Fog Service Not Starting Automatically

[Joe Gill]

Server

• FOG Version: RC8
• OS: Ubuntu 14.04

Client

• Service Version: 0.11.5
• OS: Win7

Description

Windows 7 FOG Service fails to start when set to automatic.

Resolution
Starting the service usually fixes this. But sometimes the service still fails to re-start. Re-installing the service ultimately will fix this issue.

Any ideas why it sometimes fails to start even though it’s set to Automatic?

Thanks!!

Cheers,

Joe Gill

[Wayne Workman]

Are you sysprepping?

I’ve seen the service fail to start due to the reference-machine being improperly shutdown prior to capture, and from co-workers clicking the “Force close” button when shutting down, and from coworkers not doing a full-reboot to double-check that the FOG Client is indeed working correctly (via checking the log) prior to capture.

Because restarting and reinstalling fixes it for you, I could almost bet that your problem is specific to your image, and simply deploying the image but not joining it to domain, reinstalling the FOG Client, and rebooting a few times - and checking the log to ensure the FOG Client is working - and then re-capturing would almost surely fix your issue.

Any reason why you’re still using RC-8?

[Joe Gill]

Are you sysprepping?

Yes

It could be that the service was shut off prior to sysprep and that the script to activate it failed to complete. That is suspicious to say the least. The only odd thing is that I set the service to manual and set it to off prior to sysprep. Once it’s sysprepped the SetupComplete script is set to change it to Automatic and start the service. What’s funny is that the the service “Start Up Type” is set to “Automatic” and yet it’s still stopped. I haven’t played with any of the recovery options for the service. I may start setting that to restart on failure. We’ll see!

Any reason why you’re still using RC-8?

Everything has been running so smooth now that I’ve switched to FOG that I haven’t had any need to update. I will though here soon. I see that @Tom-Elliott updated the WOL on the latest version which will be handy as I noticed that wasn’t working as well in RC-8.

Cheers,

Joe

[Wayne Workman]

@Joe-Gill The recommendations for how to handle the FOG Client with sysprep have changed, check out the new steps here, I would recommend you trying them. https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=FOG_Client#FOG_Client_with_Sysprep

And I’d also recommend moving to RC-14. It’s very stable, and fixes a ton of stuff. Infact I updated 16 servers today from RC-8 to RC-14 - that was just part of my morning, I was super-multitasking.

[Joe Gill]

@Wayne-Workman

That’s how I"m currently sysprepping. I think my problem is the lack of an else or else if statement in my SetupComplete file that isn’t letting the script finish due to other things I have in it. I’ve been having my SetupComplete file install my antivirus software. Generally this works. However, with Sophos, if our setup file is out of date it will not install. This can prove to be more work than what it’s worth.

I’ll be updating to RC-14 today! I know it’s a simple thing to do. I just have to remember to do it. Ha!

Thanks for the advice!

Cheers,

Joe

[Wayne Workman]

@Joe-Gill said in Fog Service Not Starting Automatically:

Once it’s sysprepped the SetupComplete script is set to change it to Automatic and start the service.

I was specifically referencing that. The new recommendation is to not start the client, but to reboot.

[Joe Gill]

@Wayne-Workman

I see. I’ll have to try that and see if it helps! Thanks for pointing that out!

[blkspade]

This issue seems to have cropped up specifically with the 0.11.5 client, and I can confirm that it is also present on Windows 10 if sysprepped. Disabling the service prior to capturing and setting via script to auto very consistently causes the service not to start even when set back to automatic. There might be 1 out of 15 clients that have the service actually start after the scripted reboot.

[Joe Schmitt]

@blkspade please upload one of the C:\Program Files (x86)\FOG\settings.json of a problematic host along with its fog.log file.

[Joe Gill]

Well… I’m back to working on my FOG servers again now that I finally have some time to update things…

So I just updated to the latest and greatest version (Running Version 1.3.0-RC-14 SVN Revision: 5974). I’m still noticing that on several of my clients the FOG service is not automatically starting. This is even on fresh installs of the client. I check the FOG service in Services and it says it’s set to automatically start but that never happens. I end up having to go into services and manually start it the first time to get it to work. The version of the client I am installing is:

12/20/2016 12:54 PM Client-Info Client Version: 0.11.5
12/20/2016 12:54 PM Client-Info Client OS: Windows
12/20/2016 12:54 PM Client-Info Server Version: 1.3.0-RC-14

Like I said, once I manually start the client we are Golden… But… It will not automatically start for some reason. Everything else as far as settings is the same throughout my images.

I also notice that the service fails periodically and I have to manually re-start the service. I was really hoping that upgrading to the latest version would be the fix to this but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Let me know if their are any log files you’d like me to upload and if so where I can find them.

Thanks!!

Cheers,

Joe

[Junkhacker]

@Joe-Gill it’s been a while since you posted last. the “latest and greatest” version isn’t 1.3.0-RC-14 anymore. it’s 1.3.5-RC-10. is that what you installed, or did you really install an old release candidate?

[Joe Gill]

@Junkhacker

I just checked on the server and it is…

Running Version 1.3.4
SVN Revision: 6066

I used SVN to update my server… What was posted was from one of the FOG clients FOG.log files.