FOG Server Communications Issues
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Tom, I did the install while connected to the internet. Then once everything was done I unplugged the WAN and set up the mini network. My goal was to avoid conflicts with the campus DHCP server (in the future the library will have its own instance, but does not now). On that note wouldn’t having DHCP enabled on the router as well as a DHCP server on the computer cause problems? It seems like I should simply use the router as a switch and install DHCP on the FOG computer.
Actually now that I think about it, the FOG machine is not on the same subnet as the router due to NAT being enabled in VMware. Could that be the issue? Also I have Firestarter installed in Debian. Could that be causing issues as well?
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Mike,
If you are using a router, then you wouldn’t necessarily need to have a DHCP Server, but you would need to tell the router to look at the FOG Server for when systems pxeboot.
I have dd-wrt installed on my routers, and under DNSMasq options I have the line:
dhcp-boot=pxelinux.0,[DNSHOSTNAME],[SER.VER.IP.ADDR]
I believe, for FOG to work properly, you should have your VM Box (The fog server) set to Bridged Networking and specify with LAN Port it’s actually connecting to. Firestarter (I’m assuming is a firewall) should also, until all things get sorted out, be disabled.
For your specific case, I’d just recommend Having the FOG Server Set to Bridged Network Mode, find the LAN Port it’s actually using, perform your install. Once install is complete, setup your static IP on the FOG Server, take that LAN Cable and connect it to a miniswitch (not a router if you can help it.) And connect the items you’re trying to image through that same switch. If you installed the DHCP Server utils on the FOG Server, your fog server should provide IP Addresses for the systems connected to that switch.
This method provides, I think, your best options as you’re then able to segregate the Campus Network and the FOG Network. So the only time you’re using the FOG Network is when you’re doing images. It won’t impact the main network because they’re not even connected.
Once the imaging is complete, then you can reconnect those systems to the Campus network so Internet and such will work appropriately.
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I use PFsense as my routers, and all but one of my installations of FOG are virtual.
Definitely use bridged mode, I use virtualbox but VMware player/workstation should work similarly.
For 0.32 Iuse Ubuntu (as it was what I always used at the time) I now use Debian for 0.33b and it’s lovely on ym test network.
About the boot logo, you can also customize this to show your corp/school logo.
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The next question is: how does one uninstall FOG? Having not installed the DHCP server I wish to start from scratch (but not delete the whole VM if possible). I believe the DHCP function on the router can be disabled thus turning it into a miniswitch. At that point it will be possible to do an isolated network install as per the instructions on the wiki (which seems to be the thrust of your suggestion).
As for firestarter, my understanding is that it is basically a GUI wrapper for IP Tables. I do not know enough to edit them by hand and feel more comfortable using the program.
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I reran the install and installed the DHCP server then disabled that functionality on the router to avoid conflicts. Thus the router is now acting like a switch. But problems persist. I am still not able to resolve hostnames. Furthermore the computers do not seem to be talking to one another. After rebooting the server I was initially unable to connect to anything. After changing the computers IP address and then manually entering in the IP addresses of the other computers on the network I was able to ping the Windows 7 machine. But the XP one will not respond and apparently doesn’t have an IP address. Is this a problem with the DHCP server? Would it help to post the configuration file for it?
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It may help with the configuration yes.
The reason you’re unable to resolve hostnames is because you don’t have a DNS Server, so this is expected. If you’re unsure whether or not the XP machine has an IP, check it and also verify that the Windows Firewall is turned off on that machine.
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[quote=“Tom Elliott, post: 21246, member: 7271”]
The reason you’re unable to resolve hostnames is because you don’t have a DNS Server, so this is expected. If you’re unsure whether or not the XP machine has an IP, check it and also verify that the Windows Firewall is turned off on that machine.[/quote]So is it possible to image a handful of machines without a DNS server or should I install one on the FOG machine? Given that all of the (4) computers are in one room it seems like overkill to do so. This setup is only for testing purposes; the production machine will use the campus infrastructure. My config file is as follows:
#DHCP Server Configuration File.
#see /usr/share/doc/dhcp*/dhcpd.conf.sample
#This file was created by FOG
use-host-decl-names on;
ddns-updates-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
next -server 192.168.10.2subnet 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.10.10 192.168.10.254
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x;
option routers x.x.x.x;
filename "pxelinux.0";}
According to IP config the XP machine has no IP address. I believe the firewall is off, but there wasn’t the time to go through the network setup again. Doing so may fix the problem.
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If you turn off HOSTNAME_LOOKUPS on the FOG Configuration page, the hostname’s won’t try to be resolved. It will still work without the DNS Server as the tasks are created by the MAC address, not the IP or the Hostname.
For your dhcp file try this:
[code]# DHCP Server Configuration file.
see /usr/share/doc/dhcp*/dhcpd.conf.sample
This file was created by FOG
use-host-decl-names on;
ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
next-server 192.168.10.2;subnet 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
range dynamic-bootp 192.168.10.10 192.168.10.254;
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x;
option routers x.x.x.x;
option routers 192.168.10.2; #<- I ASSUME YOUR FOG SERVER IP ADDRESS (OR JUST LEAVE THIS LINE OUT) filename "pxelinux.0";}[/code]
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Thank you for all of your help Tom. It seems I over thought the problem with the hostnames a bit. As for the config file, none of the computers have an IP address of 192.168.10.2. The router is 192.168.10.1 and all the rest are well above 10.10 .
What about the two fields on the login page that return an error? Do you think those are related to the DHCP server or can I ignore them?
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The error’s you’re seeing are because your network’s not connected to the network.
Just the same as if you try to go to the kernel updates page. You don’t have internet access so you won’t see any of the updates available.
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Ok so it seems 3 out of the 4 issues in my original post weren’t really all that serious. All that remains is to do is fix the networking issue and check to make sure I can connect to the FOG server via ftp. Then the imaging test can begin.
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Well I’ve got all of the computers talking to one another and initialized tftp, but problems persist. I cannot PXE boot either of the other two computers. When attempting to do so, the process errors out with the code PXE-E51 No DHCP or ProxyDHCP offers were received. Curiously when I type “service dhcp restart” in terminal on the FOG server it says that service is unrecognized. But I KNOW I installed it as the configuration file above shows. Any thoughts? Perhaps the DHCP server is not installed or configured properly?
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I think you need:
[code]sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart[/code] -
Indeed I did, Tom. Turns out the service was not actually started and there was a syntax error in the config file. Both computers have PXE booted successfully. The FOG splash screen did not come up, however, possibly because the client is not installed on them. Tomorrow I will endeavor to do that, register the computers in FOG and hopefully attempt to upload my first image. Once again thank you for your help.
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Glad I could be of some help.
The PXE Boot screen should be displayed. It shouldn’t matter if the client is or isn’t installed on the clients. The image is a part of the system. Though my guess is your default file can’t find the image file. Maybe antivirus removed it or something?
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Not sure. Perhaps the PXE boot did’t work correctly? The computer was able to receive an IP address and after that I think the boot agent exited (PXE-M01 Intel Boot Agent Exiting) and Windows XP started. I assumed that was normal behavior. Where is the images file located?
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That sounds like normal behavior if you don’t chose a menu option AND you don’t have a task setup for the system that’s booting.
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Hmmm. When I was testing out tftp between the xp machine and the fog server I tried to “tftp <fog server IP> get pxelinux.0” but that was not found. Also Filezilla would not connect. Is it possible the computer is not booting correctly into FOG? Our computers are Dell Optiplex 780s, if it makes a difference. Tomorrow I will try to set up a task remotely and see if it works.
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tftp command wasn’t found or it reported it couldn’t find the fog server?
Maybe make sure tftpd-hpa service is running?
[code]sudo service tftpd-hpa restart[/code]