Questions about hostname changer

[tvrkey]

I have just a few questions about the process for host names in FOG if anyone can help…

After I imaged all of our sites computers, I was told that I’d need to follow a different naming scheme than what was used. Is there a way for me to change the host name AFTER they’ve already been imaged? I tried just changing it in the FOG menu and saving, but that didn’t work…is there a wiki document that someone can point me to if it’s possible?

[Ed Blom]

I’ve seen problem with .32 and hostname changes… it usually requires 2 reboots

[tvrkey]

So I was able to get it to change the computer name…but now the computer fails to shut down. I hit shutdown and explorer.exe closes, and the wallpaper is just stuck on the monitor.

[Jarli]

That sounds like an issue with your computer.

I’ve been using fog for a while, and have always had it change my computer names, based on what I have in individual host. (which are my asset tags since we use laptops primarily)

If I ever get a hung system I just force restart it, and then investigate the problem.

Fog Server Hostname_Changer needs to be enabled.

[Jaymes Driver]

I agree with Jarli.

I use the Name changer service frequently. The only time I have a problem is if the network drivers fail to install, in which case I install the drivers and then the name changer service does its job. I have even changed the name in the Host section of FOG and had the machine change it’s name after it had already checked into the FOG server after imaging. Actually, if you don’t change the name in FOG to meet that of the machine, FOG will change it’s name every time it starts up. Sometimes I manually adjust a machine name and forget to do so in FOG and it will change the name back… sneaky bugger.

This sounds to me like an issue with the OS, or the hardware. I would definitely begin troubleshooting the OS though.

Is this a wide spread issue and every machine in your environment is behaving this way? or is this only affecting a specific model? Or only this machine?

Are you using Novell or something similar to authenticate into the network? We set up auto login scripts to log in the windows user and it is dependent (or it use to be, its not so much anymore) on the Host Name of the machine and the Domain it is connected to. Changing this information without adjusting the registry values causes the machine to behave erratically, sometimes leading to not logging in, or shutting down.

[tvrkey]

Thanks for your help guys…I think I was able to pinpoint it as being an issue with these being on a domain and the domain not recognizing the new name given from FOG.

I removed them from the domain, rebooted, and then added it back to the domain with the new name and now everything is working again.

[Junkhacker]

i suspect that the AD account you’re using to join computers to the domain lacks rename privileges

[Jaymes Driver]

Thanks for letting us know. I am about to tackle the process of switching over from Novell to AD, so these are the things I need to know before I figure them out myself!!!