Posts made by Jezzer

Hi,
Not an issue really but something I’m hoping to improve on. I have FOG running in a VBOX on my laptop and I aim to “directly” rebuild systems using FOG in the VM directly attached through a CAT 6 cable. Have tested this with a very old laptop a fairly old laptop and also a new one and its really good! especially with the no host reg tweak so can just fire off from a menu of options!!! I have the notion this wont work everywhere so have also learnt how to deploy the fog images through partition image and parted magic if I need to. Been a great little project and cant wait to let it race in the wild!!! However …

When I am not connected to any network moving around in the fog GUI TAKES FOORREVERRRRR, I assume its to do with DHCP or something looking for something (technical I know!) but I was hoping there might be a way to stop it lagging everytime I go offline!? Thanks for any tips guys…

I have this working now in a fashion, see what you think, thoughts would be good

1. All fog images need to be Multiple Partition Non Re Size. Give you the MBR file which is essential.
2. Use this command to load the mbr onto target disk [SIZE=12px][FONT=Courier][COLOR=#000000]sudo dd if=/pathtoimages/d1.mbr of=/dev/sda[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
3. The disk now has the exact layout of the cloned disk about to be imaged.
4. Load image files over the top of the partitions needing imaging. e.g. (win 7 machnie)

after MBR loading disk will have say dev/sda1 (reserved) and dev/sda2. Just load images d1p1 over sda1 and d1p2 over sda2.

Note. Resize in gparted will force a chkdsk in windows…if you leave resize till in windows no force check disk on first boot.

Tested with 7 , vista and XP images. All working.
7 looped a couple of time with the black and white boot manager window before then settling down and installing. Not sure why? But tested 3 or 4 times and it only happens once after loading.

I have this working now in a fashion, see what you think, any thoughts , improvements, would be good

1. All fog images need to be Multiple Partition Non Re Size. Give you the MBR file which is essential.
2. Use this command to load the mbr onto target disk [SIZE=12px][FONT=Courier][COLOR=#000000]sudo dd if=/pathtoimages/d1.mbr of=/dev/sda[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]
3. The disk now has the exact layout of the cloned disk about to be imaged.
4. Load image files over the top of the partitions needing imaging. e.g. (win 7 machnie)

after MBR loading disk will have say dev/sda1 (reserved) and dev/sda2. Just load images d1p1 over sda1 and d1p2 over sda2.

Note. Resize in gparted will force a chkdsk in windows…if you leave resize till in windows no force check disk on first boot.

Tested with 7 , vista and XP images. All working.
7 looped a couple of time with the black and white boot manager window before then settling down and installing. Not sure why? But tested 3 or 4 times and it only happens once after loading.

Keep hitting this problem guys…

I made a image of windows 7 32 bit starter in a virtualbox using a dynamically expanding VHD disk.
After reading around the forum I gather its best to chkdsk and defrag reference system before imaging and uploading to fog. I have done that. I also see people seem to prefer multipartition disk non resizable image option.
I am now using that as had problems with Single Partition Disk resizable.

However on the test laptop I still image away to then finally just see “non system disk” error and no boot. I retried the process after formatting the test laptop same problem.
However if I reload the image back onto the Virtual System it works ok???
I also made a “symantec ghost” copy too and that works OK.
Whats going wrong? Thanks guys

ok so just re did it as single partition disk resizeable and worked fine hmmm then I do that with Vista and it doesnt work but it does with multi partion - am i missing something cheers guys!!!

Hi Im starting to test my images now and during the windows 7 phase I’m getting a lot of “a disk read error has occured press ctrl alt del to continue”.

Im cloning dynamically expandable VHD’s in Vbox. Windows 7 Set as single partion resizeable. Which should be wrong but works mostly just got stuck on one image! Have even deleted the image and retried to no avail.
Whats gone wrong people? thanks x should I check disk before cloning or something?

Also when I look at the partiiion in WINPE the 100 mb reserved is RAW !!!

yeah or just make it a yearly thing that I update 3 times then re do them staggered ??? not so bad I suppose

I have an image for every 64/32 bit instance of windows 7, starter, home basic etc ultimate…would cost me alot of money to get licence for all these things

Hi thanks for the responses.

I am using virtual Box to do this but as I found out today if you load a non activated VM of windows after 30 days it goes into reduced functionality mode.To get past this you have to rearm the system. Losing one of the 3. So again it seems no matter which I look I’m always going to have to rebuild every image. Unless I got keys to activate them all but I cant afford that. Even reverting to a snapshot the same thing will happen. I think?

OK that seems like a good idea in deed…so to surmise

1. Prepare (audit) system / VM to be imaged and then finally Sysprep using [B][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]1[/COLOR][/B][COLOR=#000000][B]</SkipRearm>[/B] so deploying to machines within 30 days will go smoothly. Called [B]IMAGE [COLOR=#ff0000]1[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000]2. To Update patches/software or avoid 30 day time out and horrible “this copy isn’t genuine” problems; Load [/COLOR][B][COLOR=#000000]IMAGE [COLOR=#ff0000]1 [/COLOR][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=#000000]again[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] but DO NOT boot it. Load a PE from USB/CD etc and change [/COLOR][B][I][SIZE=12px][FONT=Segoe UI][COLOR=#2a2a2a]%WINDIR%\Panther[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/I][/B][I][SIZE=12px][FONT=Segoe UI][COLOR=#2a2a2a][B][I]\unattended.xml[/I][/B] to show [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/I][B][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]0[/COLOR][/B][COLOR=#000000][B]</SkipRearm>.[/B][/COLOR]

[B][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000]Hmm I still don’t understand though, surely this will still eat away at the 3 rearm allowances. Sorry I’ve been thinking about this too long and losing the plot with it. Can you just explain how this will make me be able to [/COLOR][/SIZE][COLOR=#000000]indefinitely[/COLOR][SIZE=2][COLOR=#000000] update an image without having to rebuild it? Thanks![/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]
[COLOR=#000000][/COLOR]

[B][FONT=arial]Guys really need some help here…just read this and its confused me a bit[/FONT][/B]
[URL=‘http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/What_do_I_have_to_do_to_an_image_before_uploading%3F’][B][FONT=arial]http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/What_do_I_have_to_do_to_an_image_before_uploading?[/FONT][/B][/URL]
[B][FONT=arial]so best practice is this ??[/FONT][/B]
[B][FONT=arial]1. Get “reference” image ready (for arguments sake [/FONT][/B][COLOR=#ff0000]IMAGE 1[/COLOR][B][FONT=arial]), patches, tweaks, software etc then sysprep with [/FONT][/B][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]1[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</SkipRearm> and upload image.[/COLOR]

[B][FONT=arial][COLOR=#000000]2. Once That’s done repeat the same but now use [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[COLOR=#ff0000]0[/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</SkipRearm> to create a “deploy” Image [/COLOR][/FONT][/B][B][FONT=arial][COLOR=#ff0000]IMAGE 2. [COLOR=#000000]The Deploy image loads and behaves like a brand new install with the 30 days activation period set from that moment of installation. Then when it comes to updating the image, you reload[COLOR=#ff0000] IMAGE 1[/COLOR], update it etc and then over write [/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]IMAGE 2[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000][COLOR=#000000] with the updated version doing the appropriate 0 or 1 rearm setting in the Xml.[/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT][/B]

[COLOR=#000000][B][FONT=arial]My Question is this? Today I loaded a VM with a flavour of windows on so I could update it and re update the fog image etc. When it turned on it said the copy of windows was not genuine. I looked at the Slmgr -dlv and it said the activation period was expired. I had to rearm this “reference” machine to be able to update and reimage. All my VM’s were previously sysprepped with [/FONT][/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]1[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</SkipRearm> but I havent made any with [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[COLOR=#ff0000]0[/COLOR][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</SkipRearm> foolishly thinking that just the one image would be ok to keep updating the same image without losing a rearm. But even still with opening previously [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]<SkipRearm>[/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000]1[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]</SkipRearm> machines after 30 days forces me to lose a rearm I cant see a way I can update all the time without eventually having to re do everything? I think I missed the point please could some one very kindly detail what I need to do to never have to rebuild all my images. Thanks in advance##i think i need point out my reference images are NOT prepared with a licence key ##[/COLOR]

Had some good success on tests - took cable out of desktop with vm fogbox , straight into laptop , did nothing with any LAN setting apart from make laptop boot network - can register a new host! and quick image as well …will test more after setting up laptop but that is all I need …virtual FOG server in a Virtual Box on a laptop…may even look into ISO booting as well for a complete solution via the CABLE!..will post more later …also I have a hunch the PART IMAGE thing might work better with the image types that have MBR.p1 files…dont know why (one file etc) but will test that also !!!

re fogged as multi partition non re sizeable - re tested worked fine …just need to grow partitions afterwards is all…

…just done another test…very quickly during the clean up phase - “cannot mount NTFS…invalid argument”

#bump# any ideas - should I try a different image type ? I saw some one say about LBA addressing as the HDD type but dont think thats an option in a VB?

Hi there spent a lot of today setting up vista images and on tests on 2 laptops missing opweratrimg system error after fogging.

Resizeable NTFS , syspreped audit, then syspreped generalised using minimal unattended to just sort skip rearm out. All done in virtual box. VHD file format the disk is on. Same with xp and 7 though. Any ideas to fix ta .

Again its purely for steam lining …turn up at a customers house…needs a wipe…BOOM…smashed in 20 mins…copy data back…adios!!! will let you know

ok cool - so lets say I have my fog server in a VM on beefcake desktop…I have a good laptop too… can install virtual box on it and then copy the stuff from the desktop to the laptop as is…the IP was 192.168.0.13 in the VM on the desktop to work …what do I need to do with the laptop to make other machines be able to be cloned from it via PXE boot etc? I have a cross over cable between machines - thankS KEVIN!!!