FOG + WDS

raymix

Hey guys, we are running Windows Server 2008 R2 at school, WDS is used to push updates/drivers, but most of computers have PXE disabled anyway.
DHCP server has option 060 set to PXEboot inside Server folder, not scope, which is used for WDS.

So I've set up a FOG server and would like to avoid adding 066 and 067 to a scope if possible, just keep original DHCP for leases and transparently add FOG server to only respond to PXE boot requests.

Problem is quite obvious - DHCP server responds to PXE boot requests first, leaving my linux box ignored.

Any way around this? I want both servers to co-exist peacefully.

I could ask for permission to add 66 and 67, but our network admin won't let me remove 60 obviously, which sets me back in my dilemma...

Standard Toaster

Should this cover what you're looking to achieve?

Bootable cds/usbs would be the only other way I believe.

raymix

Standard Toaster wrote: »

Should this cover what you're looking to achieve?

Bootable cds/usbs would be the only other way I believe.

I have that exact setup currently. Everything works, except websites won't resolve DNS (on VM, so I don't really care) and dnsmasq is acting up, tells me that "trash is found in script", something along those lines, so I am running it trough etc/init.d instead. No big deal.

Was in a shower and then it hit me - PXE chain boot. Either if first boot (WDS) is skipped, it could chain to a next one instead... or even better - a menu?

Any thoughts on this? I seriously would like to avoid going back to Clonezilla sticks and external hardrives.

If this does not work out, i'll probably be isolating network by disconnecting switch from network and using my own DHCP router + FOG or CZ server.

Thanks for the input.

Standard Toaster

Nothing else to add I'm afraid but if you do get it a working solution I wouldn't mind knowing how you solved it. I've a very similar situation in work but lack any real time to look into it as much as I'd like.
The usual not-enough-hours-in-the-day excuse!

Good luck!

raymix

Hi there, quick update:

We decided to isolate admin room for now so I can play around with fog server. Everything works as intended, we have a small 3com router and my fog server running on ubuntu server edition acting as DHCP proxy.

I am currently working on a workarounds to be able to do few things:
1) load iso files, means I will need to switch to iPXE, hopefully that goes well. I want to add some ability to load WinPE and rescue disks as well as UBCD or Hiren's.
2) iPXE usb stick for the rest of the school - basically allowing me to point to fog server manually outside of that subnet. Not perfect, but it's a solution which lets me add rest of the school to a database. It's not ideal since it does not make use of full potential of FOG web management (since that part is isolated) but at least this should allow me to pull images from fog, register hostname and join AD. So pretty much manual labor setting up PXE from usb boot and rest of the setup is unattended. (Yes, I am aware of MS deployment methods, but I am not keen to study it just yet, but it's on the "list")
Hopefully our main admin will see the true potential of FOG.

For now while I am trying to figure out iPXE part, we are just keeping clonezilla images on samba server. Even if image is not generalized, you still have to change hostname and rejoin domain manually, which is quite annoying to say the least... still beats carrying USB drives to classrooms or PCs to our room...

Here's a little screenshot for giggles:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2w2bq8f6cunrfah/shot_140310_234323.png

i'll keep you updated about iPXE from different subnet... hopefully that works out well.
Regards,
Ray

rolion

Hi,
Your project looks interesting.
And... a lot of work !

Off the records, I've tried doing something similar in a school, cloning 70 PCs, same hardware and all to Windows 7 Pro "VLK" licence.
In the end, i guess half of them had trust relationship failure, lots of security events in Event Viewer AND...I've decided for the next project to take DVDs media with Windows 7,get all PCs in same room if possible and install fresh Windows 7,one by one from the DVD, join the domain, deploy basic applications and ... run !

Good luck...and keep us posted !

raymix

rolion wrote: »

In the end, i guess half of them had trust relationship failure, lots of security events in Event Viewer AND...I've decided for the next project to take DVDs media with Windows 7,get all PCs in same room if possible and install fresh Windows 7,one by one from the DVD, join the domain, deploy basic applications and ... run !

It never happens to us after cloning. We do get trust relationship bug at some point, easy fix is simply joining workgroup and then joining back to domain. But this only happens randomly, once or twice a week per 500+ PCs. I can't find exactly why that happens, but it just seems to be a bug with Microsoft.
We used clonezilla for months on generalized sysprep, never had this problem. FOG runs fine, too.

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Back to topic:

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Just to let you know, guys, iPXE part worked great.
Basically all I did was - open ports needed on isolated router, after that I created grub4dos image on USB stick with simple iPXE script that automatically inputs PXE data like location of isolated router and run chain command. Works like a charm.
Ofcourse this setup doesn't let me fully utilize FOG, but it connects me to server for images when I don't feel like bringing whole classroom of computers to our lab. This way I am still able to do basic multicasting, but I doubt it will work with extra storage nodes, might give it a try someday.
Storage nodes are another beautiful thing about it - it's like a personal cloud within enterprise, you can cleverly install few around premises, they will automatically synchronize all images and only closest server will be used, leaving rest of network unhindered by crazy traffic that multicasting creates, where MS solution would flood the whole network for this and possibly slow down the server itself, which is not a pretty thing to do.

Either way, this was just an experiment, since LMETB insists to use SCCM cloning only, so there will be no place for FOG here this June. It's still an invaluable asset and tool for us at the moment, since we don't have to use peripherals for cloning anymore. Plus I got hiren's and few PE rescue tools integrated in PXE menu using good old pxelinux.0 (didn't have to change the way FOG originally works).

If anyone needs help how to make iPXE script to work with grub, ask away, I will gladly share the information.
Or if you want Custom PXE menu fully working with submenus and supporting ISO files like in this VIDEO here, let me know, i'll post my script here. That video is not mine, but sadly that guy did not want to share his script, so I had to spend few nights figuring it out myself.

Have been planning putting up a video tutorial about FOG installation on clean ubuntu server, i'll post it here if I actually make it some day.