I’m trying to replace an old (working) FOG server with a new one, taking the opportunity to use a newer OS than the out-of-support Ubuntu server and similarly a new FOG installation in place of an old version.
The OS is Debian 10.2 (Buster) on bare metal, with FOG 1.5.7 installed from a GIT pull as described in FOG Wiki: Getting FOG.
There is a separate DHCP server which has been configured to point to the FOG server and the undionly.kpxe file
next-server <fog server IPv4 address>;
filename “undionly.kpxe”;
Note the new server is being placed on the live network. The old server acted as its own DHCP server, and computers were re-imaged by either bringing them to the lab to connect to the separate lab network, or the fog server (actually a laptop) was taken to the site with a switch and a temporary network built to re-image a classroom of computers. The new server does not act as the live network’s DHCP server.
The old setup has worked fine for years.
With the new installation, PXE booting devices fails. It has been tried on both an old Thinkpad and an old Dell laptop which work fine with the old setup.
Example ThinkPad attempted network boot:
Intel(R) Boot Agent GE v1.5.53
Copyright (C) 1997-2013. Intel Corporation
CLIENT MAC ADDR: MM MM MM MM MM MM GUID: GGGGGGGG GGGG GGGG GGGG GGGGGGGGGGGG
CLIENT IP: 10.60.3.52 MASK: 255.255.254.0 DHCP IP: 10.60.2.2
GATEWAY IP: 10.60.2.1
PXE->EB: !PXE at 9736:0070, entry point at 9736:0106
UNDI code segment 9736:5B20, data segment 90F6:6400 (579-628kB)
UNDI device is PCI 00:19.0, type DIX+802.3
579kB free base memory after PXE unload
iPXE initialising devices...ok
iPXE 1.0.0+ (9907f) -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware --- http://ipxe.org
Features: DNS FTP HTTP HTTPS iSCSI NFS TFTP VLAN AoE ELF MBOOT PXE bzImage Menu
PXEXT
Configuring (net0 MM:MM:MM:MM:MM:MM)...... ok
Received DHCP answer on interface net0
tftp://10.60.3.233/default.ipxe... ok
http://10.60.3.233/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php... ok
10.60.6.189: command not found
Could not boot: Exec format error (http://ipxe.org/2e022001)
Could not boot: Exec format error (http://ipxe.org/2e022001)
Chainloading failed, hit 's' for the iPXE shell: reboot in 10 seconds_
I have checked and http://10.60.3.233/fog/service/ipxe/boot.php exists.
It looks like the iPXE command parser is hitting some unparseable data and so the process fails.
What is weird is why IPv4 address 10.60.6.189 is appearing. Its on a different subnet to the booting PC, and not any other server. Its appearance in the boot log is a mystery to me.
I can’t do any more diagnosis until Monday afternoon UTC at the earliest, but I’m putting this up in the hope I have missed something obvious that someone will gently point out to me.
The aim is to have a FOG server in the main building so classrooms can be re-imaged without moving PCs about or needing to build a temporary disconnected LAN. Ideally have a separate fog laptop that can be taken off site with a selection of images to update remote locations, and ultimately put some FOG servers in remote locations (that are on the end of low capacity data links) so that new images can be distributed overnight in a bandwidth friendly way so that remote offices can be updated from a server local to them.
Note that the estate of PCs is a mixture of BIOS and UEFI laptops.
Regards,
Junior Catherd