Add Wifi Mac Adress to existing laptop

[Matthieu Jacquart]

Hi,

We bought 40 dell laptop, and I had to add them manually in fog web console because Host Kernel Arguments “pci=noacpi” was needed to communicate with fog server so impossible to use pxe boot registration.
Anyway, now in fog console these laptop just have LAN Mac adress, but I need to add WAN mac adress (for example to deploy printer with fog client when using wifi).
I have all mac adress in a csv file, but is there a simple way to add them to existing host ? In fog console or in mysql ?
I thought that fog client will retrieve all mac adress when communicating with fog server, but it isn’t the case…

Thanks
Matthieu

[george1421]

I don’t have an immediate answer for you but a few comments.

1. It would be interesting to know if (now) you pxe boot one these systems and run through full registration, would it add the wifi mac address?

2. Its interesting that deploy a printer uses the mac address at all. I would expect it to use either the hostname or the hostid when deploying to the target computers.

3. As for the pci=noacpi if it was me (being the lazy person i am) I would have updated the global kernel arg setting with this value, then registered all of these systems with the normal process. Actually you can probably leave that setting in the global kernel boot settings for all systems. It shouldn’t (just guessing) have any impact on other models, since this kernel switch is disabling acpi that seems to be broken on this 40 dell laptops. I would test this, but it would probably be safe to leave it in, or leave it in while you are registering these systems then use the fog group function to deploy this settings to the specific hosts that require it. Then remove it from the global kernel args.

[adukes40]

@george1421 Man I wish I would have known number 3 for when I was doing the Host Kernel Args… I will have to keep it in mind for next time I run into that.

Just out of curiosity, can you have more than one argument?

[george1421]

@adukes40 yes you can have more than one. Just keep the kernel parameters stuck together pci=noacpi and then a space between the kernel parameters pci=noacpi video=vga magic=tom and so on.

[adukes40]

@george1421 Good to know, thanks George.

[Matthieu Jacquart]

@george1421 Hi, sorry for late response.
1- If I perform “hardware inventory” task on a laptop, no change, only LAN MAC address appears
2- for managing printer, maybe fog client uses name, but I thought it was based on MAC address, to confirm…
3- adding PCI=noacpi in global FOG_KERNEL_ARGS works (I can perform a quick registration on host after deletion) but I still have no other mac address…

For other laptops, I just add LAN Mac address and and deploying image, fog client retrieve other MAC addresses and add them (pending macs in report management)

If someone has solution to add these others mac addresses to the host, it will be nice

[george1421]

@Matthieu-Jacquart Now that I have the luxury of time to think about it, the FOS Engine (linux OS) doesn’t support/have the wireless drivers installed. So of course you will not see the mac address So your inventory either at first or later will not register the mac address. But adding the mac address may not matter for snapin or printer deployment since the device should be referenced by name or host ID. I “think” the mac address is only used during pxe booting to help identify the device.

I would be interested to know your success/failure on this, because I could be wrong too…

[Matthieu Jacquart]

@george1421 Indeed you’re absolutely right, I’ve just tested and fog client uses name and not mac address, so printer are well deployed even if only LAN mac address is in fog management.
So my problem is solved even if I don’t know why other mac addresses don’t appear in pending mac…

[george1421]

@Matthieu-Jacquart Wonderful that it works by name. That will save a lot of admin pain not having to manage wireless mac addresses too.

I may not have explained it well before. The wireless mac addresses won’t be recorded by the FOG linux OS [FOS] that runs on the target computer because that version of linux doesn’t have the drivers required to see almost all wireless adapters. Without these drivers the wireless adapter is invisible.

[Matthieu Jacquart]

@george1421 Yes I understood the last part with absence of wireless drier in FOS, but on my other laptops fog client send other mac addresses to the console, so I have them in pending mac and after approval they are added to the host… But it’s not a big deal !

[Tom Elliott]

@Matthieu-Jacquart is host register enabled? This is the module that deals with Mac address associations. Of course others are working fine which might just mean the client isn’t seeing the other Macs for whatever reason.

[Matthieu Jacquart]

@Tom-Elliott Yes hosst register is enable for all hosts… As you said, I suppose for any reason Fog client can’t see other mac addresses, but finally it’s not important !
Can it be due to pci=noacpi parameter ?