Posts made by chad-bisd

Jimmy, create a new thread and include your Linux distro and version, FOG version, and error messages you are seeing.

If the image type is not single-partition, resizable, the base FOG code does not update the task status until it finishes. There is a quick code change that will enable showing of progress for multiple partition, single disk images.

I don’t think the code is in place yet to show progress on upload tasks either.

When you first boot Windows 8.1 from ISO/USB, make sure you go into audit mode (ctrl+shift+f3) to install all your software and make personalization changes to the default profile.

Also, [B]DO NOT UPDATE APPS FROM THE STORE IN AUDIT MODE![/B] I don’t know if they’ve fixed it yet, but if you update apps from the Windows Store in audit mode, it will break sysprep later.

In Audit mode, install, configure all your apps and settings. Take an image of this setup and call it [imagename]-audit. You’ll want to keep this pristine unactivated/unre-armed image available so you can do updates without breaking office/windows activation.

Make sure your “audit” image deploys and comes up in audit mode on other hardware. Just make sure there are no surprises before we irreversibly change this image with sysprep.

If you audit mode image deployed fine, then it’s time to setup the system for OOBE and sysprep it. I have a SetupComplete.cmd file that deletes the unattend.xml files from the system and activates windows and office and does some other clean up. Copy your SetupComplete.cmd file to c:\windows\setup\scripts.

Copy your unattend.xml file to %windir%\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml

Rearm office 2010/2013 if needed
verify rearm worked before proceeding. If rearm fails, does not run sysprep yet. fix office.

Run sysprep passing it the options you need: /generalize /shutdown /oobe /unattend:\path\to\unattend.xml

After sysprep shuts the machine down, change the image associate for this host to the [imagename]-oobe, then upload the image.

If you need to update the image, push out the [imagename]-audit version of the image. Then get it ready for sysprep again and sysprep and upload it to the [imagename]-oobe version of the image.

I have to keep to version of the image because Office can only be re-armed so many times before it fails. If you don’t rearm office, your KMS count will not be right and the software may deactivate. Same for Windows, but it comes with 999 rearms if you use the ISO from the VLSC download, and it’s unlikely you’ll ever hit the 999 rearm limit for Windows.

I have another thread where I uploaded my script and files that I use to get an “audit” mode image ready for sysprep so it’s basically push audit mode image, update whatever setting or software I need. Upload to new “audit” mode, reboot, change image associate to oobe mode, run scripts to copy files and sysprep, then upload oobe image.

Writing it out like this makes it sound much more complicated than it really is. Once you learn a few basic concepts of sysprep and make a few tools to automate the commands, it’s really very simple and quick to create and deploy, or update and deploy these images.

And yes, we have to use sysprep, not so FOG will work, but so that Windows will activate and interact with KMS, WSUS, and possibly other software that requires unique identifiers per system that you just can’t get with traditional “non-sysprepped” cloning. Also, if microsoft finds out that you didn’t sysprep before cloning, they won’t help resolve any issues you might be having with the system. It basically becomes unsupported at that point.

You just need to fake it. Run a mysql script that updates the hostOS and hostImage values, create the pxe file for the host and create the task record in the database. Then call the wol.php file from the command line with the mac address of the host you want to wake up.

To get you started, associate the host with one image and OS, create a deploy task with the machine off/unplugged. Then inspect the /tftpboot/01-[mac-address] file for the options. Then query mysql tasks table for the values you’ll need there.

In windows, you need to configure the card. You can either go through device manager or network and sharing center, change adapter settings, properties of the NIC, click the “configure” button just below the “connect using” box. It may be on the advanced or power management tab.

“Wake on LAN” “Wake system from S5” “Allow this device to wake the computer” or similar. There may be other choices about only allow magic packet, just depending on the card and the driver.

If you’re using the default driver installed by Windows, your choices may be more limited. Try to get the board/chipset specific driver for the LAN card from the manufacturer.

If you do not have an existing PXE server and cannot modify your existing DHCP server, you can install proxyDHCP so FOG answers all DHCP client requests for PXE boot information with the information necessary to boot to FOG. Using proxyDHCP, your existing DHCP server handles all the IP address leases, but FOG also answers requests from PXEClient with additional information to allow them to boot.

There are some patches to FOG created by the community that allow you to select which HD/partition to image. Search the forums because I don’t remember right now.

My success with WOL is spotty at best. Some of the computers I have wake up without much configuration. Just go into the bios and enable WOL.

Some desktops I have require me to configure the BIOS to WOL, then configure the adapter in Windows to allow WOL, then they only work if you soft shut down the machine (Start->Shut Down). If I turn the machine off via the power supply, or if I unplug the system to move it, WOL no longer works until Windows is booted and the system goes back into soft shutdown.

All that is to say, play with the settings in the BIOS and in the OS to see what’s going on. And lest I forget, WOL may not work across subnets without additional configuration.

You will get driver warnings/errors because the kernel tries to load drivers even if the particular hardware isn’t present. It just does this to try to cover as many different computers as possible. If it works, you can ignore the warnings and errors about drivers not loading or not detecting the device it may be looking for.

I don’t know if scheduled tasks include the WOL call that non-scheduled tasks have.

woohoo!

Are you running proxy DHCP server on the novell system? I remember our old Novell Configuration Management server had a proxy process that helped machines connect with PXE. I had to modify our FOG setup to use ProxyDHCP so that come clients would pxe-boot because they failed to download the initial file over TFTP (bad chunk error). Some of the systems are running realtek nics, the others are using ASIX usb-to-ethernet adapters.

Check that TFTP is working by PXE-booting a system you know normally works with FOG. If you don’t have issues with that, then it’s probably something specific to PXE ROM on nic of the board. Let’s make sure TFTP is working for other systems before we delve into troubleshooting this one client.

I have files for Win8x32 also, they are similar except for activation is done with ADBA instead of KMS.

My sysprep cheat sheet (forget the mountains of documentation scattered around MS websites):

Win7 basic guide: [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh825212.aspx#AnswerFile[/url]
Win7 unattended installation: [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744272(v=ws.10).aspx[/url]
Win7 skip welcome junk in OOBE: [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744547(v=ws.10).aspx[/url]
Win7 fix Media Player/Sysprep bug: [url]http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee676648(v=ws.10).aspx[/url]

I’ve attached my 3 files that I use. The unattend xml file can be loaded into your WSIM so you can set the administrator password or add default users. The setupcomplete should mostly work without being modified. The copyfiles-run-sysprep should work without modifications also. Just make sure all 3 files are in the same folder before you run the copyfiles command.

If you have questions, ask.

[url=“/_imported_xf_attachments/0/456_Win7x32-Sysprep.zip?:”]Win7x32-Sysprep.zip[/url]

Like Tom said, recovery of the computer inventory is not really a FOG issue, but more of a mysql recovery issue. You’ll need to look on the mysql documentation for how to recover a database from the files. The method depends on which storage engine the database was using. You can probably look at your current database and assume the old one was using the same engine (InnoDB, MyISAM, etc).

We use a few products from Faronics: Deep Freeze and Anti-Virus. Deep Freeze locks a machine into a state and resets that machine on every reboot. Wipes out all changes to the machine, kind of like throwing away a change disk on a VM. I don’t think it yet protects the MBR if you get a super nasty virus, but with FOG, you can just re-image. The Faronics AV integrates with Deep Freeze and allows definition and engine updates, as well as virus quarantine/removal even while frozen.

As far as setting up FOG for your workgroup without interfering with the existing WDS and DHCP, you have some options. Can you explain how your library computers are connected back the main network or internet (Layer 2/Layer 3 switch, router, etc). How is your network addressing divided? Are the library computers on their own subnet?

Even if the network admins don’t want to reconfigure DHCP to work with FOG, you can still get FOG to listen to and answer requests from PXE boot clients in your local subnet.

With Windows 7 and Windows 8, it’s much easier to use Sysprep. I create images for each hardware platform as I have not yet figured out driverpacks. I have a sysprep answer file for Win7x32 and one for Win8x32, and a helper script that runs commands to copy my answer file and setupcomplete file, and to rearm Office 2010/2013 before running sysprep and shutting down the machine.

A high level overview of my procedure is:

1. Start Windows setup, go until it reboots and asks for a computer and user name
2. Hit ctrl+shift+f3 to restart in audit mode
3. load programs, update local group policy
4. shut down and take a pre-sysprep image, an “audit-mode” image
5. push the image I just made to a second machine to verify it works and comes up in audit mode
6. run my helper script that copies files, rearms office, and starts sysprep with the proper command line args.
7. upload this to a new image as the “oobe image” for this hardware.
8. set clients to use the oobe image and deploy

My FOG service is stopped and set to manual so it doesn’t try to rename/join domain while I’m loading software. My answer file has all the options setup so it doesn’t prompt for anything during the oobe prompt. My setupcomplete scripts activates windows and office either against KMS or against our AD (Active Directory Based Activation), sets the FOG server back to auto, starts the FOG service, and FOG then renames and joines the computer to the domain.

I have a checklist of software and settings that I can load for each platform depending on if it’s a student, teacher, or lab computer, and what campus it’s on. Since we use Deep Freeze to secure out student and lab computers (and some admins/teachers that like coupon printers and fake news websites) we cannot easily push out software after the machines leave the technology department.

after you add a root password to mysql, read the wiki article on updating FOG to use the new password when accessing the database, otherwise FOG may quit working until you update the config files.

You’ll need sysprep if you want to use KMS, WSUS, or almost any other microsoft management system. Sysprep was difficult to figure out, and I still haven’t done it all, but I am comfortable with it now and have my process worked out where I can create a new image from scratch in a few hours.

Didn’t someone on the boards already get FOG server working on a Rasperry Pi board with a external HDD for storage?