Hosts not imaging - HELP

[prestop]

System set up and working according to previous admin – and it does indeed to appear be intact, no error codes, etc., however, when I try to image a computer, partclone doesn’t start.

*client set to PXE boot

• register client in FOG w/MAC and host name
  *create task in FOG and make sure correct image is associated

-start client machine, PXE boots, sees FOG server, TFTP connects
-I watch as FOG runs through its tasks, sends inventory, etc.
-reboots

THEN – client PXE boots into a small FOG GUI menu with some options, and very quickly chooses item 1: reboot to hard disk. When it does, of course there is no OS ( I assume FOG wipes the disk/partitions or at least sets it).
So I reboot and try all the other options but none of them get me to any image load. Quick Image does nothing, reboots like all the others.
So the computers now have no OS or have a disk read error.

I have restarted FOG, jumped through the “Schema is out of date” hoop and restarted MySql and TFTP services as noted in forums. Thought for sure that would do it…but no. Still the same thing, baffling.
Previous admin says he never had an issue and did not prep the machines in any way, he doesn’t know why it doesn’t work.

One thing I did notice on the FOG client listing GUI was the red icon saying “DNS could not resolve host name”, but that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with it. The clients connect and FOG appears to wipe them. I tried a debug task to one machine but the program says to type FOG at the prompt to continue and the FOG server shouts back an error and says the computer will reboot in one minute – it never does.

One suggestion was to reinstall fog from a file on the server – should not remove settings/images etc.
I don’t have Ubuntu chops and don’t want to ruin the install if there’s just something simple I’m not doing/missing.

[Junkhacker]

what version of fog are you running?
are you trying to capture or deploy an image?
what OS are you trying to image?

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
I believe it’s 1.2 - FOG says it’s the latest.
Deploy - the images are have been created and deployed successfully according to previous admin
Windows 7

[Junkhacker]

@prestop have you ensured that the computers you’re trying to image are set with the same bios configuration as the computer the image was created on? UEFI vs Legacy, boot order, that sort of thing

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
Yes - they’re all Dell Optiplex 7020. There’s really not much to set according to the BIOS. I spent a fair amount of time searching through settings, etc. and then looking at forums and googling.
Previous admin says he’s at a loss. And I’m in trouble if I can’t get some machines up soon.

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
My issue seems to be like Phil Guy who posted a day ago - except partclone never kicks in.

[Junkhacker]

have you tried running the task as a debug task to watch for errors?

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
I tried that and it says to type FOG at the prompt when it stops but FOG comes back with an error and says the system will reboot in 1 minute but it never does.
I’m sorry I’m not more knowledgeable at this point but I got no time with the previous admin, I’m the only guy and I take care of phones and just about everything else that uses electricity.

[Junkhacker]

if you’re running 1.2.0, you should get prompted to press Enter to continue at each step of the imaging process during a debug imaging task. does that not happen? unless you were running just a debug task, without any imaging. if that’s the case, do a download with debug instead of just debug.

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
Just checked: 1.2.0
After I created the task I boot the client. I see the pxe process, it connects to FOG server, I see things like.biz/img, etc. It moves quickly but it appears to set the MBR ,etc; I think the last thing it does is send inventory and everything says success.
Client then reboots into a FOG menu which gives me options and I’ve tried each of them: the memtest runs, quick image does nothing, compatability check says OK.
I tried not pre-registering and doing it that way: I see FOG registers it a its MAC and then I try again but the same thing, just rebooting to the short menu or cursor or no operating system.

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
I didn’t know I could do a image with dbug. I thought the task was either/or. I will try that now. Thank you.

[Junkhacker]

it’s been a while since i ran 1.2.0 (i and most people who provide support on the forums run development builds) so my directions might be a bit rusty, but i believe that under the advanced tasks menu in the fog web gui there should be a download with debug task. please run that one.

[Sebastian Roth]

@prestop Yes, try debug deploy and take pictures while it goes. We definitely need information on the errors you see. Please understand, there is no chance we can help you without knowing what’s actually going wrong. “Didn’t work”, “comes back with an error” or such phrases don’t help at all!!!

After a proper deploy there should be a bootable OS on the disk - if your image was ok! So Booting from local disk from the menu should be just fine.

[prestop]

@Sebastian-Roth
Understood, thank you.

[Junkhacker]

also, you can test if it’s the fog menu exit type that’s causing the issue by unplugging the computer from the network and rebooting. if it boots when it’s not connected to the network, the problem is the exit type.

[prestop]

@Sebastian-Roth
OK - I have my photos of screens, but, they don’t show any errors.

Created download-debug task - deployed.
Client connected and did indeed run through its tasks, and I press enter when prompted. And then I get to the final prompt and type fog:
and it boots and starts over again.

Sorry not sure how to get screens into the reply. But again, no errors to report.

The one weird thing I did see was in my Image Management: I have three images one of them says:
Image on Client - 453.99GiB Image on Server - 33.96GiB
the other two say:
Image on Client - 0.0iB Image on Server - 17.95Gib

I thought that was odd but not sure.

[Junkhacker]

typing “fog” after it has finished it’s task will make it try to do the task again, only this time the server will say that the task isn’t valid (because it’s already finished).
if you’re having trouble sharing images on the forum, you can post your images to an image hosting site like imgur and share the links.
i would guess that the first image on your server is a non-re-sizable image based on it’s size.
it’s possible that the other two have been uploaded with images that don’t contain any data.

[prestop]

@Junkhacker
If they have been replaced or corrupted by images that don’t contain data is there a way to find the original image(s) that were used? Previous admin says all was well and working. I haven’t really touched it other than to try and image some clients.
I would share the screens but there are no error messages there - everything move right along except no partclone.

[Sebastian Roth]

@prestop I don’t understand why you refuse to share the pictures. I might look all fine for your eyes but possibly we see things you are not aware of yet. I am more than willing to help out (otherwise I wouldn’t be active in the forums) but I refuse to help without getting information. This is no personal thing - so please don’t get me wrong. I’d love to help you out. But reading all your posts over and over I just don’t know enough to be able to help.

I am not saying that we’ll be able to fix things for you the second you post pictures but you increase the chance of getting help a lot!

[Wayne Workman]

I agree with Sebastian. It’s really hard to help without pictures or video or a direct copy/paste… and sometimes copy/paste isn’t easily possible.