After more troubleshooting…problem still not resolved but do notice something.

Issues is with Dell Optiplex 390

Tried on Dell Optiplex 780 it boots fine…

THOUGHTS???

Something is causing it to not exit the pxe boot.

I noticed on the 780 that once the pxe boot screen exits I see a screen that says something like…

Booting from local disk
Exiting pxe

I do not get that prompt or screen on the 390…imediately get the blinking cursor?

What was working without any config or hardware changes has failed. When my computers boot (over 360) they boot to fog menu. Time out then try to boot to windows. That is when I get a blank screen with flashing cursor in top corner. All worked perfect last week.

I have tried reimaging the computers. They take the image ok. On reboot they go to same blank screen

Read where it could be a corrupt MBR. Looked at that and don’t think that to be the issue.

I updated the bios on the pc (dell 390). No luck

I updated the kernel o. The fog server to 3.3.3. No change

If I remove the 66 and 67 options from DHCP then the clients will try to tftp boot the time out and boot into windows and finish the process of adding to the domain etc. This is why I don’t believe it to be a MBR error.

I have worked on this for two days straight and with school starting in three days I need to get all these computers imaged and back online ASAP.

Anyone out there have any ideas.

Notes of interest. We were using a multi site fog system with tftp boot capabilities at the remote end. To trouble shoot I changed the tftp boot back to the central office main server. Still get the same issues.

I have a similar issue, but it doesn’t seem to be related to the OS install. I get the black screen with blinking cursor after the fog menu. If I change bios and boot directly to the HD and skip the fog boot screen the pc boots fine. Of course this is not a solution for us as we have over 360 pcs that we need to be able to image or reimage monthly or quarterly (student lab). This setup was working fine on Thursday of last week, but on Monday all 360 pcs only boot to flashing cursor. Ideas?

Solved:
OK, as I said in the last post this is a secondary node with a master storage node for images. I had updated the image and uploaded it directly to the secondary storage node, but the main storage node at the central office still had the previous version of the image. Jus to test I uploaded the image file from the secondary node back up to the main node and tried to multicast again. It worked at it should! Note to self: Always upload to main storage node fresh images and let them replicate down to the secondary nodes at the schools.

Update: I am able to pull an image via multicast from the Main Fog Server at the central office. But the image that is local here to the school on the storage node will not pull via multicast, but will pull unicast. Going to recheck settings on this local server. It is set up to be a tftp booting storage node. As it is working fine tftp booting, it is just not sending out the multicast traffic as it should.

Any ideas or log files that I can look at? I have still got about 300 computers to image and unicast is just too time consuming for this project.

No. Would not even work to single multicast client. And yes it did work. Just last week I got it setup and working great. Imaged about 30 computers in a little over 5 min with Win 7. That was Last Thursday. Went back today planning to do the same on 3 more labs and this is what I ran into. It adds to tasks and then clears within 10-15 seconds.

I can still unicast but that takes about 30-40 min per every 15 machines. So not good.

I create a new multicast task. Before the job starts the active task clears. Here is a copy of the multicast log.

[07-25-12 9:23:22 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:22 am] I am the group manager.
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] Checking if I am the group manager.
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] I am the group manager.
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room is new!
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room image file found.
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room 26 clients found.
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:32 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room sending on base port: 63158
[07-25-12 9:23:32 am] CMD:
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:37 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room failed to start!
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] | * Don’t panic, check all your settings!
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] | even if the interface is incorrect the task won’t start.
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] | If all else fails run the following command and see what it says:
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] |
[07-25-12 9:23:37 am] | [07-25-12 9:23:37 am] Task (30) CHS-40-Room has been cleaned.
[07-25-12 9:23:47 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:47 am] Checking if I am the group manager.
[07-25-12 9:23:47 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:47 am] I am the group manager.
[07-25-12 9:23:57 am] * [07-25-12 9:23:57 am] Checking if I am the group manager.

Hi, I am having the same issues you have with only being able to multicast one client. I am not versed well in php. Can you send me a little more details about where in the file you inserted the address and maybe a screenshot.

Ok, I made the changes to the storage groups and nodes. So now my school storage node is in its own group and is the master of that group. I am getting further in one sense. I am now seeing on the multicast log on the school node where it is trying to kick off the multicast session (I also see the same on the central office server), but I still only get the “please wait” on the workstations trying to image. I even went in and put a maxwait value of 300 in the config.php file and that doesn’t kick it off either. If you come up with anymore suggestions/ideas I would appreciate it. Your last comment at least go me a little further.