Boot to Standalone FOG Server

[Tony Fiorentino]

I have Ubuntu 16.10 installed on a Dell 32 bit 745 OptiPlex with 3 GB of memory. I have FOG 1.3.0 installed also on the machine.
This FOG server is NOT on the network, otherwise I could use DHCP to set up the 066 and 067 commands and then the scope, and my clients would be directed to the FOG server and download the correct file.
This FOG server is connected to a switch, and the clients will be connected to the switch. I want the clients to see the FOG server, show the menu, and pixie boot correctly. So far, my clients see nothing. What do I do to rectify this?

[Quazz]

With not on the network, you mean it’s an isolated network, I presume. In that scenario, FOG has to fulfill all roles.

https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/FOG_on_an_Isolated_Network should help

[Tony Fiorentino]

I followed the directions and installed fog with the configuration as directed. The client can be registered to fog even though I received an error message in the process. I was able to create an Image container on fog, and I was able to see the test machine there. I was able to create a task to have the client machine send up it’s Mint setup as an image to fog.

The problem: When I finished the task, a command was successfully sent to the client machine and it turned on. After spinning at DHCP for about a minute and a half, the following occurred:
udhcpc started
sending discover …
sending discover …
sending discover …
no lease, failing

After three cycles of this, it actually advanced to the upload image screen and started “Calculating Bitmap Process”. It reached 94.36% and froze:
An error has been detected.
Failed to complete capture (save partition)
Args passed /dev/sd.1 1 /images/002622f3573b all

I don’t know what to do now.

[Wayne Workman]

@Tony-Fiorentino said in Boot to Standalone FOG Server:

udhcpc started
sending discover …
sending discover …
sending discover …
no lease, failing

Those are typically because portfast is turned off in the switch. Seeing as this is an isolated network, turn on portfast to solve that.

It reached 94.36% and froze:
An error has been detected.
Failed to complete capture (save partition)
Args passed /dev/sd.1 1 /images/002622f3573b all

The only thing I can think of here is the server ran out of space. Now, before you yell at me like many before you have done saying “my server has an 8TB drive in it!”, I want you to run this command on the server and look for partitions with 100% (or near 100%) use:
df -h

[Tony Fiorentino]

@Wayne-Workman

I would never “yell” at a person who - A - is kind enough to take the time to respond to my pleas for help and - B - has probably forgotten more about this stuff than I’ll ever know. LoL Believe me, I’m “Special Needs” compared to you guys.

I ran the command and the following appeared:

fog@fog-OptiPlex-745:~$ df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            728M     0  728M   0% /dev
tmpfs           150M   17M  134M  11% /run
/dev/sda1       145G  6.4G  131G   5% /
tmpfs           748M  152K  748M   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           748M     0  748M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs           150M  108K  150M   1% /run/user/1000

fog@fog-OptiPlex-745:~$ 

I’m using a very old Dell 32 bit 745 Optiplex, and it only has a 70 GB drive.

Mod edited to use code boxes.

[Quazz]

@Tony-Fiorentino Since you mention it’s old, it’s possible the drive has some bad sectors, causing the write to fail.

[Tony Fiorentino]

@Wayne-Workman I got a newer and more powerful machine. It is a 64 bit Dell Vostro with a 200 GB hard drive and 4 GB of Ram. I installed Ubuntu 16.10 and then FOG 1.3.0.
I was able to create an image container in FOG and register my host machine without a problem. I created a task to upload an image. It triggered the pixie boot in my host machine. As it was booting, everything appeared to be going well. All I saw was “ok” or “done” for every step of the process. When it went to the upload screen, however, it once again froze near the end of “creating a bitmap” and flashed an error message. I have attached a .jpg of it.

[Wayne Workman]

@Tony-Fiorentino go grab any other computer and just try to capture it. See if it completes. If it does, it’s something with the machine you were capturing from.