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    Windows server as FOG Storage Node - proof of concept blog

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    • Wayne WorkmanW
      Wayne Workman @george1421
      last edited by

      @george1421 said:

      Determine if the FTP service is really required for a storage node if we will only capture to the master node

      If you want your images to be replicated to the node automatically, it’s absolutely required.

      Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!
      Daily Clean Installation Results:
      https://fogtesting.fogproject.us/
      FOG Reporting:
      https://fog-external-reporting-results.fogproject.us/

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • george1421G
        george1421 Moderator
        last edited by george1421

        Tom added some new code checks (30-Mar-16) that will have FOG revert back to the 1.2.0 way of checking for images if the storage node doesn’t respond properly to the http query. This opens the door again to proving if a windows storage node is possible.

        Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

        Tom ElliottT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • Tom ElliottT
          Tom Elliott @george1421
          last edited by

          @george1421 just a slight correction. It is not using 1.2.0 method of checking. That is way gone and the new method is faster and simpler. Each node is aware of the images they have available to them now where 1.2.0 just checked if it existed on the node it was to pull from. This would cause problems in 1.2.0 because the master was checked at task creation. The client would load up all the way and then if it was pointed at a node that didn’t have the image would fail quite dramatically. Now boot will only boot to a node that has the image on it.

          Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG! Get in contact with me (chat bubble in the top right corner) if you want to join in.

          Web GUI issue? Please check apache error (debian/ubuntu: /var/log/apache2/error.log, centos/fedora/rhel: /var/log/httpd/error_log) and php-fpm log (/var/log/php*-fpm.log)

          Please support FOG if you like it: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Support_FOG

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Wayne WorkmanW
            Wayne Workman
            last edited by

            #wiki worthy

            Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!
            Daily Clean Installation Results:
            https://fogtesting.fogproject.us/
            FOG Reporting:
            https://fog-external-reporting-results.fogproject.us/

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • george1421G
              george1421 Moderator
              last edited by george1421

              Part 1b

              Here is a rough outline on how to do this same thing with Windows 2008 R2. I hope to be able to test this as soon as I get my test environment rebuilt.

              The following executed correctly on Windows 2008 R2 with Windows Managment Framework installed which installs PowerShell 3.0 I’m actually not using very many powershell commands here, basically just to add windows roles and features. Powershell on Windows 2008 is a bit lacking as compared to 2012.

              Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser
              Import-Module ServerManager
              
              Add-WindowsFeature FS-FileServer
              Add-WindowsFeature FS-NFS-Services
              
              mkdir c:\share
              mkdir c:\share\tftpboot
              mkdir c:\share\images
              mkdir c:\share\snapins
              mkdir c:\share\snapins\ssl
              
              net localgroup fog_users /add
              net user fog_user "mi5ty_cl0ud" /add /EXPIRES:NEVER /PASSWORDCHG:NO /active:YES /Y
              net localgroup fog_users fog_user /add
              icacls c:\share /grant "fog_users:M"
              
              *****
              
              nfsshare images=c:\share\images -o rw sec=sys root unmapped=yes
              netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Server for NFS" new enable=Yes
              
              *************
              
              On FOG server
              mount -t nfs 192.168.1.205:/images /mnt
              mkdir /mnt/dev
              touch /mnt/.mntcheck
              touch /mnt/dev/.mntcheck
              umount /mnt
              
              ****************
              
              # On windows server
              Add-WindowsFeature Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-FTP-Server,Web-FTP-Service,Web-FTP-Ext,Web-Mgmt-Console
              
              Import-Module WebAdministration
              New-WebFtpSite -Name "FOGFtpSite" -Port 21 -PhysicalPath "c:\share" -IPAddress "192.168.1.205" 
              
              Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\Sites\FOGFtpSite" -Name ftpServer.security.ssl.controlChannelPolicy -Value 0
              Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\Sites\FOGFtpSite" -Name ftpServer.security.ssl.dataChannelPolicy -Value 0
              Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\Sites\FOGFtpSite" -Name ftpServer.security.authentication.basicAuthentication.enabled -Value $true
              Set-ItemProperty "IIS:\Sites\FOGFtpSite" -Name ftpserver.userisolation.mode -Value 4
              Add-WebConfiguration "/system.ftpServer/security/authorization" -value @{accessType="Allow";roles="fog_users";permissions="Read,Write";users=""} -PSPath IIS:\ -location "FOGFtpSite"
              Restart-WebItem "IIS:\Sites\FOGFtpSite"
              
              *********************************
              
              New-Item "IIS:\Sites\Default Web Site\fog" -type Directory
              New-Item "IIS:\Sites\Default Web Site\fog\service" -type Directory
              New-Item "IIS:\Sites\Default Web Site\fog\service\ipxe" -type Directory
              
              ********************************
              
              In IIS management for the default web site must update mime types to add “.*” (dot star without the quotes) and with a type of “application/octet-stream”
              
              ********************************
              
              #Now that IIS is all setup and ready you will need to copy all of the files from /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe to the IIS server in the windows path IIS:\Sites\Default Web Site\fog\services\ipxe
              #Lets do this with nfs. Create the NFS share on the Windows server
              
              nfsshare fogipxe=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\fog\service\ipxe -o rw sec=sys root unmapped=yes
              
              ****************
              
              On FOG server
              mount -t nfs 192.168.1.205:/fogipxe /mnt
              cp /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe/* /mnt
              umount /mnt
              
              ****************
              
              # On Windows server, remove the nfs share
              nfsshare fogipxe /delete
              
              (Note: you need to "replace all child objects permission with inheritable permissions from this object" on C:\inetpub\wwwroot\fog\service\ipxe or the bg download test will fail
              # need to figure out the icacls command on this one
              
              Install the TFTP service as outlined in the OP
              
              

              Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • george1421G
                george1421 Moderator
                last edited by george1421

                Part 2

                For the remainder of this thread I’ll continue with the Windows 2008 R2 server as the windows storage node. If time permits I’ll circle back and attempt the same thing with 2012, but based on what I’ve done so far I have confidence that 2012 will work equally as well as 2008.

                There is one bit of error data I found running through a QC check before moving onto the next part. I created the FTP site using the powershell command: New-WebFtpSite -Name "FOGFtpSite" -Port 21 -PhysicalPath "c:\share" -IPAddress "192.168.1.205" While testing I found that the -PhysicalPath switch did not update the ftp server setting causing the ftp server to report that the home folder could not be located. I went into the mmc console for IIS and manually set the homedrive for the ftp server. Once that was done I was able to login via FTP.

                On to the QC checks before moving on to the FOG setup of this. For these tests we’ll use a windows 7 workstation.

                First we need to test to see if the FTP server is working and we can login using the fog_user account we setup.

                C:\>ftp 192.168.1.205
                Connected to 192.168.1.205.
                220 Microsoft FTP Service
                User (192.168.1.205:(none)): fog_user
                331 Password required for fog_user.
                Password:
                230 User logged in.
                

                Just issue a dir command to see if we can see the files we created.

                ftp> dir
                200 PORT command successful.
                125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
                05-22-16  08:39PM       <DIR>          images
                05-22-16  07:41PM       <DIR>          snapins
                05-24-16  02:42PM       <DIR>          tftpboot
                226 Transfer complete.
                ftp: 144 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 144000.00Kbytes/sec.
                quit
                

                That completes the FTP test

                The next step is to test the tftp server

                C:\>tftp 192.168.1.205 get default.ipxe
                Transfer successful: 427 bytes in 1 second, 427 bytes/s
                

                If your tests matches the above then we can move onto the FOG part of the setup.

                My dev environment was created fresh with the latest trunk version of FOG 1.2.0. The following is the complete steps I went through to setup FOG to communicate with the windows storage node.

                Fog Configuration -> Plugin System
                FOG_PLUGINSYS_ENABLED = checked

                Plugin Managment
                Activate and install Location management plugin

                Storage Management -> Add Storage node
                Name: WinStoreNode
                IP Address: 192.168.1.205
                Web Root: /fog
                Max Clients: 10
                Is Master Node: (unchecked)
                Replication Bandwidth: 0
                Storage Group: default
                Image Path: /images
                FTP Path: /images
                Snapin Path: /snapins
                SSL Path: /snapins/ssl
                Bitrate: (blank)
                Interface: eth0
                Is Enabled: (checked)
                Is Graph enabled: (unchecked)
                Managment Username: fog_user
                Managment Password: mi5ty_cl0ud

                Location Managment -> Create New Location
                Location Name: winsn
                Storage Group: Default
                Storage Node: WinStoreNode
                Use inits and kernels from this node: (checked)
                Press the Add button

                I next copied a host image from my production server to the dev environment. Once all of the files were in place, I went back to the FOG GUI and added an Image reference that defined the image I copied over from my production server.

                And finally I restarted the FOGImageReplication service. Inspecting the /opt/fog/log directory you should see the replication service start up with a transfer log specifically for the windows storage node we just created (i.e. fogreplicator.log.transfer.WinStoreNode.log). If you see this long file, hop over to your windows storage node and inspect the directory c:\share\images to see if the image files have started to copy over from the FOG server.

                Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                V 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • george1421G
                  george1421 Moderator
                  last edited by george1421

                  Part 3 (Final)

                  Today I went in and registered one of my VMs on the dev fog server. I ran through the full registration and allocated this host to the “winsn” location.

                  I pxe booted the vm and saw that it initially connected to the dev fog server and then the dev fog server redirected the client to pull the bzImage and init.xz from the Windows storage node (!!getting excited level 20% !!).

                  The vm downloaded both bzImage and the init from the windows storage node cleanly (excitement level 50%).

                  I saw the FOS kernel boot and started the initial prep work for imaging (excitement level 80%).

                  Partclone did its prep work and started downloading the image (excitement level 90%). I quickly checked the windows storage node and ran netstat -an and this was the the line I was searching for

                  TCP    192.168.1.205:2049     192.168.1.6:747      ESTABLISHED
                  

                  This told me that the windows storage node was communicating with an external (dhcp) device over the NFS protocol!!

                  Imaging completed and the workstation started booting windows (time for a smoke and a beer) [full disclosure I don’t smoke so I’ll just take two beers instead].

                  So it IS possible to setup a FOG / MS Windows Storage node. In the end I’m still not seeing the value in it, but it IS DOABLE.

                  !!Success!! and the end of this POC project…

                  Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                  Wayne WorkmanW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Wayne WorkmanW
                    Wayne Workman @george1421
                    last edited by

                    @george1421 you never cease to amaze.

                    Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!
                    Daily Clean Installation Results:
                    https://fogtesting.fogproject.us/
                    FOG Reporting:
                    https://fog-external-reporting-results.fogproject.us/

                    george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • george1421G
                      george1421 Moderator @Wayne Workman
                      last edited by

                      @Wayne-Workman

                      Right now this post is a jumbled up mess. I’m going to break down my POC environment and build it again. I’ll verify the settings are correct and post a concise kb one for 2008 and one for 2012. But in theory it does work.

                      Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • V
                        vkenny @george1421
                        last edited by

                        @george1421 Where is “Location Management” is that relating to an older version of FOG that no longer has this or am I completely missing something?

                        Tom ElliottT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Tom ElliottT
                          Tom Elliott @vkenny
                          last edited by

                          @vkenny Location Management comes from a Plugin that’s known as the “Location Plugin”.

                          To install the Location Plugin first goto:

                          FOG Configuration Page->FOG Settings->Plugin Settings->FOG_PLUGIN_ENABLE
                          Check the box, press save. You’ll see a new menu item appear in the Main menu system. Click on this new menu item.

                          You will be presented with a list of plugins.
                          Click “Location” icon
                          Click “Activate Plugins”
                          Click “Location” icon
                          Click “Install plugin”

                          You will see the new Location menu item appear in your menu.

                          Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG! Get in contact with me (chat bubble in the top right corner) if you want to join in.

                          Web GUI issue? Please check apache error (debian/ubuntu: /var/log/apache2/error.log, centos/fedora/rhel: /var/log/httpd/error_log) and php-fpm log (/var/log/php*-fpm.log)

                          Please support FOG if you like it: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Support_FOG

                          george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • george1421G
                            george1421 Moderator @Tom Elliott
                            last edited by george1421

                            @Tom-Elliott I’m currently spinning up a new FOG 1.4.0 server to test multicasting across subnets (and usb FOS booting it now appears). I’ll divert that setup to test FOG with a windows 2012 server setup as a storage node. I don’t have a centos template on this dev box so its going to take me some time to get up to speed. I do have a windows 2012 template so that one shouldn’t take too long.

                            I would still expect it to take until this evening before I can get to testing with my day job and everything…

                            Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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