Getting started with the Imaging Virtual Server

A guide starting out with FileWave's Imaging Virtual Server (IVS) appliance. Learning to import, expand the hard drive and setting up the IVS. Appliance's default: username: root / password: filewave

Setting up the IVS (Imaging Virtual Server)

Guide for Networking Imaging with FileWave

The following steps will assist you in the setup and implementation of your Imaging Virtual Server (IVS)
If you already have your Imaging sever up and running please look at these guides for how to image Windows devices.
*Please note: This document assumes you have already set up your FileWave Management Server.

Prepare and download all needed parts

Before starting be sure you have:

IVS v5 capabilities:

Network Considerations

Subnets

The FileWave Imaging appliance has to be configured as an “ip-helper” on your switches so it can receive and answer BOOTP requests from your clients.

The FileWave network imaging solution is unicast so there will need to be some preparation on your end if you intend to image across multiple subnets. The two options will be:

  1. Install a separate FileWave Imaging Virtual Server (IVS) on each subnet you plan to image from and connect them all to the FileWave server by following the "Connecting IVS to FileWave Server" section in this document.

  2. Setup "Helper IPs" on your layer 3 devices (e.g. routers, routing switches) that will point the broadcast requests for PXE and Netbooting to your single FileWave IVS. Once this has been completed you will need to make a change on the IVS. To do this either open the console for this server in your virtual environment or ssh into the server with Putty (Windows) or terminal (macOS):

    1. Open terminal (If on Windows you can use Putty linked here and use the credentials root/filewave then skip to step 3 below)

    2. Type in the following command

       

      # replace IVS-IP-Address with your IP address
$ ssh root@IVS-IP-Address 

      when prompted for a password use: filewave

       

    3. # enter in imaging-control subnet add to add your subnet addresses
$ imaging-control subnet add

    4. This will prompt for a valid IP address from the subnet and subnet mask
      Note: use command imaging-control subnet remove to remove a subnet

IVSsetup-terminalsubnetadd.gif

 IVSsetup-puttysubnetadd.gif

Firewall

The IVS needs to be able to connect to your FileWave Server on the following Ports

Any client(s) subnets where imaging should work must be able to reach the following Ports on the IVS:

Any machine running FileWave Admin needs to be able to connect to your IVS on the following Ports:

The FileWave Server must be able to reach the IVS on port 20444 for On-Premise customers.

Note that if you are a FileWave Hosted customer then you need to review this article: FileWave Hosted Servers and IVS Setup

Starting the Imaging Appliance for the first time:

  1. Download the latest Imaging Virtual Server (IVS) linked here

  2. Import the Imaging Virtual Appliance (IVS) into your virtual environment or use a player to start up the machine. Note: If you need help on this please use the help guide linked here

  3. When the server starts up it will display the IP address, be sure to make a note of this. Should the machine get stuck during boot, showing a white bar at the bottom please send a CTRL-ATL-DEL to the machine. The second boot should be much quicker.

  4. You should log into the machine (either console or SSH) and change the default password from what is currently filewave to your own.

    1. Open terminal (If on Windows you can use Putty linked here and use the credentials root/filewave then skip to step 3 below)

    2. Type in the following command

       

      # replace IVS-IP-Address with your IP address
$ ssh root@IVS-IP-Address

      when prompted for a password use: filewave

       

    3. Then type the command below to enter your new password

       

      $ passwd
    4. Enter new password

IVSsetup-passwordchange.png

Next, change the IP of the IVS to a static IP.

1. Locate Network Interface:

First, identify the network interface you wish to configure. You can list all network interfaces using:

networkctl list

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2. Edit the /etc/network/interfaces file: Using 'nano', edit the interfaces file to set the network configurations.

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Your default interfaces file should look something like this (your interface name may be different):

# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback


# The primary network interface
iface eth0 inet dhcp


Change the file to look like this, using your network preferences (note 'dhcp' has been changed to 'static' in line 6)

# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback


# The primary network interface
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.10.33
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.10.255
dns-nameservers 192.168.10.254 192.168.10.255

3. Verify Resolv.conf, hosts and hostname files: Verify that these files in /etc/ are configured correctly for your network and server.
/etc/resolv.conf: This file should list your DNS servers

/etc/hosts: This file should point your FQDN to localhost (127.0.0.1)

/etc/hostname: Specifies the hostname for your server. This is filewave by default.

4. Disable IPv6: Edit the sysctl.conf file by adding the following lines to the end of the file:

nano /etc/sysctl.conf
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.tun0.disable_ipv6 = 1


5. Restart/Check Network Status:

systemctl restart networking.service

systemctl status networking.service

6. Verify IP:

ip a

Connecting IVS to the the FileWave Server:

  1. Open and connect your FileWave Admin to your FileWave server

  2. Open the preferences and go to the "Imaging" tab

  3. Hit the "+" at the bottom left of the blank pane

    IVSsetup-adminprefsplussign.png

  4. Enter the IP address of the IVS into "Preference for Imaging"

  5. Make sure the box marked "generate new key" is now checked and click "OK"

    IVSsetup-newserver.png

  6. When the Imaging Monitor opens specify your FileWave Server Address and Port 20015. Confirm by clicking "Ok" to finish configuration of your IVS.

    OHWO7SL02AgDbufd-ivssetup-ivsprefs.png

  7. Restart the Imaging Virtual Server (IVS)

  8. Open the preferences and go to the "Imaging" tab again

  9. Select the server in the pane and click the status button below. Status lights should be all green with the exception of "NBI for macOS Imaging:" (If there are more red lights and clicking the refresh button doesn't help, please contact support)

    IVSsetup-ivsstatus.png

Congratulations, you have successfully set up and configured your FileWave Imaging server! You are now ready to image Windows devices.

Related Content

FileWave Hosted Servers and IVS Setup

Using IVS imaging for Windows for Hosted customers is supported but is different than an on-prem implementation. A Hosted customer is one where FileWave runs your FileWave Server in our cloud services. Notes below explain how to use IVS with a Hosted Server, but for you, as a customer, know that all the steps listed in this article that are on the FileWave Server must be completed with the assistance of Customer Technical Support because you won't have direct access to your FileWave Server. The article is here to explain what is needed and why it is needed.

Setup Differences

When you set up an IVS, the first part of the configuration will work as normal, because your admin is actually doing the communication to the IVS. You set it up, choose OK to save, relaunch preferences, and then choose the “Enroll Imaging Server” button. After this is done, and you relaunch preferences, you’ll notice that you have an “Admin credentials mismatch error”. This error is NOT meaningful. To check admin credentials, the FW server will attempt to talk to the IVS directly on port 20444, and this will not work ever for a Hosted customer.

However, if you look in the actual django interface on the IVS, you should see it has the proper shared key, etc. Here is an example:

image.png

Extra First-Time Setup

We know that image capture will NOT work for a Hosted customer without these additional steps. The IVS simply can’t upload the image that is generated, so you’ll see it go immediately from “capture done” to “upload done” within one second if you don’t fix the admin settings entry you see above.

In the last step of the initial IVS setup, the FW server tells the IVS what credentials it should use for logging in to upload an image. But, in cloudV2, the FW server can NOT talk to the IVS directly, so it can’t do that last bit and the admin settings part in the local DB ends up empty. Never fear though, we can work around this problem.

To do so, we need to:

  1. Find out the user that was created for imaging

  2. Reset the password for that account to something we know

  3. Enter the information from the above in the IVS Django admin

Step 1, Find out the user (FileWave Support)

For this step,  we need access to the server in a shell. FileWave Support will have to do this since a hosted customer can not access the server. Once logged in, we'll start an interactive python shell as:

sudo /usr/local/filewave/python/bin/python /usr/local/filewave/django/manage.pyc shell

And once we are in the shell, we’ll look up all usernames, but the one we are looking for will start with imagingadmin

from fwauth.models import User
User.objects.all().values_list("username")

This will give us a result like this:

Out[2]: <QuerySet [('tony.keller',), ('fwadmin',), ('noaccess',), ('filewave_imaging_uploader_admin-3fcb9f455d5e062b',), ('alexdsl',), ('derekd',), ('brian.millbrook',), ('PS',), ('emma.ainsworth',), ('james.carter',), ('nicole.jemison',), ('fw',), ('shana.good',), ('filewave_imaging_uploader_admin-e850f155825fadd5',), ('alexkdsl',), ('robert.daniel',), ('sean.holden',), ('joshua.heinz',), ('andrew.kloosterhuis',), ('andreas.rein',), '...(remaining elements truncated)...']>

Once you've received this information from Support, you can continue to the next step on the IVS.

Step 2, Reset the Password

It is easy to see that filewave_imaging_uploader_admin-e850f155825fadd5 is the user we need. But now, we need to set a password. And we’ll do that like this:

u=User.objects.get(username="filewave_imaging_uploader_admin-e850f155825fadd5")

That assigns u as a variable, and obviously you’ll use the right username from the first step, not the example one. Once we have that, we can set the password, and then save u:

u.set_password("let_me_image")
u.save()

The new password is now set, but we can confirm we did it right. You’ll see below how we can test a bad password, and a good one:

In [6]: u.check_password("dont_let_me_image")
Out[6]: False

In [7]: u.check_password("let_me_image")
Out[7]: True

Step 3, Configure IVS Django Admin

Well, now we know the account and the password, we just need to set it on the IVS. To do so, login to the IVS admin at https://ivsaddress:20444, then click SIGN IN. Creds are fwadmin, filewave. Note that it likely won’t be a proper SSL cert on the server, so you’ll have to choose to bypass security in your browser to get to the web interface.

Once logged in, go to Admin, Preferences as shown at the top of the article. Then, click on admin_settings, and you’ll get a screen like this (except yours won’t have a value in it):

image.png

All you need to do now is paste in the following text, replacing your specific username and your password:

{"pwd": "let_me_image", "user": "filewave_imaging_uploader_admin-e850f155825fadd5"}

Once you SAVE this field, your IVS is ready for operation.

Capture

Because IVS upload has no ability to retry the upload of an image built in, and transferring over the WAN is more sensitive than a local transfer, an image upload could get interrupted. Note that the image will have been captured to the IVS, it just had trouble uploading to the FW server. But you can use a command line command to force the upload replacing the image, username, password, and server address:

/usr/local/bin/FileWaveAdmin --importImage /imaging/images/windows/FS_-1 -u myusername -p mypassword -H support.filewave.net -P 20016

Restore

Restoring images is fairly normal because once an image is assigned to any device, it is downloaded to the IVS appliance itself. The download does retry on failure because it is like any other Fileset. And, since image application to the actual “to be imaged” device happens locally to the network, the fact that the FileWave Server is Hosted is not in play here.

Expanding the IVS Disk Drive - VirtualBox

FileWave-gray-highres.pngvirtualbox-icon.jpg

Imaging Appliance - VirtualBox Resize HD

This guide will help you extend the Imaging Virtual Servers (IVS) hard drive space on Imaging for VirtualBox.

For VirtualBox

The following steps will help you resize the virtual hard drive for the FileWave Imaging Appliance running on Oracle VirtualBox.

1. Power off the virtual machine. 
2. Open a command command prompt or terminal and extend the vmdk using the following commands ( replace source.vmdk with the path to your vbox vmdk, and "NUMBER OF MEGABYTES" according to the FULL size that you want the hard drive to be ) :

"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" clonehd "source.vmdk" "cloned.vdi" --format vdi
"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" modifyhd "cloned.vdi" --resize (NUMBER OF MEGABYTES)
"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" clonehd "cloned.vdi" "resized.vmdk" --format vmdk


vbox1.png

3. Rename the original vmdk file to "vagrant-centos-6.4-x86_64-disk1.OLD" and rename resized.vmdk to the original "vagrant-centos-6.4-x86_64-disk1"

vbox3.png

4. In FileWave Imaging we created a imaging-control command for extending the virtual hard drive size. Power on the IVS and login. 

5. Run the below imaging-control command to increase the hard drive. 

imaging-control increase harddrive

6. You will be asked "Have you extended the hard drive in the VM settings?". Answer "y". 

7. You will then select "ENTER", and it will restart your IVS with the increased Hard Drive. 

8. After this you are done. 

Expanding the IVS Disk Drive - VMware

FileWave-gray-highres.pngvmwicon.png

Imaging Appliance - VMware Resize HD

This guide will help you extend the Imaging Virtual Servers (IVS) hard drive space on Imaging for VMware.

For VMware

The following steps will help you resize the virtual hard drive for the FileWave Imaging Appliance running on VMware.

1. Power off the virtual machine. 
2. Edit the virtual machine settings and extend the virtual disk size. The below screen shots show the view for extending the available space on VMWare. 
ivs1.png ivs2.png ivs3.png

3. In FileWave Imaging we created a imaging-control command for extending the virtual hard drive size. Power on the IVS and login. 

4. Run the below imaging-control command to increase the hard drive. 

imaging-control increase harddrive

5. You will be asked "Have you extended the hard drive in the VM settings?". Answer "y". 

6. You will then select "ENTER", and it will restart your IVS with the increased Hard Drive. 

7. After this you are done.

Importing FileWave OVS (VirtualBox)

Step-by-step guide

1.  First, you'll need to download and unzip the virtual appliance from FileWave Downloads

FileWaveIVSDownloads.png

2. Open Oracle VirtualBox. Click “File” and “Import Appliance".

VirtualBoxStep1.png

3. Browse your machine for the unzipped OVA/OVF from FileWave and click “Open”.

VirtualBoxStep2.png

4. Click "Continue/Next"

VirtualBoxStep3.png

5. Then you will select "Import/Finish" to begin the import process.

VirtualBoxStep4.png

6. Once imported successfully, select "Settings" to change the Storage settings.

VirtualBoxStep5.png

7. Select "Storage" and move the .vdi file from SCSI to SATA.

VirtualBoxStep6.png

8. Click "Start" to verify that the appliance starts successfully.

VirtualBoxStep7.png

6. That's it! The rest of the configuration will take place within FileWave Admin.

Importing FileWave OVF (Vmware ESXI)

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Open your vSphere Client software and connect to ESXI. Click “File” and “Deploy OVF Template".

esxi1.jpg

2. Browse your machine for the unzipped OVA/OVF from FileWave and click “Next”.

esxi2.jpg

3. The OVF Details will be presented to you. Click “Next”.

esxi3.jpg

4. Give your Server a Name and select the Datacenter and Location where you would like to store it.

esxi4.jpg

5. Select which ESXI server will host the OVF.

esxi5.jpg

6. Select the datastore where you would like to store your OVF.

esxi6.jpg

7. Choose the desired format for the virtual disks.

esxi7.jpg

8. Map the OVF/Server to the desired VM Network.

esxi8.jpg

9. Click "Finish" to begin importing the OVF.

Note: You may receive a message that the import failed because OVF specification conformance. Clicking "Retry" will resolve that and continue the import.

esxi9.jpg

esxi10.jpg

10. Once the OVF has imported successfully, turn it on and open a console window to ensure that it starts successfully.

esxi11.jpg

esxi12.jpg

11. That's it! The rest of the configuration will take place within FileWave Admin.

Importing FileWave OVF (VMware Fusion)

Step-by-step guide

1.  First, you'll need to download and unzip the virtual appliance from filewave.com

FileWaveIVSDownloads.png

2.  Then, open VMware Fusion. Click “File” and “Import".

VMwareFusion1.png

3. Now, browse your machine for the unzipped OVA/OVF from FileWave and click “Open”.

VMwareFusion2.png

4. Name the OVF/Server and select where you would like to save it. Click "Save".

VMwareFusion3.png

5. The appliance should start for you automatically, but if it doesn't, just click the "Start" button.

VMwareFusion4.png

6. Once the VM is running, then the import is done!  Most of the configuration of your server will be done from within the FileWave Admin console itself, but you can set a static IP and reset the root password from within the embedded Webmin interface in your browser (this is the web server running on port 10000 that you see referenced below).

VMwareFusion5.png

Importing FileWave OVF (VMware Workstation)

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Open VMware Workstation. Click "Open a Virtual Machine".

vmwork1.jpg

2. Browse your machine for the unzipped OVA/OVF from FileWave and click “Open”.

vmwork2.jpg

3. Name the Virtual Machine and select a storage location. Click “Import”.

vmwork3.jpg

Note: You may receive a message that the import failed because OVF specification conformance. Clicking "Retry" will resolve that and continue the import.

vmwork4importerror.jpeg

4. Once the OVF has imported successfully, turn it on to ensure that it starts successfully.

vmwork4.jpg

5. That's it! The rest of the configuration will take place within FileWave Admin.