Help needed for multiple Ubuntu desktops deployment
-
Hi,
I have a working fog server VM and a master/golden image captured from one of the Dell desktops. It is the same as the target PCs that I need to image.
We need to deploy Ubuntu desktop on 20+ Dell PCs (same model) in a lab, all currently have Windows.
The “deploy an image” instructions mention the following as I understand:- Power-on PC, go to BIOS and boot from pxe
- From Fog menu, select “Perform Full Host Registration and Inventory” and follow the prompts to provide the info including hostname, fog username/password, etc. PC will then reboot.
- Interrupt boot and go to BIOS again to boot from PXE. Image will then be deployed and the PC will reboot again.
This seems like a pretty manual process to follow for 20+ desktops. Specially as I have to interrupt boot twice on each PC, once for host registration and the 2nd time for image deployment. I don’t have much experience with pxe so I’m not sure if I can make any config changes that can help.
I also don’t know if there is a way to tell all PC’s to boot from pxe on their next reboot, so I guess the first manual boot interrupt is unavoidable.Here’s what I was thinking to happen ideally:
- Power-on each PC, go to BIOS and boot from pxe
- All PCs will then get the image directly from the fog server and get deployed, without any manual intervention and ideally at the same time.
I read some forum posts about the “Load and Go” process which uses the “Deploy Image” option from the menu and does not require the PCs to be registered. This is helpful but still requires me to choose the “Deploy Image” option on each PC, so its not completely automated.
The last issue is of hostname. We have our own DHCP/DNS server which has the configuration to provide the pxe info and the fog server. We also use the our dhcp/dns server to provide hostnames to all our VMs. I was hoping I would be able to do that with these desktops. I can register each PC’s mac in our dns/dhcp server so that it receives the hostname, but not sure if fog deployment will mess with it since the master image has its own hostname?
Can someone please provide some help/guidance.
Thanks so much. -
Hi @george1421
Sorry to tag you but whatever I have configured so far was based on a number of answers from you in the forums and hence hoping if you have some time to reply.
Thanks much -
@uzee Your approach to this (imaging) really depends on your short term and long term goals.
If imaging these machines are just a one time time (like if you were a PC reseller) then there is a process I call load and go. where you pxe boot one time into the FOG iPXE menu and then issue a Deploy Image from the FOG iPXE menu. This will deploy the target image to the target computer one time and then the FOG server will forget about the computer. Again you would use this method if you were going to stuff an OS onto some hardware and then never see that target computer again.
The other method is the traditional registration, assign an image and then schedule an image deployment. In this case the FOG server will register and know about the target computer in the future. You have to remember though that you register the target computer once and then can deploy many times. Future remote imaging will be possible because you register the target computer with FOG. FOG also gives you the ability to manage the computers in the future if you install the FOG Client.
Now with this registration and then booting. The registration process must be hands on, but imaging can be touch less or at least low touch. Some people will have the target computer configured so that it always pxe boots. In this case the target computer will always pxe boot through the fog ipxe menu. The default action if you don’t touch the computer will be to boot the OS off the hard drive. This boot through the iPXE menu, will also check to see if the fog server has any tasks assigned for the target computer. If there is a task assigned (like reimage the computer) then instead of booting through to the local hard drive, it will boot into imaging. If you couple that with the fog client install on the target coputer’s host OS. When you schedule a deployment to the computer, the fog client will then reboot the computer and then the bios is configured to boot through the fog menu, the target computer will be reimaged without requiring a tech to touch the computer. You would use this process to maybe reset a computer lab between classes, where you can wipe the target computer and then reload the OS on 30 computers in 10 minutes.
The interrupt the booting process twice, is actually pressing F12 to get into the firmware’s boot menu to pick PXE booting. You are not changing the forever boot order, you are just picking one time pxe boot. Yes you will have to do that twice, but this way the default boot is always the hard drive.
-
@uzee FOG doesn’t change or really step into the target system during deployment. You CAN do this if you write a post install script that will get called once the target image is deployed to the target computer. In the case of a linux computer you could potentially set the target computer’s name here by updating the /etc/hostname file or anything else you can do with a bash script. The FOG Client can also be configured to make changes to the target computer or install applications based on instructions from the fog server. Its really identifying what you want to do and how much automation you want to script. Its all possible with FOG and a little creativity on your end. Since you already know Ubuntu (linux) bending FOG to what you want will be easier than coming strictly from a MS Windows background.
