How to turn off host?
-
On the main page of FOG project, it states you can turn off a host directly from the web interface. No where can I find where to do this. I can see where to schedule a shutdown, but when checking “perform immediately?” nothing happens.
There doesn’t seem to be much documentation on how to actually USE FOG, just mediocre documentation on how to install. I can find little to no documentation on how to use the FOG client itself, just the install of it. Is the idea of FOG just to install it and figure out how it works?
-
@sourcaffeine the “shutdown immediately” is a bit of a misnomer. The fog client works on cycles and the next checkin cycle will cause the action to be performed.
The GreenFOG service is the legacy client way of performing the shutdown task and even then it would only do this on the time you schedule. The new client uses power management which will do what we call on demand or scheduled items. On demand will happen the next cycle the client checks in.
I’m very sorry this free project doesn’t fit your requirements for documentation. The fog client doesn’t need much documentation because the main fog server tells the client what to do. The documentation we have is quite robust I find. And while I can’t document every thing we have been working hard to keep things as updated as we can.
The user guide should be fairly robust to give you enough information to use fog.
-
@sourcaffeine Welcome to the FOG Project.
Tom already covered the FOG shutdown capabilities.
Depending on your needs you can use a windows scheduled task to shutdown the workstations at a specific time and then if you have WOL setup on the workstations you can wake them up with fog. If you are linux aware you can even setup a cron job on the FOG server to do this at a specific time, like 6a so that all of the workstations are on when the workers get into the office.
As for the documentation the FOG wiki site contains an abundance of information of FOG some new and some a bit out of date. A good place to start learning fog is here:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Booting_into_FOG_and_Capturing_your_first_Imageand here
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Deploying_your_Image_a_single_clientand of course the wiki home page.
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_PageI could go on with specific references if you had a bit more details in what your intended purpose is.
We are always looking for other to contribute to the wiki, so if you do find a deficiency we are more than willing to take your input on how to better the documentation. I do have to say the FOG Project forums are quite active and if you run into issues with FOG either installing it or how to do something please post your concern in the proper forum.
cheers and happy imaging.
-
@sourcaffeine see https://news.fogproject.org/fog-client-v0-11-0-released , specifically the “PowerManagement Module” for details on power management controls.
There doesn’t seem to be much documentation on how to actually USE FOG, just mediocre documentation on how to install.
If you desire better documentation then make a post describing specifically what article could use improvement and what you feel it lacks. Our articles are improved when people point out issues with them and make suggestions. The @Developers and @Moderators all work on FOG in our free time because we want to create something that will help people. Simply saying that FOG has poor documentation does not help us further the development of FOG.
-
@Joe-Schmitt Thanks for the link, it answered my question. Although I am not sure where this was located. I thought information like that would be located on the wiki, but the wiki just seems to detail basic deploy/capture, and how to install. I don’t see any easily accessible documentation on the wiki on how to use the other features of FOG. Just from this post I’ve found out that there are several misnomers and seeming lack of features (mostly based on a legacy and “new” client).
Just as an example, this page: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=FOG_Client details how to install the fog client, but doesn’t go into any detail on how to use the features.
-
@sourcaffeine That article is all about the client. When it comes to utilizing the client, all that is done from the web interface. As far as lack of features, I would strongly disagree. In fact, the new fog client is absolutely unparalleled in the imaging and management world. A single binary that works on OSX, Every major flavor of linux, And every version of windows since win Vista with naming, domain joining, printer management, executable deployment, power management, display management, state of the art encryption system, and many other features has never been accomplished before now. It solves every post deployment task, and every management task.
We create documentation in free time where there is need. For example, often people ask about ftp problems, thus was born the Troubleshoot FTP article. People ask all the time (number one and two questions probably) how to install fog, and how to capture. So we put effort into installation articles, and the Capturing your first image article.
The wiki has a search feature, it works good. The forums search also works good. Fog is a foreign land if you’ve never used it or Linux before. You will not find all the answers in one spot. The project is too big, and existing knowledge of newcomers is too small. We fill needs where there are common questions that are brought up over and over. Even though a very large amount of documentation exists in the wiki, newcomers existing knowledge of fog causes them to search for the wrong terms.
As you have done here, ask on the forums if you can’t find something or have a problem. And as others have done, we give you the best answers we can as fast as we can, and we think our response time on these forums is better than most paid support out there, people have repeatedly said this.
Please be productive, polite, and detailed, and we will help you. As others have already said, if you see a void, you can fill it if you are able. We are a volunteer community and your welcome to join in as you can.
-
@Wayne-Workman said in How to turn off host?:
@sourcaffeine That article is all about the client. When it comes to utilizing the client, all that is done from the web interface. As far as lack of features, I would strongly disagree. In fact, the new fog client is absolutely unparalleled in the imaging and management world. A single binary that works on OSX, Every major flavor of linux, And every version of windows since win Vista with naming, domain joining, printer management, executable deployment, power management, display management, state of the art encryption system, and many other features has never been accomplished before now. It solves every post deployment task, and every management task.
We create documentation in free time where there is need. For example, often people ask about ftp problems, thus was born the Troubleshoot FTP article. People ask all the time (number one and two questions probably) how to install fog, and how to capture. So we put effort into installation articles, and the Capturing your first image article.
The wiki has a search feature, it works good. The forums search also works good. Fog is a foreign land if you’ve never used it or Linux before. You will not find all the answers in one spot. The project is too big, and existing knowledge of newcomers is too small. We fill needs where there are common questions that are brought up over and over. Even though a very large amount of documentation exists in the wiki, newcomers existing knowledge of fog causes them to search for the wrong terms.
As you have done here, ask on the forums if you can’t find something or have a problem. And as others have done, we give you the best answers we can as fast as we can, and we think our response time on these forums is better than most paid support out there, people have repeatedly said this.
Please be productive, polite, and detailed, and we will help you. As others have already said, if you see a void, you can fill it if you are able. We are a volunteer community and your welcome to join in as you can.
I don’t want to be misunderstood. I am not claiming FOG has a lack of features. The few that I have used have been great and big time savers. What I meant was that there is a lot of features that use the “legacy” client (why a legacy client is still included when updating the client seems simple enough is beyond me), but some that use the “new” client.
There is a lot that FOG seems to be able to do, but without clear documentation on how to use some features, new people like me to FOG tend to find themselves lost when something that seems obvious, isn’t. In this case, immediate shutdown isn’t exactly “immediate shutdown”, which caused the confusion and there wasn’t any documentation (at least none I could find in the wiki) that detailed this.
-
@sourcaffeine I’ve updated the FOG Client article to include a section on polling, here:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=FOG_Client#Polling_BehaviorFor why the legacy client is still being used - it’s so people can transition more easily. If there was no ability to transition easily, people would have more work to move to the coming 1.3.0 release. For example, imagine an organization with 10,000 computers, all have the legacy client installed, and they are using a 1.2.0 server. Do you think they will just move to 1.3.0 if 1.3.0 could not control the legacy client? No. Because the FOG Client might be a vital piece of their management. You don’t just image 10,000 systems at once, you image some at a time and move to the new client as you can. And if 1.3.0 can’t control the legacy client, then those people would have a huge gap in very needed management capabilities. How would people do something as simple as schedule an imaging task, if the existing legacy client cannot be ordered to reboot? Should we force people to use outside software like active directory, group policy, or something else? No. We provide a pathway in fog, anything less would be unacceptable.
