Thanks Sebastian.

I am running FOG 1.5.0-RC-7
SVN Revision: 6080

I am on branch ‘dev-branch’
Head commit:
commit b1ce6d5dee2e00052358fffa67475b151d7cd22c
Author: Tom Elliott tommygunsster@gmail.com
Date: Wed Aug 9 15:49:05 2017 -0400

Fix issue with inventory not defining host item.

Here is the output of those commands.

BIOS:
Two out of three machines are running the same bios version (I need to fix the third).
All machines are setup to default to Network boot, and then disk.
I’ve set all available settings to prioritize legacy over UEFI network boot.

Hey Forum,

Back again. I hope you had the chance to catch the eclipse yesterday!
What a show.

In the world of FOG…
I’ve been having lots of problems deploying images over the last couple days. I hope someone can help.

Here’s the symptom:
Computers imaged with FOG become ‘stuck’ in a pxe boot cycle and never boot the imaged OS.

I’ve written lots of detail below, I hope something sticks out.
It seems really confusing to me…

By wiping the disks, I was hoping to erase past history on the machines (not new) and partition problems.

It seems to me that I am capturing only a part of an image, but not the whole thing.
The result is non-bootable images on my disks.

Thanks for your help,

DETAIL::
Setup:

• Fully Register a machine(Host1) (HP-600-G2 MT) with FOG.
• Execute a full disk wipe through FOG. Write zeros to disk.
• Install Ubuntu 16.04.3 using USB Drive.
• Capture image from Host1 using FOG (settings below).
  – Image Name: Ubuntu16Clean
  – Operating System: Linux - (50)
  – Image Type: Multiple Partition Image, Single Disk (not resizable) - (2)
  – Partition: Everything

• Image Successfully captured. /images/ directory has an entry Ubuntu16Clean

Testing:

• Create a few extra files/folders on Host1.
• Execute deployment task through FOG to Host1.

• Image Successfully deployed. Host1 boots and the added files are not present.

• Fully Register a new machine (Host2) (HP-600-G2 MT).
• Execute a full disk wipe through FOG. Write zeros to disk.
• Execute deployment task (Ubuntu16Clean) through FOG to Host2

• Image Successfully deployed. /sda2/ successfully copied. Total time ~3 minutes
  X Host2 attempts boot, but never boots from disk. Stuck cycling through FOG Network Boot menu.

• Fully Register a new machine (Host3) (HP-600-G2 MT).
• Execute a full disk wipe through FOG.
• Install Ubuntu16.04.3 with USB drive
• Capture Image.
  – Image Name: Ubuntu2
  – Operating System: Linux
  – Image Type: Multiple Partition Image, Single Disk (not resizable) - (2)
  – Partition: Everything

• Image successfully captured.

• Execute a deployment (Ubuntu2) to Host1

• Image successfully deployed.
  X Host1 now stuck in PXE loop.

Attempt recovery on Host1

• Execute a deployment (Ubuntu16Clean) to Host1

• Image successfully deployed.
  X Host1 still stuck in PXE loop

Got it,

My perspective is skewed since the vast majority of OS’s I work with are all Linux distributions.
I imagined there would be images for Ubuntu, RHEL, and others to play with and try.

A ‘fresh’ image of Ubuntu 14.04 (for example) would have been a great place for me to start imaging blank machines.
I could then build off of that ‘fresh’ image and customize my own.

As is, I will download and install an OS using a separate machine and a USB drive to get started.

Just an idea,
Thanks for clarifying!

Thanks all for the responses.
I appreciate your help!

I have now setup a very basic network with 2 hosts and 1 FOG/DHCP server.
I have successfully registered the 2 hosts and have performed a simple task: fast wipe

Things can take a long time at work : )

This has led to my next question!

Q2: Can Images be deployed that I did not capture?
This may be a core misunderstanding I have with how FOG and disk cloning works.
Is it possible to download an image for a new OS from the internet, and deploy to my hosts?
Is there a repository of ‘golden images’ that I can use?
It seems from the docs that I have to setup a ‘patient zero’ machine first, to capture its image.
But since Hardware Agnostic images seem to be possible, an online store of them seems like it could exist.
This seems roundabout, so I thought I would ask.

If we find FOG to be just what we need, I hope we can contribute something useful to the project.

Thanks Tom,

Totally understand.
Just excited to see what’s coming.

Thanks for the link.
Looks like the API development is still very fresh.

I’ll read some more.

Has anyone released a feature list or schedule?
I’m wondering what things may be available when we’re ready to start using FOG.

Hello Forum!

I’m investigating FOG for use managing a cluster of machines at work.
After a lot of reading, I decided it’s best to ask some questions directly…

Q1: Can FOG be scripted?
I’ve noticed in other threads that FOG lacks APIs and that it doesn’t have a CLI either.
Is FOG fully GUI based?
Others have mentioned ‘snapins’ as an answer to this missing feature.
Is it possible to script FOG actions so I can image a machine on command from a script?

I’ll just start with that one.

Thanks for your help,