The wiki on migration covers migrating a single FOG server using the only workable process, so I’ll leave that alone.
I think my issue with the entire “Server Migration” process is that it requires you take FOG down at the onset of the process - before you attempt to install FOG on the new server. This obviously stops all the PC IT maintenance processes FOG provides IT support, but also FOG’s benefits to the end users of the hosts, until the new server/system is back up and working.
I’ve used FOG on a fairly large scale - some instances have 10+ remote sites, each with its own FOG Storage Node. To say that shutting it down before starting migration is inconvenient to the business is an understatement. Storage node migration didn’t require that the storage node had use the same IP as the old storage node - so that helped.
I hope that my initial post to you comes up when other FOG users search “FOG Migration”, so they don’t waste the time I did trying to build a completely new FOG system, including storage nodes, to cut over to, only to find that you can image PCs and create new hosts, but the exiting host would not talk to the new server system - so all the existing host configuration is lost (a large chunk of work). Ironically, there are numerous FOG wikis that address most issues that I ran into - creating new certs, the ever-present Reset Encryption on the FOG Client, etc., but none mentioned that the CA of the old system HAD to be used in place of the new.
I’m glad there was some way forward without having to reconfigure everything manually, but like many things in FOG wikis, everything in them is true, but context and limitations are not defined at the beginning. Even the migration process link didn’t spell out requirements, nor include remote sites and storage nodes. It needs to spell out that harvesting the CA and certs and using the old server’s IP address are as important as the database, snapins, and images - and this is the ONLY way to migrate.
So - a suggestion to the great minds working on FOG:
Create a way to change the FOG Client CA in one step - delete old and replace new - from within the FOG Client. This could be something issued from the old FOG server, for security reasons. CA deletion should also be built into the FOG Client Installation MSI/EXE. I use FOG to build portable Windows images that are company and FOG server independent. The FOG client is installed at the initial boot and replaced in the image as FOG evolves.
If that capability could be added, migration would be possible such that the new system w database, snapins, images, host configs, could be build out with multi-storage nodes and multi-locations, side-by-side with the old FOG system, gated only by DHCP boot settings at each site (IP broadcast space).
Jim Graczyk
