Can fog change a computer name?

[ngriffith29]

Hi, I am new to networking and FOG. The whole process has been very enjoyable and I am very appreciative of the amazing documentation and discussion boards! The one thing I have a question about is the naming of a computer. Can fog rename the computer and if so can it name the computer dynamically? I looked through and discussions and it seems to be possible I just don’t know how to configure it.

Thanks,

[Tom Elliott]

@ngriffith29 FOG can rename hosts.

It can do this in multiple ways.

The simplest method is the “HOSTNAME_EARLY” which should be enabled by Default. (FOG Configuration Page -> FOG Settings -> Hostname Early)

The second and probably the safest and most dynamic way is by installing FOG Client on the machines. When you change the hostname within the FOG GUI it will automatically update the hostname the next time it checks in.

You could sysprep the machine and edit an autounattend.xml file to set the name as it initializes using post download scripts.

You could also do a similar task at how hostname_early functions using post download scripts.

The point here is there are many ways to accomplish the same task.

What, exactly, do you mean by “dynamically?”

FOG will only change a hostname of a machine that is registered via the HOSTNAME_EARLY and FOG Client methods.

[ngriffith29]

@tom-elliott By dynamic I mean I want to be able to have the computer names go up in numerical value so for instance in a computer lab it would assign “room-e23-1, room-e23-2” and so forth.

[Sebastian Roth]

@ngriffith29 With FOG you usually register hosts (at least you need to if you want FOG to rename them) and there you define the hostname it will use after deployment. So it’s just up to you to name the hosts accordingly.