in first thank a lot for your answer.
For my test i’m going to work with a virtual machine with only one interface, then forget the “3 networks”
I begin by installing fog like that :
(i use my own dhcp server)

Type d’installation : N
IP du serveur FOG : 192.168.39.243
Would you like to setup a router address for the DHCP server? : n
Would you like to setup a DNS address for the DHCP server and client boot image? : n
Would you like to change the default network interface from eth0? : n
Would you like to use the FOG server for DHCP service? n
This version of FOG has internationalization support, would you like to install the additional language packs? n

My own dhcp server is configured like that (it has 192.168.39.247 for ip address):
subnet 192.168.39.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.39.40 192.168.39.230;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.39.255;
option routers 192.168.39.254;
next-server 192.168.39.247;
filename “pxelinux.0”;
}
then next server is the dhcp server itself

Here is a part of the PXE configuration (on my own dhcp server. (The dhcp server act as dhcp, tftp and pxe server)

DEFAULT vesamenu.c32
KBDMAP fr.kbd
MENU BACKGROUND splash.jpg
menu color title 1;37;40 #ffffffff #00000000 std
menu color timeout_msg 37;40 #80ffffff #00000000 std
menu color timeout 1;31;40 #ffff0000 #00000000 std
menu color border 30;44 #00000000 #00000000 none

TIMEOUT 300
ALLOWOPTIONS 0
PROMPT 0

MENU TITLE MENU
LABEL BootNormal
MENU LABEL Boot local
MENU DEFAULT
COM32 chain.c32
APPEND hd0

LABEL Drivers_Universels
MENU LABEL Drivers Universels
KERNEL memdisk
APPEND keeppxe floppy initrd=ghost/universels.img

LABEL hdt
MENU LABEL Hardware Detection Tool
COM32 hdt/hdt.c32
APPEND modules=hdt/modules.pcimap pciids=hdt/pci.ids

LABEL memtest
MENU LABEL Memtest86+
LINUX hdt/memtest86±4.20.bin

My question is how i could add entry for fog server using ipxe while i’m iusing pxe (pxelinux.0)
Thanks again for your help

cml

@plegrand

If you add this to your PXE configuration it should work.

Change x.x.x.x to the FOG IP Address.

MENU TITLE Fog Reimage Menu
MENU COLOR TITLE        1;36;44    #ffffffff #00000000 std
LABEL iPXE Boot
MENU DEFAULT
KERNEL ipxe.krn
APPEND dhcp && chain http://x.x.x.x/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php?mac=${net0/mac}
PROMPT 0
TIMEOUT 1

Taken from: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Chainloading_PXE_to_iPXE_using_pxelinux.0

plegrand

as i said in an other post , i cant install fog on debian jessie (1.2 or trunk version)
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/5799/debian-jessie-8
Thanks for your help

fog with an existing pxe server

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