Changing the directory where Fog images are stored question

[PageTown]

Hello! I am doing a fresh install of Fog 1.2.0 on Ubuntu 12.04. I have two drives, an SSD on which I have installed Ubuntu and Fog, and a HDD where I plan to store my Fog images.

So far, I have changed the image storage file path in Storage Management web interface. My question is, is there any place else I need to change the path? There are several different articles online about doing this and some of the files they mention I cannot find on my machine.

Thank you!

[JJ Fullmer]

The easiest thing to do is probably just leave it as default /images but then either mount the HDD to the path /images in your /etc/fstab nano /etc/fstab or make a symlink with sudo ln -s /path/to/hdd/images /images I personally use the symlink method. In my case I just wasn’t paying attention when I partition my drive and made a /home data partition of 400 GB and a / partition of 80 GB. I realized too late that this meant that I only had 80 GB for images… Since I didn’t feel like editing the partition table or starting over, I just moved the /images folder to a folder in /home/fogRootSystem and made a symlink to point /images to that folder and it worked like a charm.

Otherwise you also would want to edit your /etc/exports and make sure that it is pointing the nfs directory to your /images (Fog might do this for you if you specified it during install or in the gui)
You also would want to consider moving the snapins directory as it would normally be in /opt/fog/snapins and if you have a lot of scripts and large installers, than that directory can get pretty big too. Granted any of these would run faster on an ssd.

Hope that helps.

[JJ Fullmer]

Also, if you choose to change the snapin directory and then have problems with the client, here’s a fix

https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/6582/ca-fog-service-error-failed-to-decrypt-when-snapins-in-non-default-directory

[Wayne Workman]

The way @Arrowhead-IT posted looks legit.

I’d probably name the path something along the lines of /disk2 personally, and then mount the hdd to that directory (using /etc/fstab) and then modifying /etc/exports to export that directory. You’d of course create the dev sub directory, and create .mntcheck files both in the new directory and the dev directory. Then finally create your storage management entries.

Note the IDs inside the /etc/exports must each be unique, and you’d need (at least at first) 777 permissions recursively on the directory once everything is built.

[Hanz]

I just had to do this and can verify that changing parameters for /images directory in .fogsettings and rerunning installer…then changing it in gui worked like a charm with no export modifcation necessary as fog did it for me. Mounted of course in /etc/fstab as UUID.

[PageTown]

@Hanz

I am a not very experienced with Linux, so I am going to try your suggestion first. Quick question, where can I find the .fogsettings file? I have been unable to locate it. Also, what does “Mounted of course in /etc/fstab as UUID” mean? Thanks!

[Hanz]

@PageTown /opt/fog/.fogsettings —the file is hidden under that directory, but with nano (which I prefer and will need installed) or vi, it can be edited and resaved.

If you google mounting in linux it will give you an idea of how I mounted the volume with /etc/fstab, there’s a lot out there on the subject

[PageTown]

@Hanz

Here are the contents of my fogsettings folder. I’m not sure which parameter I need to change to redirect where my images are stored:

Created by the FOG Installer

Version: 1.2.0

Install time: Mon 01 Feb 2016 08:57:55 AM CST

ipaddress=“10.1.8.10”;
interface=“eth0”;
routeraddress=“# option routers x.x.x.x;”;
plainrouter=“”;
dnsaddress=“# option domain-name-servers x.x.x.x; “;
dnsbootimage=””;
password=“0cac54”;
osid=“2”;
osname=“Debian”;
dodhcp=“n”;
bldhcp=“0”;
installtype=“N”;
snmysqluser=“”
snmysqlpass=“password”;
snmysqlhost=“”;
installlang=“0”;
donate=“0”;
fogupdateloaded=“1”

[Wayne Workman]

@PageTown It appears that 1.2.0 doesn’t have the settings that @Hanz was talking about.

You’ll have to do it manually.

You’ll need to edit /etc/exports
and you’ll need to change the web interface in storage management to reflect the new location
You’ll need to configure permissions on the new location, and you’ll need to create the subdirectory dev and the (hidden and empty) .mntcheck files.

[PageTown]

@Wayne-Workman

How do I create the .mntcheck files? Can I copy them from the default images/dev locations that was created when I did the original Fog install?

[Wayne Workman]

@PageTown You can create them like this, but substitute your new path for /images

touch /images/.mntcheck
touch /images/dev/.mntcheck

that’s it. They are literally just blank files. You don’t need to do any copying.

[PageTown]

@Wayne-Workman

I think I did everything correctly, but I am receiving this error when I try to upload an image:

[Wayne Workman]

@PageTown Check your firewall, and set 777 permissions recursively on /media/bfd/images

chmod -R 777 /media/BFD/images

[PageTown]

@Wayne-Workman

The chmod command didn’t work.

If it was a firewall issue, wouldn’t that block my being able to register the host?

[ITSolutions]

@PageTown d you run chmod as sudo?

sudo chmod -R 777 /media/BFD/images

[Wayne Workman]

@PageTown said:

The chmod command didn’t work.

It might not have solved the issue, but I promise it’s a necessary step.

You’re /etc/exports should look like this:

/media/BFD/images *(ro,sync,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,insecure_locks,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=0)
/media/BFD/images/dev *(rw,async,no_wdelay,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=1)

You’re .mntcheck file creation would be:

touch /media/BFD/images/.mntcheck
touch /media/BFD/images/dev/.mntcheck

Then to recursively set that directory and the mntcheck files permissions:
chmod -R 777 /media/BFD/images

You’d need to reset the nfs and rpc service next (or just reboot).

sudo service nfs-kernel-server restart
sudo service rpcbind restart

Seeing how you have an NFS related issue with uploading, you might want to look through this wiki and try some of these things manually:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Troubleshoot_NFS

[PageTown]

@ITSolutions

Yes.

[Sebastian Roth]

@PageTown So what error did you see when trying to chmod?? We need information to be able to help!

[PageTown]

@Sebastian-Roth

There was no message when I ran the chmod command. It looked to me like it took it, but I am still getting the same error that is in the screen shot I posted when I try to pull an image.

[Wayne Workman]

@PageTown There has to be something wrong somewhere. Can you take more pictures of the upload process? A lot of information is displayed during the upload and that would help us solve this. Also, can you give us a screen shot of your storage node settings area? What is your FOG Server’s IP address?