PXE connection Using Windows 2008 as DHCP Server

[techadmin]

@george1421 Ok I found one dongle that worked the one on the left (Black works for everything but this application)
The one on the right (White …FOG seams to love this one)
But I still need to know a few things!
If I clone one box using this dongle and I go and use the same dongle to push images to other devices is this going to be a problem?

Next I moved the Clonzilla image over to the FOG server now what do I need to do to compress it so that FOG can reuse t?

[george1421]

@techadmin My intuition is telling me you have a nic adapter on that embedded system. You may be better off using that if you can find the interface. Since it is an intel l219-lm it probably supports pxe booting too. I would surely explore that route when time permits. You will get the best imaging speed with that device. I don’t know if that is a commercial embedded or something your company makes. There may be a header on the embedded controller where you need to supply an adapter to an RJ45.

Change topics now
You found an usb nic FOG likes, great. The more generic the better because it has to be supported by the linux.

Before I go on, lets make sure I understand how you will use FOG.

You will use fog to deploy your reference image to the target system. Once you unplug that target system from your build up bench, you and FOG will never see that device again?

[Sebastian Roth]

@techadmin said in PXE connection Using Windows 2008 as DHCP Server:

If I clone one box using this dongle and I go and use the same dongle to push images to other devices is this going to be a problem?

We’ve been working on identifying machines by SysUUID (see here) instead of the MAC address. Though this feature is still new and I am not exactly sure if it’ll work in all cases. Give it a go and see how it works.

Next I moved the Clonzilla image over to the FOG server now what do I need to do to compress it so that FOG can reuse t?

What George meant is that you better deploy the Clonezilla image(s) to a machine (using Clonezilla) and capture a new FOG image from that. It saves you a lot of work (converting and generating FOG metadata like partition tables and more) and you’ll have a nicely compressed image right away.

This looks really strange. There is the major part of the URL missing in the output. Should be “http://x.x.x.x/fog/index.php”. When creating the boot USB key make sure you have the web=http://$myfogip/fog/ parameter set!!

All that said I’d also recommend what George already said. Find that onboard NIC chip and use this. USB NIC PXE boot might work but is quite often a lot of hassle to get to work. See that has_usb_nic=1 kernel parameter is also just an ugly workaround but we still need this…

[techadmin]

@sebastian-roth Finding the onboard NIC is not an option the design on the board has it but the connector is not mounted to the board, and for this project it will not be installed for a security reason.

But for giggles I still want to know how to take the clonzilla image and convert it to FOG …being that I have already moved it to the server and to put the image on the box and re-cloning it is a bit of time loss. Not to mention how many different images I have already built; it would take me a week to start over.

[techadmin]

@george1421 Yes once the image is moved from the FOG server to the device it get sent to the end user somewhere and unless it breaks I will most likely never see the device again but the next device I will be using the same Network USB Dongle to build the next box. So is FOG going to freak out when is see the same USB NIC if I build a new image?

And I would really like instructions on converting the colnezilla image that I have moved over to the server into a FOG image.

[george1421]

@techadmin said in PXE connection Using Windows 2008 as DHCP Server:

And I would really like instructions on converting the colnezilla image that I have moved over to the server into a FOG image.

First let me say, there are no instructions to do this. We have been saying in theory its possible but no one in the FOG Project has done it since we have been telling you the quickest way is to deploy your clonezilla image to your hardware, and then immediately turn around and capture the image with FOG. That way you get the image formatted and properly compressed for what FOG needs. The issue with converting the images by hand between clonezilla and FOG, is that FOG captures the meta data about the source drive characteristics, you will have to build that stuff by hand if you directly convert the images.

Beyond that…
In the case about using the same network adapter with FOG. In your case you will want to run FOG in OEM mode (its more of a procedure than a switch in FOG). In your case since you will never see these devices again, you will pxe boot (I’ll get to that in a minute) the images into the FOG menu, and from there you will pick quick image (or deploy image) directly from the iPXE menu. You don’t have to register the network interface or the target computer in FOG (because you will never see the computer again, there is no need to register it). When you pick the deploy image from the iPXE menu, fog will send the image to the target computer and then forget about it, like it never happened.

[george1421]

@techadmin Now that you found a network adapter that FOS is happy with (the white one). Now lets go back and see if options 7 or 8 on the FOS boot stick work. FOS and iPXE share similar hardware requirements. My hope is that we can get options 7 or 8 to work to jumpstart your target computer into the iPXE menu. This would be the best choice if it now works with the one you identified in FOS that works.

[techadmin]

@george1421
Ok I am seeing a new error
So when I made the image it gave me this sorry someone else took the photo …so if I am looking at this right the image never showed up on the server?
In side of the image folder I have a dev and a postdownloadscripts folders.

I had to delete all the images from the server I thought I was running out of space. So I cleared out all host and all images
So how do I reset the numbers where it is showing the image is #6

[george1421]

@techadmin Wow, I thought my eyes were all hazy after looking at that picture, until I read your message.

Ok in regards to that error. I have to as you this question. Do you, or have you used the linux account named fog on this server for system administration? AND/OR did you change the password on this account? This is not the webgui account called FOG, its the linux account fog

If you have mucked about with this account then stop it <jk>. This account is for FOG internal use and should not be used for system administration. There is a process to fix it, we just need to know how it got broke.

[george1421]

@techadmin The numbers listed for 6 are recorded at the time the image is captured. They are only in the database. If you delete the images from inside FOG, each image one by one there is an option to remove the image files. If you do it in bulk you can not remove the data behind the metadata. You will only remove the metadata.

[techadmin]

@george1421
Not sure I have been playing with this for about a week now, so I should go to System Administration User Manager go to FOG account and change it to fog/password ???

[george1421]

@techadmin Well first of all no.

do you (personally) use the linux account fog for anything?

[techadmin]

@george1421
No fog is not being used
This is a new server setup strictly for testing and R&D work
So how do I fix it?

[george1421]

@techadmin OK here is the process.

1. Review the hidden file /opt/fog/.fogsettings on the fog server that is generating the invalid login.
2. In that file will be a setting password=“something”. You need to note and document this password. (Hint: if you connect to your fog server with putty and copy that password out using putty your life will be much easier).
3. Now from the linux command prompt set the fog user’s password to the value found in the .fogsettings file with passwd fog and then paste in the password you collected in step 2.
4. In the FOG Webgui, goto the FOG Settings and then tftp server settings. Ensure the password defined there matches what you collected in step 2.
5. Still in the web gui go to the storage node configuration for that server. Ensure the management password matches what you collected in step 2.
6. Now from a windows computer make sure you can log into the FOG server using a FTP client. User the user ID of fog and the password you collected in step 2.
7. If successful now to the last bit of cleanup. Rerun the fog installer ./installfog.sh script that will clean up the remaining bits and put you back in a happy place.

[techadmin]

@george1421
Worked like a charm…being that this is a VM I may have to expand the drive for the images storage…is there anything I need to know before I break this ?

[george1421]

@techadmin Well since its a vm, I would go about it by creating another vm disk , create a generic partition (not LVM), format it, then mount it over the /images directory. Having a standard single partition on a new vmdk file will allow you to expand it in the future by just expanding the vmdk, and finally expand the file system without touching your running vm.

[techadmin]

@george1421
Ok so things are working great here; Just thought I would give an update. Now is there instructions for multicasting to a group of devices at one time?

[george1421]

@techadmin There is a wiki page that covers this: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Multicasting

The other thing is your networking infrastructure. If all of your target machines are on the same subnet as your FOG server, then you are good to go. If they are on different subnets then you need to get with your infrastructure team and discuss setting up a multicast router or allowing multicasts to traverse your subnets. This is not something specific to FOG, but rather multicast data paths.