Will deleting an image imapact clients using it?

[CoxM]

Hi All,

I want to delete a couple of older images but we still have some machines that are imaged using it and have it assigned to them in host management.

If I delete the image and assign the host a new image will it auto image? I wouldn’t want it to, just to use the new one next time it’s asked to image.

thanks,

matt

[gn_ro]

Hi,

The best steps to move your hosts to new image are:

• create the new image
• assign the image to a good working host
• capture the image from the working host
• assign the new image to needed hosts
• delete the old image, which now is not assigned to any host

[CoxM]

@gn_ro Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I need to free up some disk space without reimaging a load of PCs that are using an old image so I have to delete with it deployed to the hosts. As long as it wont trigger a reimage or stop them working then I will have to go for it.
The alternative is to expand the drive its on but really dont want to do that as it adds a load of headache to the process.

[gn_ro]

@coxm If the image in question is not in any active task, you can safely delete the image. Then you can create a new image and add it to your hosts.
This will not impact the running hosts in any way.
No host will auto image if fog is not configured so.

[CoxM]

@gn_ro Excellent thanks, where would I confirm the setting for auto imaging?
really appreciate your help.

[Tom Elliott]

@coxm There isn’t really an “auto imaging” field per se.

The imaging happens via a few different methods, but only one could kind of being “Auto”.

So you could have a scheduled task (cron style) that could be considered “automated”, but I would not consider this “auto image”. To check if you have any scheduled tasks: Tasks -> Scheduled Tasks should show them all.

You could have a host in a task. Again this isn’t “auto image” and would only “hang” on a task if there was an error during the process. Check: Tasks -> Active Tasks or any of the other imaging styles (Multicast, Scheduled, Active, etc…, Snapin tasks do not require imaging of a machine to run, so you shouldn’t need to check here.)

You can task hosts via the PXE Menu, but this requires physical intervention to setup.

The only Auto-Image I would consider in the sense of what you’re asking, is from Quick Registration. You would need FOG Configuration Page -> FOG Settings -> Quick Reg -> Image defined. Then you would have to boot an unregistered machine and tell PXE to perform a quick registration. Once the registration completes (no user intervention beyond selecting quick registration) it will reboot the machine and immediately boot into PXE and will be deployed the image defined.

So you can change an image defined to any host at any time (other than if it’s in a task currently) and it will not “auto-image”.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

[CoxM]

@tom-elliott Excellent, thanks for your time.