@george1421 thank you for your responses. The timeout is fine the way it is, as long as I understand how it functions. Just need to turn it up while I join 100 clients to it. ;-) Though, since you say it’s probably a layer 8 problem on the group based multicast, I’ll try to find the time to run a few experiments on my side and see if it’s now working. I have a fairly simple network (air gaped single subnet educational lab), so that shouldn’t be the issue.

The repeating multicast would be handy but, as you say, there are certainly potential issues there as well. Again, as long as I understand the mechanic I can work with it! Thanks again for your answers(and all your help in the past as well).

Philip

Good afternoon,

I’ve been using FOG for a year or two now and love it. However, one thing that still confounds me is how the multicast feature works. I have a couple (semi)specific questions:

1. How does the ‘Timeout’ function? In previous imagine solutions I’ve used every time you join a new client to the multicast it restarts the timeout, but that doesn’t seem to fit the way I see FOG multicasts function.

2. If clients don’t join catch the multicast before the timeout hits, they seem to just sit there patiently, not doing anything. Will the multicast restart at the end of the push, thereby catching the latecomers?

3. I’ve tried using the ‘Multicast to group’ feature in the past(I think one version ago), but it never worked for me(and seemed to be broken on the coding side from feedback I had got at the time), and I haven’t tried with the current release, is it more functional at this point? Or is it a layer 8 issue on my side?

I appreciate your patience and responses, I know most of this I could probably figure out by trial and error, but I’m extremely multi-hatted and short on time(aren’t we all?) and sometimes it’s easier just to get feedback from those who know rather than experimenting myself. (also, I hope these haven’t been answered before, I tried to search but that link seems to be broken for me…)

Philip

I know this is an old topic, just wanted to reiterate that this fixed my problem. The weird thing is that this wasn’t a problem until today. Been using Fog with the same laptops, same basic install of Windows 10 for around 1.5 years now, and today was the first time I saw this error. Went and turned off fast boot and it works great. Yay for forum search functions. ;-)

Philip

@vascomorais Seems like your question has mostly been answered, but I wanted to pipe in on your comment ‘I can ask the forum’. YES! These forums are amazing. There are numerous people(Including senior developers) that will respond quickly and intelligently and assist you with problems you have with the system. I can’t say enough good about this community.

Hope FOG works for you, it’s been a lifesaver for me and my organization!

Philip

@tom-elliott Updated the production server and it is now multicasting. As a side note though I tried to start a ‘test’ session of multicast, the same name I had used pre-update, and it did the same thing(started and instant ended). But if I picked a new name that I hadn’t used before, it appeared to start and wait for connections normally.

Philip

@walkerit To expound a bit on @Quazz 's comment, I ran into this yesterday myself. There’s two different config locations that I found needed to be updated. One of them I’m led to believe will only come into play if you update the server, but the other (export? https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Change_NFS_location) is what was causing my permission issues.

Hope that clears it up when you do change your storage location.

Philip

@tom-elliott Here to report that the working branch appears to have fixed the issue. Currently have two clients imaging off of a multicast.

As a continuation of this: Are there any known things you’ve broken in the working path that means I shouldn’t just update my production server with it and have the added ease of functional Multicast?(Yes, I understand its the working path and no promises can be made, just asking if there’s any known issues. :-)

Philip

Sounds good. I’ll get working on that and let you know what I find.

Philip

@tom-elliott Since I just rebuilt one of my physical machines(thanks unnamed agency for delaying my harddrive order for 3 months and causing my RAID to fail) I can probably throw up another virtual server and try the working branch. Never used it though, get it through Github also? If I clone my current VM, can I just upgrade it with the working branch?

Philip

Just chiming in here that I also have this problem with a new FOG server install. Multicasts instantly end as soon as they’re started. For me not a huge issue, as I’m usually only imaging 20ish computers at a time, but it’s definitely not a problem isolated to @Solkre.

Philip