[fog] Weird imaging problem

[googlemad]

When I image a suite of computers using FOG, sometimes several will end up with a 'corrupt' image on i.e. XP won't start with some weird and wonderful error message. If I image the machines again they do seem to work.

 

Isn't FOG supposed to load balance so the amount of the machines should not overload the imaging server?

[morganw]

Is the error ratio the same on different hardware?

Myself and my colleague imaged about 530 PCs with Fog over the last couple of weeks, we only had two that appeared to be corrupted / wouldn't boot and that was with a maximum limit of 6 computers at once. I would class our switch infrastructure as cheap and sub par.

Try setting the storage node to only image one PC at a time and then see what happens.

[diggory]

I don't think it loads balances exactly. Rather it will only image a certain number at a time, the rest will sit in an orderly que.

You can reduce the que size as morganw mentioned.

Have a look in the about menu, then the advanced settings, search for FOG_QUEUESIZE, you can then adjust the number of machines FOG will image at a time.

You might have to restart the FOG server (or service) after that - although I'm not sure if that's required.

Edited September 29, 2010 by diggory
spelling - ooops

[morganw]

You shouldn't have to restart as it isn't load balancing as such, it's just the maximum number of unicast downloads that can occur at once. I found that in certain parts of the building 6 was the most effcient, in other parts 2 or 3 was faster overall - depends on your infrastructure.

[bladedanny]

This has happened to me before and it seems to be when imaging a single partition to a multiple partition disk. I normally just image twice as our images are really small and we have a quick network. The other way round ive found is to format the HDD prior to imaging.