How to handle taking an image and using it with two different TOEM instances

spazcatsam

I have two TOEM instances at two locations, I need them to be able to access the same images. I used to use FOG and would move the image files to the appropriate places, do an export and import on the second location. I do not see how to do this same thing in the gui. These two TOEM servers are linked via a site to site VPN so if there is a way to just hook them together under the com servers/com server cluster with automatic replication that would be even cooler but I dont see any documentation around this so I dont want to go in and break stuff. I can potentially flash my images to a vm and just do an upload at the second location so its not the end of the world but added convenience here would really take this software to the next level for me. Thanks again!

theopenem_admin

Do you need to have 2 separate instances? When using multiple com servers, it can be setup so that clients only communicate with their com server, but it's still one instance. If you need to use 2 different instances, you would need to do some custom scripting to copy the images from one server to the other and then use the api to actually create the image "definition" on the other server.

spazcatsam

I would love to only have one instance. The problem is each location is going to do a lot of local network imaging and the WAN connections are weak. One has symetrical gigabit, the other has 200mbps down/20up. Is there any documentation around how to have clients talk to their local com server? I would run the install and just have it generate the com server and attach that to the other instance via FQDN?

theopenem_admin

Basically just run the installer and only install the com server when asked, then add the com server to your cluster or make a new cluster if needed, the setup really depends on how your network is structured. Here is a video that goes over it, it's a bit of a grind but should help you out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU9d6df0HUg
One thing to note, is that you need an SMB share when using multiple com servers, if you dont' have or want to setup a seperate share, just share your local storage directory on the existing server and use that as your smb share, should make more sense after you watch the video.

spazcatsam

theopenem_admin Ill check out the video thank you! and yep already using smb for storage.

spazcatsam

Ok so. I setup my main server at hq.mydomain.com and my second com server at a remote location at remote.mydomain.com, I have the setup all complete per the video and in about the coms see eachother, the api hit is working and gives me the 60. So I believe everything there is working. What I do not understand is now when I generate an install iso to boot from for image deploy, the iso is going to be tied to hq.mydomain.com so wouldnt the client reach out over WAN back to the main instance even if it is physically connected to the network/LAN (not necessarily the same subnet) as the second com server, the goal is to not push images over WAN but to sync the images between the two instances. I want to get PXE working with the direct IP and that will help alleviate this issue as we can reserve the usb install method to actually use WAN which is fine. Other issue I think I have is replication, currently I have write directly to SMB set and I think this may be incorrect, based on the video the image files need to uploaded to the local com server from the client, that com server will then handle replication to the same smb share that both com servers can reach, then it will replicate again to the second com servers local storage. I wanted to only store images on an smb share if possible but if this is necessary for this to work I will work around it. Thanks again for your help and response here I really appreciate it, this is very cool!

spazcatsam

I am still having no luck with PXE booting either, I have confirmed that the tftpboot folders on both systems seem to have the same files, I have generated a default.ipxe in the pxelinux.cfg folder with a matching time stamp on both machines. I am un Unifi unfortunately but on the specific network I have
I have tried pxeboot.0 and default.ipxe per the docs and no dice. Just curious what I am doing wrong here.

spazcatsam

Of note too I have the site to site VPN so if I use FQDN or IP address these networks can all see each other so the passive com server is not going to get hit as it will not fail to connect to the one that is vpn over WAN. Also to use groups to control this we would have to register every device we would deploy an image to correct?

theopenem_admin

Correct, the only way to reach other server is to fail the first one, or override with groups. If your using AD you can sync the computers in or install Toec if they are already existing computers.

spazcatsam

This is good to know, I have had to make the decision to change my flow. I went back to the two separate instances as my VPN will cause us too much headache. The plan then is upload an image here and then remote deploy to the other site, then pull into their TOEM. This will work beautifully. The only hiccup I have left at that point is PXE just does not work and I am not sure what I am doing wrong, and I noticed today I was unable to upload an image from a different subnet than the one the TOEM server resides on using the FQDN which is odd.