To FOG or not to FOG, that is the question?

So I’ve spent most of the day evaluating Ghost Solution Suite to better understand just what capabilities it offers. I’m ready to report those findings, and I’ll say upfront, while I don’t want this to appear like a “bash fest” it might start to sound that way. None-the-less, here is what I’ve found in several key areas we should consider.

Manageability: Ghost uses a tried and true File Based Image management system, accessed behind an MMC plugin. The MMC does appear to offer remote capabilities, so once this tool is loaded on a third machine you can access the server remotely. This model is similar to the SAV 10 and below model (a model that has been discontinued in favor of a Java approach beginning with SAV 11. It is also worth pointing out that this MMC model precludes access from any clients other then Windows. FOG utilizes a Web browser access front end atop a database driven model, therefore any computer with a browser can manage the cloning server.

Manageability Advantage: Neither

Platform Support: Ghost really starts to show its age here, OS support only extends up to XP in the core product and only up to Windows 2000 for the accompanying 3Com PXE services (more about these below.) Since there are no patches for version 1.0 the only recourse for additional OS and File systems would be to purchase an upgrade to the a newer version. While Vista support is not key to us now, at some point we will need to migrate to Vista or Win 7, both of which use a newer version of NTFS than XP. FOG presently supports Vista, and has a track record of regular updates.

Platform Support Advantage: FOG

Hardware / Network Interoperability: Since Ghost 1.0 is already a few years old it suffers from a lack of current H/W and NIC support. This is compounded by the fact that it outsourced the PXE Network Boot tasks to an OEM software package from 3Com, which was even older then Ghost. 3Com Boot Services 1.02 is so old it does not officially support Windows XP, just up to 2000. On top of this, the built in Ghost method for adding network cards is NDIS driver based, meaning that if we are imaging a system with a new / different model NIC, the driver must be found for it and then a custom boot image must be loaded on a USB or DHCP/PXE server for each different NIC. Compared to the FOG methodology where a single generic Linux kernel is pushed out, that then has custom behavior on a system by system basis – there is no comparison.

Hardware / Network Interoperability Advantage: FOG

Inventory Functionality: Unlike FOG, Ghost has no H/W level inventorying system. Since FOG treats each piece of hardware it encounters as a unique record (ala the NICs MAC address) in a MySQL DB, it provides detailed hardware level reporting, independent of the image loaded on the system.

Inventory Functionality Advantage: FOG

Training and Learning Curve: Perhaps the strongest argument in favor of Ghost is its familiarity. It has been in place here for some time and running atop a consistent Windows interface makes it operator friendly. FOG is a Linux only application and therefore some training will be necessary. This should be minimal as all management is web based and with PXE Netbooting on clients, there is no requirement, once the server is operational, for any deep Linux knowledgebase.

Training and Learning Curve Advantage: Ghost

Licensing and Cost: Since it is possible that Ghost 2.5 (the current version) addresses many of the current versions shortcomings, price does come into the picture, as we would be required to get on support or worst case re-purchase the whole product. Comparatively FOG is bound by its GPL 3 license to always exist in a free and open form. FOG’s version history goes back 25 steps right now, and there is no indication that the project will soon be discontinued.

Licensing and Cost Advantage: FOG

Conclusion

Given the overwhelming feature superiority of the Open Source package, FOG, and it’s low barrier of entry, financially and in training, I’m confident in recommending we migrate from Ghost to FOG.

]]> http://www.degen.net/?feed=rss2&p=114 1 http://www.degen.net/?p=112 http://www.degen.net/?p=112#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:57:34 +0000 admin http://www.degen.net/?p=112 Just when you thought it was safe to Install the greatly simplified Windows 7…. Oh not so fast! ZD Net is reporting there will be at least six flavors available:

Windows 7 Starter Edition (for emerging market and netbook users)
Windows 7 Home Premium (the main “Media Center” equivalent)
Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging market customers only)
Windows 7 Professional (the business SKU for home users and non-enterprise licensees)
Windows 7 Enterprise (for volume licensees)
Windows 7 Ultimate (for consumers who want/need business features)

Additional reading on this subject can be found at….

Dwight Silverman’s reporting on Microsoft’s many SKU’s and his experience loading Windows 7 on Netbooks.

Story from Engadget, complete with Screen Shot.

Throughout the campaigns virtually all the candidates exploited the power and reach of technology, from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton. Whether via SMS or Web 2.0, there is no doubt that this (finally) was the year that the Internet and mobile devices really played a part in the outcome of a national election.

President Elect Barack Obama’s campaign got this from the start. The web, with its host of social networking sites and viral videos, was a game changer for Obama. Barack Obama and his supporters found a direct and pointed way to connect with our fast paced cyber enabled lifestyles.

Truly remarkable is the way that people opted in for this digital content. Regardless of how you voted, there is an eagerness among citizens nationwide to see if this spirit of transparency, immediacy and connectedness will be a hallmark of the comming administration. Are we witnessing the perfect nexus of technology and politics? Has the Internet matured to the point where it is a reliable, and in some cases the primary from of communication for citizens of the United States of America? (read: reached critical mass of mainstream users.)

An encouraging indicator of this is the newly launched http://www.change.gov/ web site. If there was such a site back during the Clinton to Bush transition, I never saw it. And it’s not a partisan observation to say this has less to do with politics and more to do with evolving technologies and the mainstream adoption, no make that expectation, of web communication vehicles.

I for one am very hopeful that technology initiatives like this and others we saw during the campaigns are the beginning of a more interactive form of government – perhaps one by the people, for the people and of the people.

Disclaimer: ESX is not for everyone, it is first and foremost a dedicated server product; not something you are going to load and play around with on a desktop pc. And until more recently, it has been a rather expensive endeavor, recently however, with the introduction of a freeware option (ala VM Server and Player), that has changed. VMWare ESXi is now free to use, and boosts the same Core Hypervisor as its costly big brother ESX. There is even an upgrade path to the fully licensed version, should you require the full VI3 management suite. If you have the datacenter class gear, and are in need of a full time Virtualized platform I can not stress enough how wonderful a solution ESXi is. I’m presently deploying ESXi on Dell servers (on select new models it is even available as a flash based boot module – for no charge!)

If your needs do not necessitate full time data center VM operations, you still should look at the latest incarnation of VM Server. Version 2.0 just went golden, and after playing with it on both Linux and Windows platforms the last week, I am equally impressed. Be forewarned, if you are a current VM Server 1.X user you are in for a shock – the new web based interface can be a little disorienting at first, but new and better functionality awaits. Just as before this product is completely free and absolutely suitable for production use.

Virtualization is unquestionably the wave of the future, both in servers and even on the desktop. If you have been waiting to dip a toe into the VM waters, wait no longer – with these new offerings from VMware now is the time to Virtulize!

It’s been a while since my last post, and yes, there have been BIG changes indeed. Headlining these  is  my new position with the Federal Courts, US Probation in Dallas. Its a Big and welcome change from the last ten years as a high-travel technology consultant. The projects are expansive, and will introduce new technologies to my daily experience.

Change is also coming to this site; after two years in its current form it’s about time for a redesign. Leading the list of new options is a move to a LAMPP based CMS like Drupal. I’ve also had lots of feedback requesting  more downloads, tech tips ad photos – I hear you all, and we’ll see what can be done.

As the title indicates I have some very big news that I’ll be posting in the coming weeks, exciting changes and new opportunities! But for now I need to focus on getting back up to speed with everything from US politics, to the latest linux revs – three weeks without broadband can really mess with your head.

The Old Standard: Ubuntu

No surprise here, I use Ubuntu daily on most of my desktops and servers. But, it’s worth a mention that this weekend I bid farewell to the goodness that has been my favorite release to date, Gutsy (7.10). It was actually not intentional, but after a few hours of wrestling to get the latest VMW Server 1.0.6 onto the box, I threw up the white flag and just rebuilt with Hardy, VMserver loaded just fine.

For anyone new to the Blog, you might not be aware of my disappointment with 8.04 LTS (see Ubuntu 8.04 – One Week in the Real World for more about this.) Despite its irritants, Hardy is working quite well on every system I’ve loaded / upgraded, and while server upgrades are always a bit more dicey than a desktop it was time for these two servers of mine to get overhauled.

BTW – 8.04.1 appears to be heading our way soon (Ubuntu 8.04.1 freeze of hardy-proposed.)  My guess is 8.04.1 is going to be the Hardy we all wanted to see from the get go.

A Venerable Veteran: Fedora

Red Hat / Fedora always will hold a soft spot in my heart as years ago it was the first distribution I used on a regular basis. Despite this affinity, I have not been a regular user of Fedora since version 6.0, this being the case it was high time to give 9.0 a try.

First, the positive – as always the Fedora artwork is beautiful! The legacy of wonderfully integrated and classy themes continues into Fedora 9, other distros take note. Also, the Live CD is a welcome new touch for Fedora (I think it was also in version 8.0, but it’s nice and new just the same.)

Sadly however, this was the shortest lived install of the weekend. After gawking at the gorgeous theme ended, I was left with a rather unimpressive desktop experience. Right off the bat I had problems connecting to Samba shares – not encouraging! A couple of lackluster hours and Fedora was off my test box and relegated back to infrequent use as a VM.

The Most Promise Yet?: OpenSUSE

Ok so maybe I’m just overly optimistic, but since I recently purchased an HP Mini-Note, which ships with SLED 10, I really want SUSE to be a great product – especially since getting Ubuntu loaded on my HP2133 is proving to be a challenge. Perhaps the new OpenSUSE 11 would have all the drivers I need?

But before I form impressions on new hardware, its only fair to give OpenSUSE a shake down on my tried and true desktop for a couple of days. Live CD, slick install, painless so far. Good (and very green) artwork, not nearly as sublime as LinuxMint, greets you – here however, the pleasantries end.

So the infernal “Slab” menu structure aside, navigation is still too difficult; finding key configuration and other applications was way to confusing. Then came the Yast updates. Slow and unresponsive as ever, and not nearly as clear about what is happening as Apt-Get. The final straw – shouldn’t installing the Nvidia driver improve monitor detection and performance? Not so much, after rebooting with the proprietary driver, my widescreen support (which had been working), failed; as did my desire to work any more with this distro.

Durable, Dependable: Debian

While I am a huge fan of the Debian package management system, I actually don’t have any production Debian systems at present. Since the last Debian box I installed was V4, I felt a little daring and gave Beta 2 of the forth coming Version 5 (Lenny) a try.

With no live CD/DVD, but a welcome GUI installer, getting started with this distro was no problem. At the point of this writing I am still working with Debian and will comment more in the coming days.

I will make this observation though, for a beta/development release I am actually surprised by how non ground breaking this major X.0 release appears to be. This is in striking contrast to the recent Ubuntu 8.04 release – chalked full of beta!

And now for Something Completely Different: GRML

So whenever you mix German engineering and Linux you are bound to get something like this Distro. A word of warning, if you think Knoppix is too geeky, read no further! While GRML has a similar pedigree with its better known sibling form the fatherland; Debian based, live cd with decompression of drivers and apps on the fly, GRML goes a step further by offering an array of UI options.

A textual menu greets you upon boot, cluttered with options for just about every light-weight GUI you have every heard of, and then some! If that is not nerdy enough for you, you can run command line applications from a circa 1983 text menu launcher with seemingly hundreds choose from. Don’t misunderstand me, I like GRML. And as a utility Linux / boot CD it’s handy in any arsenal, I just don’t plan on booting it on a daily basis.

Were did my weekend go? Guess I better pick one of these guys and get ready for Monday.

10 Tips for After You Install or Upgrade Ubuntu -

http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/04/25/10-tips-for-after-you-install-or-upgrade-ubuntu/

Get VMWare Server Going: Nice step by step to getting VM Server on Hardy – http://digitalbs.org/Site/Blog/Entries/2008/4/20_Installing_Vmware_server_1.0.5_on_ubuntu_8.04_lts.html

Create a consistent apt-get Script: Again and again I find myself loading the same apps on a new build. To simplify this I have come up with a uniform install script that you can run from a terminal window. Fast, uniform and beautiful. Click here for an example.

Mod out your fstab – I “Need” my servers and shared files often and accessible by both the GUI and CLI, so I like to mount them at boot and into virtual file system locations. You can do this with the a line similar to below:

//SERVERNAME/SHARE /YOURLOACALMOUNTPOINT smbfs dir_mode=0777,username=YOURUSERNAME,passwd=YOURPASSWORD,lfs 0 0

What are your Must have / Must perform steps on freshly built systems?

Where once your greatest customs concern was staying under the limit of alcohol, tobacco and designer fragrances, now beware as your MP3s, ripped DVDs, Porn and illicit Warez are likely to land you and your computer in the pokey!

Now more then ever digital privacy is sounding like a good idea. Truecrypt, to the rescue! I’ve been playing with the free cross platform encryption now for a few weeks and I’m impressed!

Regardless whether you need to secure documents of a professional or personal nature, configuring a Truecrypt vault is the way to go. While the sensational nature of the RIAA and MPAA’s co-enforcement at US borders grabs headlines, striking a nerve with the tech savvy, the local security that Truecrypt offers is useful for many who have no plans of international travel anytime soon.

With over 50% of new system sales in the form of highly portable (easily stolen) notebooks, data encryption is not only desirable to keep out the prying eyes of governments and corporations, but thieves as well! Bear in mind that Truecrypt can be used on SD Cards, USB drives and other removable media.

Regards less your need for encryption, Truecrypt is a powerful, effective, easy to use and best of all Open Source solution – check it out at http://www.truecrypt.org/

How hard could this be, right? After all I’m an experienced IT professional. Over the years I have flashed literally hundreds of system BIOS, and up till a few days ago, without incident.

In retrospect there were some warning signs I should have headed. For starters, 1AM when you are about ready to turn in for the night – not the best time to flash your BIOS. Next, when looking up the new version of your BIOS on the manufacture’s web site, it’s helpful to know the exact model number of the motherboard rather then just “doing it by memory.” Finally, when you are at the command prompt and it warns you to be sure you have the right BIOS for your MoBo, get up off your butt and grab the manual or box for the motherboard and double check that you have downloaded the right one!

As you probably have guessed by now, I did not adhere to any of this great advice. And when the system rebooted after having flashed the wrong model BIOS, it became rather clear to me exactly what I had just done – Son-of-a-….

The Flashing Threat

While I managed to do this damage all on my own, some alarming news surfaced this past week indicating that malicious hackers are now contemplating the use of BIOS flashing attacks. These “Permanent Denial of Service” (PDOS) attacks would be used to infect routers and other such core network devices; and unlike other maliware and viruses, the goal of PDOS attacks is to cripple or completely destroy systems and networks.

Judging from my recent experience with an incorrectly flashed motherboard, I can attest to the lethality of such a scheme. A compromised system could not just be “re-formated” to factory defaults, as a messed up BIOS will leave the system totally inoperable.

BIOSMAN to the Rescue

After realizing my bush-league mistake I did what any technology professional would do – Cry. Ok, maybe that is an exaggeration, but I did start whining on Twitter about the situation, to which I received many concerned and compassionate replies. One particularly thoughtful suggestion was that I should simply enjoy my new piece of attractive wall art!

Thanks, but after the initial desperation and panic subsisted, I was able to locate several physical BIOS (Eprom) recovery/replacement services. I quickly settled on http://www.biosman.com/. After entering the requested information in the easy to follow online forms (step, by step asking about the make, model and other motherboard info), I was charged a modest fee. Even without selecting an express shipping method, my replacement BIOS chip arrived in the standard mail in under a week. Popping the new chip in was easy on my socketed motherboard, and presto! My media center was back up and at them.

While BIOSMAN is a wonderful service and deserves to be on your tech “oh shhhiiittt” goto list, I can’t stress enough how important it is to take care when patching your firmware. That, and the old axiom applies, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”