Installing a new clean fog server
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@Predator said in Installing a new clean fog server:
What is the difference between the FOG 1.4.4 Officially Released and FOG 1.5.0 RC 3?
Any of the FOG versions with RCx in the name are development releases. You probably don’t want those for your production server. FOG 1.5.0 is the newest version of FOG in the pipeline but its still under development. FOG 1.4.4 is the latest stable release and one you should look at until 1.5.0 is released. FOG 1.5.0 contains a new and updated webgui which is really nice, but functionally its very similar to 1.4.4
What is the best and simplest OS to use with FOG? I have read that some have problems with ubuntu… Furthermore i am a noob in Linux distro’s and it would help me a lot to have something that’s stable and simple with a GUI.
I know a lot of people use ubuntu still. Its not that bad (except for when ubuntu changes stuff that breaks fog). I personally use RHEL/Centos in command line only. The great thing about FOG is that it is supported on a number of linux OS platforms. You will need to learn about linux a little to be able to manage a fog server. The FOG Project wikis are pretty good at taking you step by step through setting up FOG, but you still may have to access the linux command line to adjust some settings.
My goal is to implement a virtual fog server for the enterprise where i am currently working so i can deploy images over pxe boot.
A virtual fog server is no problem. That is how we have them setup in our environment. PXE booting can be a pain sometimes if your computing environment isn’t standard. But we have a few ways to help with non-standard environments to get systems pxe booting.
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While George already answered all your questions nicely I might just add that FOG is running perfectly well on Debian for me (and others). Just in case you want to choose a debian-based distro. But CentOS is great too!!
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Ok i will download CentOS and install GUI then to setup my fog server. I hope it won’t be too difficult to follow as i want it to be setup asap.
Kind regards
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@Predator This might guide you along the way: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=CentOS_7
While installing FOG is not a big issue a lot of people struggle with getting PXE booting setup correctly as this involves other components in most environments (e.g. external DHCP server). So go ahead and give it a go. Feel free to post again (probably best in a new thread!) if you hit the wall somewhere. We are here to help you.
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I have installed VMWare workstation player 12 and trying to install centOS for FOG.
Couple of questions regarding the IPV4 config…
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When i choose bridged adapter in VM workstation do i have to change the ip address of that NIC to static?
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When i setup the network settings of CentOS do i need to pick the same IPV4 address as the VM workstation NIC?
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- Think of the bridge adapter connects to the VMWare workstation host at the NIC interface. The vm host OS is isolated from the vm client. The vm host IP address can be dynamic while the vm client can have a static address. The fog server requires a static IP address.
- The vm host and vm client are two different computers each computer needs its own IP address.
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This is getting a little confusing mixing vm client and host…
This guide says clearly to setup the network of CentOS to static…
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=CentOS_7
The question is simple: can i use the same network addresses of my VM NIC on CentOS?
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@Predator said in Installing a new clean fog server:
same network addresses of my VM NIC on CentOS
Same network address of what?
Terms we need to understand
VM Host == computer where vmware workstation is installed, loaded and running.
VM Guest == client virtual machine where centos is running (needs a different IP address than the vm host)Think about it you have 2 computers running on the same hardware. Two computers can’t share the same address on the same network.
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- VM Host = leave network settings on dynamic
- VM Guest = configure network settings on static
- FOG Client = configure network settings on static
So if we set it up like this all 3 would have different ip addresses correct?
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@Predator said in Installing a new clean fog server:
FOG Client = configure network settings on static
This IP address would need to be assigned by dhcp since you need pxe boot information (provided by dhcp server). If you want fog client to be locked at a static IP address then use dhcp reservations. But either way fog client must be assigned by dhcp.
And you are correct all three need different IP addresses.
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Thanks, i hope i will not encounter too much problems during installation fingers crossed.
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@Predator You should not as long as you follow the networking rules.
If you have issues, post back here and we can help you. Getting clients to pxe boot is sometimes trouble. Its not a fog issue but a network environment/infrastructure one.
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@predator said in Installing a new clean fog server:
What is the best and simplest OS to use with FOG? I have read that some have problems with ubuntu… Furthermore i am a noob in Linux distro’s and it would help me a lot to have something that’s stable and simple with a GUI.
My goal is to implement a virtual fog server for the enterprise where i am currently working so i can deploy images over pxe boot.
I’ve been using Ubuntu Server 16.04.2 without any issues, and it’s super easy to deploy and manage. Also, I know this might seem scary or counter-intuitive, but I would actually recommend NOT using a GUI (that’s why I deployed the “server” version of Ubuntu).
I’m a little confused by the fact that you said your goal is to “implement a virtual fog server” in an “enterprise” environment, but you’re trying to build this “environment” using VMware Workstation. Have you considered deploying VMware ESXi? It’s free and would be more ideal than using VMware Workstation. I’m not saying you can’t do it that way, but it’s not a very common way of going about it, especially in an “enterprise” environment.
With that said, if you’re going to use VMware Workstation, I would think you would want to setup the PC that’s running VMware Workstation (the IP of this machine can be DHCP or static), then build an Ubuntu VM using NAT and set a static IP on this guest.
If you have a DHCP and DNS server in your environment (which it sounds like you already do), during the FOG setup, you should be able to make the following selections when installing:
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When prompted if you’d like to change the default network interface, type “N”
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When prompted if you’d like to setup a router address for the DHCP server, type “Y”
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When prompted for the IP address to be used for the router on the DHCP server, press Enter if it already shows your correct router address (or type in the correct one if it’s not already displayed)
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When prompted if you’d like DHCP to handle DNS, type “Y”
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When prompted for what DNS address DHCP should allow, press Enter if it already shows the correct address (or type in the correct address if it’s not already displayed)
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When prompted if you’d like to use the FOG server for DHCP service, type “N”
You’ll then want to go to your DHCP server and make sure that the following scope options are configured:
- 066 Boot Server Host Name = make sure this is the IP of your FOG server
- 067 Bootfile Name = undionly.kpxe
You can either configure those scope options globally under IPv4 under “Server Options”, or you can configure them under “Scope Options” under each Scope that you want to allow access to the FOG server.
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Thanks for the information.
The reason why i’m using VMWare workstation is to test it before i put it in our VMWare pool.
Once it’s fully tested and working by me i will put it on a VMWare server and manage it from the vsphere client.
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@predator To each their own I guess. We do guest testing all the time in our vSphere production environment. You’re the first person I’ve ever heard of who has an ESXi host, but does all their testing in VMware Workstation O_o.
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Yep don’t mind me it’s just a infrastructural decision.
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Having problems with entering the following command lines in centOS
echo “Open UDP port 49152 through 65532, the possible used ports for fog multicast”
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=49152-65532/udp
echo “Allow IGMP traffic for multicast”
firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --add-rule ipv4 filter INPUT 0 -p igmp -j ACCEPT
systemctl restart firewalld.service
echo “Done.”FYI i’m not using putty but entering the commands in terminal of centOS.
Any idea why this is not working? I get the error command not found…
This is a step of the continue pre-config step from wiki guide: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=CentOS_7
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Nevermind i managed to make the command lines work.
Can someone explain me which one and why i should activate the following?
Set SELinux to permissive on boot:
sed -i.bak ‘s/^.\SELINUX=enforcing\b.$/SELINUX=permissive/’ /etc/selinux/configSet SELinux to permissive on the fly (this is not persistent, the above config must be done to be persistent):
setenforce 0 -
@george1421 @lmioperations @Sebastian-Roth
Can someone chime in on this?
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@predator Hi, SELinux must be set to permissive for now in order for certain FOG central services to work correctly (such as NFS).
There have been some attempts to create SELinux profiles instead, but given how often things can change, this is obviously a more cumbersome way of going about it.
You should use both commands. First one will make it so when you reboot, SELinux is in permissive mode, second one sets it in current session so you don’t have to reboot.
