"Reinstall my computer" for users
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Hello
i have a PHP MySQL intranet with all my machines into it. And my users too (they authenticate with Active Directory).
Is there a way to setup a kind of backdoor so that each one can launch a “reinstall.sh” on my intranet that would call FOG / Deploy / ThisMachine ?
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Sure, it’s possible. What you would need to do is look in to the FOG code to see how, when you tell a machine to reimage on next boot, it calls and sets up the database. Then you would just either write a similar script in your portal where it grabs the current machine name of the user logged in and directly updates the database or you could make a remote request (ajax) to the fog manager interface. Either way it’s possible.
I think the real question, though, is why do you want your users to have this ability? If you set all of their computers to boot to PXE as the first option then when they need a reinstall you (or whoever on your tech crew) could just trigger it from the web interface and then tell them to restart. The main concern would be bandwidth usage if a lot of people decide to trigger a reinstall at the same time and the waiting queue unless you change it from the default of 10
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I believe this is what the QuickImage option is for. I think it requires a password, but you can set that up and give it to the users. They have to PXE boot the machine and select it from the menu.
This seems quite dangerous to me though. I wouldn’t really want my users re-imaging their computers on a whim.
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We considered this as well for certain tech savvy staff but ended up choosing not to. A phone call or support ticket into IT and we can set a PC to reboot and image from here with the web gui. Still quick and easy.