DHCP SERVER USING: RHEL 4
DNS: BIND 9



Hello everyone!

I have a problem...
I have been requested by my seniors to change our DHCP-Mac-address-binding server to a static setup so all machines on the network connect with a static ip address. I am not sure how to go about doing this. I am also using Bind 9(i think?) as DNS. All input will be much, much appreciated.

Kind regards

I might be wrong here...but the solution to your problem "unless you provide more detail" is in the client setups not the server setup...just go to every client and enter static IPs instead of leaving the client to fetch dynamic IPs...you dont even have to turn off DHCP on the server...

"I might be wrong here...but the solution to your problem "unless you provide more detail" is in the client setups not the server setup...just go to every client and enter static IPs instead of leaving the client to fetch dynamic IPs...you dont even have to turn off DHCP on the server..."

Cheers for that Alinux. I see your point. However I thought the whole point of static IP is control, control from server side. Otherwise it will be easy to connect from client by simply removing the static ip and it will be back to dhcp? I thought by specifying an IP address on the server for every machine connected you know exactly whose doing what.
regards

Well ...if you give each of the clients a static IP...from the client of course..and lets say after that you would like to know who is consuming the bandwidth and what sites they are visiting......you use jnetop or iftop and you can use which IP is doing what...now that you have set those IPs statically you will know to whom wich IP belongs..furthermore you can bind each IP to a name in /etc/hosts

Note: thx to HappyTux for correcting me ...

/etc/hosts

The whole point of DHCP is control from server side. No need to go out to 250 machines and specify an IP address, netmask, gateway, nameservers and then track the used IPs without overlapping them or wasting the 10 that got assigned to PCs that were phased out months back.

It's still easy to connect from a client no matter which setup you have, I can either change to DHCP if you have it, or change to static if you don't and watch ARP requests or guess which IP address is the router that gets me past your local subnet. Adding or removing a DHCP server isn't going to change that.

And actually, your "DHCP-Mac-address-binding server" (if that means it's a DHCP server with a bunch of hard coded, or shall we call them static, MAC address to IP mappings) is as close to static IPs as you will get, without the aformentioned individual configuration of 250 machines.

In summary, unless you described either the current setup or the request wrong, you already have what they asked for: each of the "machines on the network connect with a static ip address" that is based on their network card's MAC address.

thanks for all the info. Its beginning to make more sense to me as well as understanding my current setup at work. My final question is once I have changed over to static ip setup, does the DNS need to be updated as well to reflect the host name of each computer and their corresponding IP address? If so how do I go about doing so.

Kind regards

Hello

I have a dhcp linux server which users authenticate via dynamically allocated.I am trying to change this so users logon via Mac address bind ip addressing. Apart from making changes to the dhcpd.conf files, is there any other file that requires changing.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Kind regards

Well the best way to know if it works is to test it...If you did the configuration of the dhcpd.conf right then it should work ...Try it...if you have probs tell us and we can help you out

thanks for that Alinux.
On another note, I remember you previously suggesting using jnettop as a network monitoring tool. Can yo tell me if I can use this on a dedicated server or does it have to be on the server running dhcp and dns?
Kind regards

You can use either jnetop or iftop.... both are similar but I personally prefer jnetop . They can help you to determine which IP is consuming how much bandwidth and accessing which hosts. After installing either one of the programs. Just open a shell...
1- su
2- jnetop -i eth0 "where eth0 is the interface you want to monitor"
iftop uses a similar syntax

If you want to measure overall traffic consumption over a period and want a webinterface for it use darkstat

newbie here...pls help!!

having problem on fc4.. i can't print in winxp using fc4..network is ok file sharing is ok..but theres no icon of printer when i browse the winxp, its just shared folder


tnx in advance

google for cups

I think the term you are looking for is persistent dhcp.

That way the dhcp server always gives the same IP address to the same MAC address.

bbtron, you will probably get better help by starting a new thread with your problem, that trying to hijack someone elses

soule