"Bulk" capture

[Tiha]

Hi everyone,

Is there a solution to capture 10, 20, 50 or any number of hosts with only 1-2 clicks?

I have 4 groups, each containing 40-50 hosts. When I want to capture all the hosts in those groups, I need to create the capture tasks(with WOL) for each of the hosts. With 200+ hosts, there are a lot of clicks which I need to make:)

I saw that you can deploy to all the hosts in the group by only 1-2 clicks, but there is no option to capture all the hosts in the same group, with a few clicks.

Is there a plausible explaination for this? Or only I can’t find the correct setting?

Thanks,
Tiha

P.S: I search the forum, but haven’t found an answer for this

[george1421]

@tiha its not possible to do with the web ui. You might be able to script something with the API but that will take some programming skills. I do have to say that fog isn’t intended to capture many systems. Its power and speed comes from a one to many deployment model. Where through multicasting you can send one image to 30 computers. in your case you will need to create an image definition for each of the 200 computers you want to capture then schedule a capture job.

As I said it might be possible if you can script via the api calls using json. If you have someone who can do powershell here is some info on the api calls and powershell: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/12026/powershell-api-module

You will need to register each computer if not done so already, then create an image definition for each computer, then schedule a capture task for each computer. If your computers are already registered with FOG you might be able to export the list of computers via the web ui then use that list with your PS script to guide the script.

[Tiha]

@george1421 thanks for the quick answer.

I’m aware that the power of FOG is in the multicast deploy. But I have to say that I tested it with 25-30 capture tasks in parallel, and if you have the hardware+infrastucture, it works like a charm
I already have the registrations, image definitions, groups etc., but I won’t do it on scheduled basis, only on manual basis.
My only problem is the lot of clicks which I have to do, if I want to do it manually:) That’s why I asked this question here.

I will have a look at the Powershell API, it will probably/hopefully solve my problem

Thanks!