FOG

Open source imaging software

Today I was introduced to an imaging program called FOG. installed on a LAN server running Linux, this software makes easy work of deploying images of  custom configured operating systems and software. 

To use, I had to connect machines to the local LAN with the server running FOG. Since our computers were Dell, we had to start them holding F12 to get to the screen with the PXE option. 

After a brief time the Fog menu appeared and offered a few options. 

While FOG offers many options, a simple deploy image worked for my purposes, which was  setting up a handful of computers to go in the library.

The deployment was surprisingly quick, especially for the older machines I was installing on.

After install, naming and joining to the domain, they were dropped in the appropriate Group Policy OU and sent out to the Library.