DHCP client questions
Michael Powell
nightrecon at hotmail.com
Mon Sep 21 04:22:04 UTC 2009
Mel Flynn wrote:
> On Sunday 20 September 2009 21:19:28 stan wrote:
>
>> I have several machines (such as a mailserver) which _MUST_ have fixed
>> names. I have played around with /etc/dhcllient.conf, but not managed to
>> get this working. I can get IP addresses, and various things such as
>> default routers, and DNS servers, but I have not managed to get the
>> suggested name put in their DNS.
>
> Ok, I know you're trying to make clear what your problem is, but it's
> still not. So, let's try step by step,, using a FreeBSD mailserver as the
> example: 1) Does the mailserver have a fixed HOSTNAME or can the HOSTNAME
> change if the DHCP server wants it to?
>
> 2) When you say "but I have not managed to get the suggested name put in
> their DNS", does this mean you expect the FreeBSD mailserver to enter
> itself into the Microsoft DNS? Or can you not get the FreeBSD mailserver
> to name itself according to what the DHCP server tells them to?
>
Don't seem to have all the details either, but from what little I can piece
together is his company being bought by another necessitates the melding of
his old systems with the new companies' Windows based environment. This
could very well be an incorrect assumption on my part.
In a Windows environment when DHCP is used, as it hands out IP addresses it
then updates the IP/hostname pair in the DNS server database. This is
configured to operate by the admins. Usually there are at least two DHCP
scopes minimum for the dynamically assigned IPs, but there can also be
configured a scope for static IPs for things such as mail servers. So it is
still possible for a mail server to initialize networking via DHCP and be
assigned the same statically assigned IP every time. It is the
responsibility of the Windows DHCP servers to sync with the DNS server
database. If you are not going to have static services such as a mail server
initialize via DHCP then a system admin will have to manually enter this
information into the DNS server database. Without possessing the
administrative authority to do this things will get very frustrating.
Bottom line is, if what I think is going on is correct, he can fight this
battle in myriad different directions but inevitably all will lead back to
the system admins of the purchasing company must get involved in order to
properly meld the 2 networks together. All 10,000 different paths which can
be pursued will ultimately lead back to this, so they ought to just bite the
bullet and get it over with.
(If one wants to run his own Unix based DNS servers so as to have this under
his/her control set up for file based zone transfer from the Windows DNS
servers. The key to making this work is to manually config the zone
transfers on the Windows DNS machines to ascii instead of UTF8 or else the
Unix box DNS zone files will be endlessly polluted with garbage characters.
Of course this all is moot if you are not allowed to be delegated or be
authoritative for your little piece of the DNS tree. Here again, this is
still going to have to be handled by the purchasing companies' admins as
they are the ones in the drivers seat. This type of melding of heterogeneous
systems absolutely requires both sides to work together.)
-Mike
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