Changing from Legacy to New Client

[FlareImp]

This isn’t so much of a problem as it is a question. I currently have 8 sites each with their own fog server and anywhere between 5 and 8 nodes. I currently have a master image with the legacy client setup. All sites use the “PostDownloadScripts” directory to copy drivers for the specific model of system that is being imaged. Once that completes it then replaced the config.ini file on the client with the config file in the “PostDownloadsScript” directory for that buildings particular fog server. That way when the Client boots into windows it will be pointing to the local fog server and not the site I created the fog install at.

Now my question is this, How easy is it to do the above process using the new Fog client? Or, is there a more simpler way?

Thank you

[Wayne Workman]

I think a more appropriate question would be “How easy are these things in FOG 1.3.0 RC?”

Important questions before moving forward with anything, because there are caveats depending on the answers:
What version are you coming from?
What OS are your fog servers on?

the legacy client is compatible with FOG 1.3.0 RC specifically for people like yourself, who need to transition to the new fog client. So no worries there. 1.3.0 still has post download scripts. You can still do the things you’re doing now.

[FlareImp]

@Wayne-Workman We are Running Ubuntu 12.04 and Fog 1.2.0. I have been doing some testing with the RC version(s) of fog but am not willing to use it in production as of yet. The reason I was asking was to try out a new setup with the new client in my test environment but I am a little stuck on how to change where the New Client is pointing if all my sites are using the same master image. I have talk with my boss about have a single central site but we were a little uneasy about it and rather like the idea of each site being standalone. I thought about using GP to push the client out but that would only work with old systems that are already on the domain. Since our new systems would be off the domain and require the Fog Client to add themselves to the domain. I just didn’t know if changing where the Fog Client is pointing to would be as simple as replacing a file like we are doing with the Legacy Client.

[george1421]

I have to first give the caveat that I don’t use the fog client for connecting the target to the domain or changing its name, I let the unattend.xml file do that (which I update at imaging with a post install script).

With that said in your case, this is the command I use to installed the (new) fog client

msiexec.exe /i FOGService.msi /quiet USETRAY="0" WEBADDRESS="192.168.1.88"

Taking this idea out a bit (and merging it with what I’m doing in the post install script today). One could identify the subnet where the target is currently being installed, and then update the install line based on that subnet.

For example lets say the following things are true.

subnet       FOG Server
192.168.1.x  192.168.1.88
192.168.2.x  192.168.2.14
192.168.3.x  192.168.3.100

So if we determine the subnet where the target computer is running, we would also know the fog server IP responsible for that subnet.

With that known, now all we need to do is append the msi installer line to the setupcomplete.cmd file in windows. This will install the FOG client just after OOBE completes on the target computer. That will also point the FOG client to the proper FOG server.

[Joe Schmitt]

@FlareImp the new client locks itself into the server it was installed with. Either you can make all your servers share the same identity or you can install the new client on first boot up . so one way of doing it would be to have your post download script set the silent installation arguments for the client and when windows boots up have it run that installation command.

Edit: just saw George’s post, his suggestion is correct.

[george1421]

@george1421 just to ease the process here is a snippit of my code.

    myip=`ip route get 8.8.8.8 | awk 'NR==1 {print $NF}' | cut -d "." -f1-3`;
    case "${myip}" in
        192.168.1)
            # IP address for NYC
            ;;
        192.168.2)
            # IP address for ATL
            ;;
        *)
            # Default code for the unknowns
            ;;
    esac

[FlareImp]

Awesome, waiting and having the installer run from the setupcomplete.cmd sounds like that just what I need!

[Wayne Workman]

Also - most people have experienced a lot of trouble getting FOG 1.3.0 RC to run on Ubuntu 12, I don’t recommend using it.

Also - most people have experienced even more trouble upgrading older Ubuntu to newer Ubuntu specifically relating to FOG. I wouldn’t recommend upgrading. I’d recommend re-building Fresh & Clean using Ubuntu 16, or some other recent OS. This would involve moving your images around, backing up your database. All manageable things. The process is easier if you use the same IP addresses.

[FlareImp]

@Wayne-Workman In my test envirement I am running the RC versions on Ubuntu 16.x. When I setup the new servers they will all be fresh installs as well.