[Fog] FOG, DHCP and image speed

[TechSupp]

Just a couple of questions regarding FOG. I have managed to set up FOG on UBUNTU and it works. I will be using it initially as a separate network to the school one so FOG will run DHCP.

Installed FOG and DHCP working, shut down and rebooted, had to restart DHCP manually. How do I set it up to run automatically at startup?

Imaged my first PC (Samsung NC10 WITH 19Gb of data/programs etc) and it took 1.5 hrs..is that normal, can do it with partimage on to a usb HD in half that time. Netbook was connected to FOG via a single switch with nothing else connected. Not tried deploying that image yet but would it be a similar time as from a usb HD it only takes 18min.

As I have read on possibly this or another forum it would not run the resizeable single partition option, just hing after it said resizing partition OK, so had to use the disk non resizeable option and that worked as said above. Would that have had any effect on the time taken?

Does FOG use partimage in the background? if it does why can I use partimage to do a resizeable partition yet FOG won't?

Any suggestions welcome as I would love to use FOG rather than doing the imaging individually.

[Batman]

19Gb is a very big image. Personally I'd only ever do a disk to disk for an image that size.

We find that our image time is usually about 5 minutes for a 5 or 6Gb image so it does sound like something's a bit slow for you.

Was this uploading or deploying? I think our images deploy faster than they upload but I've never actually clocked it.

Other thing, our network is gigabit all round... if one or other bit of hardware is slower than that you could be looking at only having a tenth of the speed. As it's a netbook it probably isn't gigabit, am I right?

[maniac]

Our 6.5GB image uploads in about 20mins, and deploys in about 5 or 6 minutes.
I would expect a 19GB image to upload in about an hour, and deploy in about 18-20 mins based on the same network speed.

We did have a batch of Dell D520 laptops which took over an hour to pull down the 6.5GB image. We found that changing the linux kernal to one of the alturnatives on offer made a big difference, so that might be worth a try. You can get to this through the 'other information' menu and select kernel updates from the side menu.

Mike.

[TechSupp]

Thanks, will be trying a deploy over the weekend to see if thats any quicker. I know the image is quite large but some of the software is only PC based installs and they are quite large. If the deploy was down to similar times to what it is from a USB HD then that would not be too bad.
Anyone know why it was quicket to a USB HD than across a small network?

Thanks for the replies.

[morganw]

sounds like a kernel issue.
i was using an old workstation as the fog server for a while which would push out a 17GB image in 14mins, moved it onto XenServer with 1GB RAM and 2 x 2GHz cores, decent network card - images now takes 7 minutes.

Uploading still takes about 35 minutes as i think the client does all the compression and can't compress fast enough to be limited by network or server factors.

Nothing should be taking hours though.

[kevbaz]

how do you switch between kernals and where do you get them from?

[sparkeh]

how do you switch between kernals and where do you get them from?

The is a section of the console to do this. Off the top of my head its in Other Information -> Kernel update

Alternatively, you can download kernel from here: FOG Kernels

[kevbaz]

thanks ive downloaded the latest kitchen sink kernal, question is what do i do with it once i have it? is it possible to apply it to a single machine for testing? when editing the host i see the kernal box but not sure what to type in there or where to locate the kernal file?

[sparkeh]

thanks ive downloaded the latest kitchen sink kernal, question is what do i do with it once i have it? is it possible to apply it to a single machine for testing? when editing the host i see the kernal box but not sure what to type in there or where to locate the kernal file?

The kernel is located at /tftpboot/fog/kernel/

Now, I haven't actually played about with Kernels, but I thought it worked by being able to have multiple kernels in that folder and you can specify which to use in the kernel option on the machine settings. However I could be wrong.

I'll try and have a play.

[denon101]

Yes you can indeed just use a single Kernal on one machine



You just place the kernal in the kernal foilder on the fog server then specify it in the hosts info. Leave it blank and the default kernal is used.

Hope that helps

[kevbaz]

Ive copied the kernal to the folder and in the host menu ive added the line

tftpboot/fog/kernel/Kernel-2.6.29.2.kitchensink


is that correct? am i missing any / ? do i need the .kitchensink on the end?

[denon101]

From what I can remember I use

fog/kernel/MaxdataMsi.ps

As I downloaded one on the ps kernals. I would imagine you will need to use the following

fog/kernel/Kernel-2.6.29.2.kitchensink

and all should be groovy!

You should see the machine using the different kernal when booting it should list Kernal-2.6.29.2.kitchensink

Hope that helps

[kevbaz]

yep that worked great thanks, but it didnt resolve my issue, issue being when trying to use ny of the options in the quick menu on boot up the machine just freezes, they will also not work using the single disk resizeable option. frustrating as it works perfect on everyother type of machine ive tested it on, and these ones are top of my list because i have a suite of 88 (yes thats 88) i need to get sorted and up n running.

cheers

[sparkeh]

yep that worked great thanks, but it didnt resolve my issue, issue being when trying to use ny of the options in the quick menu on boot up the machine just freezes

Yeah I ran into that issue, turns out I needed to use kernel options acpi=off irqpoll

Always worth checking (and updating) the FOG working hardware page

[kevbaz]

where do you set that option? is it the kernal argument in the host edit menu?