Complete and Utter Noob

[RealTommentor]

Hi Guys and Gals,

So I am a complete noob to Ubuntu and Fog. I have my manager installing a fresh 16.04 Ubuntu server for me, and he is then leaving me to it. I have been recommended to use Fog as our replacement for SCCM [cant afford it] and I have been given the project to complete.

I have read through a few of the Ubuntu WIKI pages on how to use terminal and what commands I should use, is there anything here as well other than the install guide that can help me?

I really appreciate all and any advice.

Kind regards

RT

[Wayne Workman]

We have more complete documentation for CentOS 7 than we do for Ubuntu 16 - that’s fully my fault, I have been putting off creating an article detailing steps for Ubuntu 16…

But, you can still use it, it’s not hard. Use FOG Trunk. Follow this guide to get fog trunk:
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Upgrade_to_trunk

Then, substitute the appropriate commands in there with ones found in here:
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7131/fog-on-ubuntu-16-04-php7/26

Alternatively,
It’s not too late to just use CentOS 7. I have a full article on every step here, pay close attention to the HDD partitioning section, there’s even a video to guide you.
https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=CentOS_7

[RealTommentor]

Wow, thanks so much for the quick response! I will double check to see if I can get him to use CentOS - I have to admit, I will google what that is before I talk to him

I’m only 2nd line support looking to branch into the infrastructure section, so thanks.

I will read what you have provided and see if I can get it changed.

Thanks Wayne!

RT

[RealTommentor]

Hi @Wayne-Workman

Just wanted to say thank you for the pointing in the right directions, I have had to teach mself how to use Ubuntu Terminal and that was a challenge in itself, however I got it working.

If you are going to write any troubleshooting tips in your guide here are things I failed on:

Installing 16.04 instead of 14.10lts Ubuntu 16 did not want to work at all.
Dont forget to install an FTP seperately - I did that and was a fool…
Dont forget to allow permissions for the clients to write to /images/xxx/xxx [where you store your images on the server] in the .conf file. It took me way too long to work this one out and i was a complete plonker.
Dont forget to compile your .kpxe and store it in the correct folder - had a look up on another site to find out how to do this one [not sure if linking to other sites is allowed, so ill leave it for now, dont wanna break the rules]
When using a Windows DNS there is a bit in the “advanced tab” that needs to be entered too:

Vendor Class: DHCP Standard Options
User Class: iPXE

067 Bootfile Name -> String Value: http://ipaddress.ofyour.fog.server/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php
067 Bootfile Name -> [standard settings] undionly.kpxe

Both of the above need to be set on the DNS for it to work properly.
Again found this on another forum, however I dont have the site, so I cant give credit there.

I hope this helps

Keep at it FOG is awesome!

[Wayne Workman]

@RealTommentor Sounds like you had way harder of a time than you should have. Ubuntu 16 works fine with fog, there’s zero need to install anything prior. Ubuntu 14 works even better. What conf file are you talking about?, fog sets all that up for you.

[Quazz]

@RealTommentor Are you installing 1.2 or Trunk?

You shouldn’t have to compile your own kpxe, all of them are supplied via the installer.

You don’t have to install a seperate FTP either, FOG uses vsftpd (perhaps a different one on Ubuntu) if I’m not mistaken. Since FOG relies on FTP, it would be silly to not include it.

Not sure about the permission thing, but as far as I know, Trunk should set correct permissions already out of the box.

[Junkhacker]

wow, something must have gone really wrong. you ended up doing a lot more steps than you needed to

[RealTommentor]

@Wayne-Workman said in Complete and Utter Noob:

@RealTommentor Sounds like you had way harder of a time than you should have. Ubuntu 16 works fine with fog, there’s zero need to install anything prior. Ubuntu 14 works even better. What conf file are you talking about?, fog sets all that up for you.

Hey,

I dont know what I did wrong, but it just would not install properly using 16, so I just went back. The conf file for vsftpd. @Quazz There were no services for vsftpd or any other ftp service, so I needed to install it.

@Wayne-Workman I thought that it would have done otherwise why make an installer, but for some reason, these options weren’t available, so I had to do this to get it working.

I dont mind the work, it was a great way of learning how to use Ubuntu and if this didnt happen I probably wouldnt have any understanding of how it all works.

I havent upgraded to Trunk yet, as I am wanting to do some more testing, and experimenting with adding nodes before I upgrade; as of about a week ago I have a fully functioning FOG server

So its great!

Well chuffed

[RealTommentor]

@Junkhacker Hey Pal, Maybe it was because I was building it onto an ubuntu server that was sitting on a vm? I dont know, but I got it working, and I am very impressed with fog and think that you guys have made a great product! So everything that I did should have been automated?

[Tom Elliott]

@RealTommentor Yes, with a few minor exceptions of manual things you likely need to perform due to Ubuntu 16.04 (possibly 16.10 as well) and the way things changed.

[RealTommentor]

@Tom-Elliott Oh well now I just feel silly! Oh Well, all is a good learning curve, and a good introduction. It helped me understand what was going on behind the very well laid out GUI! Im very impressed with this product and cant believe its Open Source. I am going to make a business case to the FD for some sort of donation. I work for a charity, so who knows how well that will go??

Nonetheless, it was all very interesting!