Introduction

First I have to say this article contains the results of many brilliant people and is not my content. I’m only assembling this information into a consistent document instead of spread around buried in posts and responses. My intent is to not dig into the details behind the scripts or how to tweak them for your needs. You can read the links below to figure out why things are being done the way they are. I wanted to create a tutorial that was as close to a cut and paste to get driver injection going in your environment. Now I will primarily focus on Dell hardware for the main reason that Dell does supply driver archive files (known as .CABs) that can be downloaded and extracted quickly to create the driver structure. I’m sure that HP, Lenovo, and others have similar driver packs.

You can download the Dell driver cabs for your hardware from here: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/2065.dell-command-deploy-driver-packs-for-enterprise-client-os-deployment

Reference links:
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/4278/utilizing-postscripts-rename-joindomain-drivers-snapins
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7740/the-magical-mystical-fog-post-download-script-under-construction
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7740/the-magical-mystical-fog-post-download-script
https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/8878/fog-drivers-script-will-not-run-correctly-in-postdownloadscripts/46

In this series if posts I plan on outlining what the FOG post download script is, what its about, and how to use it to your advantage with image deployment.

I’ve debated with myself if another post was needed since Lee https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/4278/utilizing-postscripts-rename-joindomain-drivers-snapins and I https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7391/deploying-a-single-golden-image-to-different-hardware-with-fog have written tutorial about them in the past.

Where I want to explore with this series of posts is more about the background behind its function and to cover some of the script elements from Lee’s and my previously linked tutorials.

First of all lets get a little background here and some terminology defined. The FOG image deployment system consists of three main components:

1. The FOG management environment. The FOG management environment is the FOG server itself, which is responsible for planning, scheduling, instructing and documenting the image deployment.
2. The FOS (FOG OS) target engine {need better name here}. The FOS target engine, or FOS (as it will be known in this document) is responsible for capturing and deploying images from the defined storage node, as well as other actions on the target computer. FOS is actually an FOG Project created high performance linux operating system that was specifically constructed to image target computers. We have to remember for the rest of the tutorial, FOS is a linux based operating system that is used to deploy any OS image to your target computer.
3. FOG Client. This is an add on utility service for windows and linux, which is installed on the final or target OS. The FOG Client queries the FOG server for instructions and actions. I’m not planning on discussing the FOG client during this tutorial since it is out of scope in regards to post installation scripting.

The FOG Post install scripts give FOG system admins the ability to inject actions in the image creation process. To allow this custom scripts to run the developers added an external call into the image deployment sequence. Just after the image is placed on the target computer’s storage device, the FOG server calls a script in the /images/postdownloadscripts directory (on the FOG server). That script is called fog.postdownload. The fog.postdownload script is created when the FOG Server is installed. In its default state the script doesn’t do anything much. It is just a place holder to call your custom post install scripts. As I mentioned the fog deployment process calls this fog.postdownload bash script just after the image is placed on the target computer’s storage device. Once all of the external post install scripts have completed the FOG server completes the imaging and data recording steps.

While the post install scripts are stored on the FOG server in the /images/postinstall directory, they are executed by FOS running on the target host. So you have to remember when writing your post install scripts, they execute from the perspective of the target host. The post install scripts have limited access to resources on the FOG server (outside of the /images directory), but have full access to the target host. As noted above, these scripts run on a linux OS, so any resource (programs) available to linux operating systems can be run against the target host. I want to make this distinction to make it clear that FOS is linux and not MS Windows based. So you can not run MS Windows based applications, like DISM, in your post install script. FOS and linux is very powerful, but also limiting in some ways. As long as you are aware that MS Windows based applications can not run in a post install script then you should have little trouble. There are some cross over applications that are compiled for both MS Windows and linux, you just need to ensure you have the correct application for the OS and architecture (IA32 or X64).

The developers found this issue to why the log file grew so big (after almost a year of log file collection). The log file will now be capped at the log file maximum set by the fog configuration settings. This was just a fluke case that caused this file to grow to an abnormal size.

The fix / log file limiting code will be in 1.3.5RC11 when its released.

What you need to understand that the FOS Engine (the customized linux operating system that captures and deployed images on the target computer) is a complete linux OS. It is built with 2 halves. The first part is the the kernel (bzImage) which contains the core linux functions as well as the compiled in device drivers. And the second part is the virtual hard drive (inits) which contains the linux utilities, programs, and fog command scripts. When you PXE boot a target computer into the iPXE menu, certain iPXE menu options will send the bzImage and inits files to the target computer. The iPXE menu will also send specific kernel parameters to tell the FOS Engine (linux) how to react when it boots.

You can take the FOS Engine (bzImage and inits) and just as easily boot directly from a usb flash if you use grub as your boot loader. The FOS Engine will boot from the USB stick without requiring the FOG server to be online. The FOS Engine won’t do much without the proper kernel parameters being passed from the FOG server. But in the end FOS is a specialized, high performance, standalone linux OS.

Now for specifics, I don’t have the details from inside FOS, but I suspect there is something in /etc/init.d that calls the main fog script called /bin/fog that script. The fog master script reads in the passed kernel parameters and then selects the proper task to execute.

Preface

The bits I’m going to cover here are the general outline of what needs to be done to create and deploy a hardware independent image across your fleet of computers. In this tutorial I’m going to discuss how to do this with Dell computers. I know this process works with Lenovo, Intel NUC, and a few others with some caveats. I’m going to touch on some steps that you need to do in MDT to build your universal reference image, but I’m not going to discuss how to setup MDT to create your reference images. There are plenty of examples on the internet on how to do this.

This process makes use of a custom script that gets executed post image deployment but prior to the reboot of the FOS client. This step is vial since we need to make some tweaks to the windows environment pre first windows boot. This is the key. I can’t/won’t share that script I created because of my contract with my employer, because it is derived work because of my employment. So that script is intellectual property of my company. I’ve held the job title of unemployed, its not a great title. The pay stinks, the stress level is high, but the hours are great. I don’t plan on going there any time soon, so no script for you. BUT, sitting here on my zorin (ubuntu) dell laptop I should be able to reverse engineer the important parts to give the crafty scripters here the tools they need to create their own post install script.

Our master image is created following the standard Microsoft SOE guidelines, meaning MDT to build the reference image, sysprep to reseal the image, use a custom unattend.xml file (required to make this process work for Win10) and some disk imaging tool to capture and deploy the image to the target hardware. In this process sysprep is mandatory since we want to create a single image that can be deployed to any hardware. The generalize process of sysprep removes all hardware references (for the reference image) so that when windows first boots it goes through the hardware discovery process. Without sysprepping the image the process I’m going to discuss will not work. So use sysprep.

When I started out creating this process for FOG, I began with the process we created for deploying Windows XP from a usb stick using Ghost. In that process we would automate the image deployment with ghost to lay a hardware independent image onto the target hardware and then detect the current hardware using a DOS program that would query smbios to get the target hardware. Then once the target hardware was known we would move the correct driver pack into a location where windows would find it on the first boot. This worked extremely well with Windows XP. So I took the knowledge that I had from that process and tried to do something similar with FOG.

I do have to say I did not think up this entire process all by my self. I did start the design base on the information found on this wiki page. https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Auto_driver_Install This page and associated scripts gave me just what I needed to take our xp/ghost process and covert it to windows 7/FOG. So without that wiki page the remainder could not be possible.

@julianh A SSD for only the OS will not add much value making FOG go fast. The critical data path is from /images -> nfs -> network -> target computer.

NOTE: Changes in FOG's code since this article was written have made it harder to use NAS' as storage node with FOG. If you use a NAS with FOG 1.5.x and beyond the FOG replicator will continue to cycle and recopy files over and over again.

Part 1 NAS Setup

So far I’ve setup what should work from the synology NAS side of the fog storage node. This has NOT been proven to work just yet. So far the synology nas has been configured to what “should work”. On my test NAS I’m using DSM 6.0.

The following is just my short hand notes that will be used to create the actual tutorial. I’m out of time tonight to complete the docs for this.

The first thing we need to do is setup our NAS with the required network shares. To do this you need access to the Synology NAS’s web console. Log into the web console as admin and do the following.

1. Control Panel->Shared Folder
   Create new share
   Name: images
   Location: volume 1
   Checked Hide this shared folder in My Network Places
   Checked Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions
   Press OK
   NFS Permission (tab)
   Create new Permission
   Hostname or IP: *
   Privilege: Read/Write
   Squash: No mapping
   Security: sys
   Checked Enable asynchronous
   Checked Allow users to access mounted subfolders

2. Control Panel->Shared Folder
   Create new share
   Name: snapins
   Location: volume 1
   Checked Hide this shared folder in My Network Places
   Checked Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions
   Press OK
   NFS Permision (tab)
   Create new Permission
   Hostname or IP: *
   Privilege: Read/Write
   Squash: No mapping
   Security: sys
   Checked Enable asynchronous

3. Control Panel->Shared Folder
   Create new Share
   Name: tftpboot
   Location: volume 1
   Checked Hide this shared folder in My Network Places
   Checked Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions
   Press OK
   NFS Permission (tab)
   Create new Permission (we only need this nfs shared for setting up the storage node)
   Hostname or IP: *
   Privilege: Read/Write
   Squash: No mapping
   Security: sys
   Checked Enable asynchronous

4. Control Panel->File Services
   Select Win/Mac/NFS (tab)
   Checked Enable NFS

5. Control Panel->File Services
   Select FTP (tab)
   Checked Enable FTP service (no encryption)
   Checked Use the default port range

6. Control Panel->File Services
   Select TFTP (tab)
   Checked Enable TFTP service
   TFTP root folder: tftpboot (this is the share name we created above)

7. Control Panel->User
   Select User (tab)
   Create user foguser
   Name: foguser
   Description: FOG User
   Password: fogremote1 (pick your own secure password)
   Conform Password: fogremote1
   Checked Disallow the user to change account password
   Press Next
   Join to group: users
   Press Next
   images: RW
   snapins: RW
   tftpboot: RO
   Press Next
   (Assign quota as needed)
   Press Next
   Assign application permissions: None
   Press Next
   Speed limiting: None
   Press Next
   Press Apply

8. Control Panel->User
   Select the Advanced (tab)
   (scroll way at bottom)
   Under User Home
   Checked Enable user home service
   Press Apply

That completes the setup of the Synology NAS.

In the next part we’ll test the network shares we setup above and create the remaining flag files and directory structure needed to transform the Synology NAS into a FOG storage node.

@oraniko What hardware are you using?

On my campus I have 15 standard hardware where I deploy 1 image to then and then copy the appropriate driver files during FOG imaging.

Ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7391/deploying-a-single-golden-image-to-different-hardware-with-fog
Ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/8889/fog-post-install-script-for-win-driver-injection
Ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/7740/the-magical-mystical-fog-post-download-script
Ref: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/4278/utilizing-postscripts-rename-joindomain-drivers-snapins

Setting up the foundation for installation

Hopefully this setup will be pretty clean and easy (just hoping…)

In this tutorial, I’ve personally setup each distribution and booted it into a virtual machine. I didn’t run the installer to completion, but I did ensure the installer was running as far as I took the install (unless otherwise noted).

These setups were only tested with a bios (legacy mode) target computer. They WILL NOT work with uefi systems. For uefi based systems they have their own kernel requirements and options. The intent of this tutorial was to show its possible to boot your installation media via pxe booting.

First we need to setup the storage locations for our boot images. The plan is to put the installation media on the /images nfs share and the boot kernel and initfs in the tftp boot directory.

mkdir /images/os
mkdir /tftpboot/os
mkdir /mnt/loop

For the foundation setup that should do it. On to the OS specific configuration…

Link to Windows 7 & Windows 10 BIOS Mode Only
Link WinPE 10 for BIOS and UEFI based systems
Link to Centos 7
Link to Ubuntu 16.04.03
Link to Ubuntu Desktop 19.10
Link to Ubuntu Server 19.10
Link to Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop
Link to Ubuntu 16.04.03
Link to Linux Mint 18.1
Link to Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon
Link to Debian 9.2
Link to OpenSuSE Leap 42.3
Link to Fedora Workstation v26
Link to Fedora Workstation v27
Link to Ubuntu Desktop 17.10
Link to installing Samba on your FOG server
Link to Kali Live 2017.3
Link to ESXi v6.5u1
Link to ESXi v6.7u2
Link to SystemRescueCd 5.2.2 x64
Link to GParted 0.33.0 x86
Veeam Agent Rescue DVD

@ITSolutions said

Disadvantages in my personal opinion are few:

• Need to have Linux knowledge(although having Linux knowledge is a advantage in the industry)
  The other disadvantages I used to see, when I first found FOG in the .3x days have been corrected/added. I would like to see what others feel are disadvantages.

I can see the linux knowledge thing being a big issue for those that grew up in the MS Windows era. Once the system is setup you don’t need to step into linux at all. But every once an a while you need access to the linux command shell, so you will need someone in your company with some familiarity with linux.

Other things I can see that are limitations…
Access control. Right now there isn’t a real good way to limit what IT techs can do in the system. Like certain IT techs can only deploy images 1,2,3 to location C only.

Having a centralized login authentication system with either AD/LDAP.

Linux hardware drivers lag a bit behind windows drivers. The fact is that most hardware vendors develop hardware for the windows folks and then it seems like linux is either an after thought or some really smart linux people hack into the hardware and come up with their own linux drivers. (thinking about the surface pro 4 as I write this).

@Sebastian-Roth how would the OP get the inits for 1.5.9RC2 without having to upgrade to the dev branch. Normally we would just download the inits using https://fogproject.org/binaries1.5.8.zip for the GA release?

There is a solution for this, it is to use a post install script to update the unattend.xml file on the target computer. This is how I use fog. I don’t use the fog client because the OU and host name are calculated at deployment time.

The basis of this is documented here: https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/8889/fog-post-install-script-for-win-driver-injection

I know the tread is a bit cluttered now, but look at the very top post then scroll to the bottom for the remainder of the posts. Pay special attention to this script fog.ad it has what you need to update the unattend.xml script on the target computer.

Ok I’m a bit at a loss where its getting stuck.

You can pxe boot it into the iPXE menu, pick full inventory and it work or not?

I clear screen shot of the actual error would help to identify the context of the error.

@Sebastian-Roth So is the recommendation for the OP to switch to the dev branch and try version 1.5.9RC2?

@Sckendall said in PXE legacy boot não funciona somente em um modelo de computador:

Now let’s see, maybe I should be confused about things. Is there a distinction between BIOS computers, which you also call “legacy”, for UEFI computers? Isn’t it simply an option that changes in the firmware setup? If so, how could I identify each system?

Well this change is important to know because the program to start up FOG changes because of the firmware type of the computer. The same actually holds true for Windows. There is a different OS startup program for bios and uefi. If the computer is bios you need for FOG to send the name undionly.kpxe to the target computer. If the computer is uefi you need to send ipxe.efi startup file name.

In pfsense if you use it for dhcp, it supports dynamic boot files. I can’t tell you exactly from memory but in the dhcp server there is a pxe or netboot section. In that section there are 3 edit boxes. One is for bios(legacy) one is for uefi 64 bit and one for uefi 32 bit.

bios: undionly.kpxe
uefi64: ipxe.efi
uefi32: i386/ipxe.efi

Lets start with some background. There is a specific boot loader needed for each firmware type. For bios (legacy) computers you need to send boot file name undionly.kpxe to the computer. For uefi systems you need to send ipxe.efi to the target computer. You can not boot a bios computer with the uefi boot loader and the reverse is the same.

Some dhcp servers support dynamic boot files (windows 2012 and later, linux, and pfsense routers, others do but let me stop there). You can configure these dhcp server to send the proper boot file because of the pxe booting computer. We have instructions on setting up windows dhcp and linux here: https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/BIOS_and_UEFI_Co-Existence

I have seen where if your network switch that these computers are plugged into has standard spanning tree enabled you may get no configuration method available in the iPXE screen. In this case you need to change your network switch to support one of the fast spanning tree protocols (portfast, RSTP, MSTP, fastSTP, or what ever your switch manufacturer calls it).

If your fog server and pxe booting computing is on the same subnet we can run a packet capture program to capture the pxe booting process for debugging purposes if we can’t find the problem before then.

@shaynes Ok if you have a flat network lets go get a pcap (packet capture) of the pxe booting process. If the FOG server and the pxe booting computer are on the same subnet then you can use the FOG server to collect this pcap. https://forums.fogproject.org/topic/9673/when-dhcp-pxe-booting-process-goes-bad-and-you-have-no-clue

This pcap will tell us who the actors are in this pxe booting process. Upload it to the fog forum or upload the pcap to a file share site (like google drive) and either post the link here or IM me the link via forum chat.

Now the files the tftp server uses on the fog server should be /tftpboot. You should be able to request these files from another linux server or OSX server with get <fogserverip> -c get ipxe.efi That should transfer the file to the local computer.

well I’m a bit confused where to start debugging here, but lets start with DHCP.

On your main dhcp server what exactly do you have configured for dhcp options 66 and 67?

The target computer you are attempting to PXE boot, is it a bios based or uefi based computer?

@mwilcox said in Isolated dnsmasq Setup:

That is indeed what broke the install, there was a thread here that helped me figure it out.

So I’m not sure if this is considered a bug, or the system telling you; hey guy do you really want to do this??

So now you have your FOG server spanning both networks and a dedicated imaging network setup. And on that imaging network you can pxe boot into the iPXE menu?

Understand that dedicated imaging network subnet range shall not be used anywhere else in your network. If it is then pick a new range.

@mwilcox OK I have a better picture of your situation. I think a clean install on a current host OS for fog is probably the best. If you want run the latest version of Ubuntu you will need to be on the FOG dev branch, but that’s easy to switch before you install FOG.

Your new FOG server will need 2 interfaces setup before you install FOG. One will need to be on the business LAN that has internet access and the other on the dedicated imaging network. You will want to assign a static IP address to your imaging network nic AND know the linux name of the nic before you install FOG since the installer will ask you what interface to use. The business LAN nic can be static or dhcp defined. I think I would make it static just to keep things from moving about. FOG doesn’t like it when you moving the IP address of the imaging interface after FOG is installed so make sure you have that IP and your imaging subnet defined before you install FOG.

The installer will ask if you want to install the dhcp server, answer yes and the installer will install and setup the isc-dhcp server on the imaging network.

Once the setup is complete then you should be able to attach a physical computer to the dedicated imaging network and get to the fog ipxe menu.

When you get this far then we can talk about the next bit of getting access to the business network from the imaging network.