I have a DHCP server running on another box that is also updating DNS (also on that box).

Recently one of my Mandrake 10 boxes stopped registering the clients host name with the server. the other clients on my network register with the server fine.

I brought eth0 down (ifconfig eth0 down) removed the lease form the server and the client and restarted eth0 (ifconfig eth0 up). Still same problem.

I then used Mandrakes configuration tools to remove the interface and re-add it. Still the same problem. The lease shows up on the server but with out the client name.

I removed the interface again, The lease from the client and the server, and reinstalled the DHCP client. I then re-added the interface and reconfigured it. Same issue. Not reporting the clients host name to the server.

I have gone through the same steps above in different orders..adding reboots to the process etc.. but I seem to be going in circles.

One thing I can't remember though is the name of the file that the interface config is stored in.

I know resolv.conf is for DNS, hosts (local host table), nsswitch.conf for NIS (which I am not using), I thought it was net.conf for the interface configuration (dhcp vs static etc..) but I can't seem to locate that file (find / -type f -name '*net*.*conf*').

Maybe I have the name wrong. any ideas would be helpful.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/*

I checked those files for which one conatined my machines hostname by doing "grep -i hostname *" and found that the DHCP Hostname was being stored in a file named ifcfg-eth0, and that this file also tells the system that it is to use DHCP. So I guess now the question is why is the DHCP client not reporting this information to the server?

Any ideas?

Hi,
If you find dhcp in these files, you have a dhcp client. Instead of give a number compatible with /etc/hosts, the system will ask a server for one in the startup.Here is my ifcfg-eth0

IF I am reading your cfg correctly, you have a static IP.

Here is what my cfg reads.

Now if I am reading this correctly the system should be telling the DHCP server that the machine name it would like to use is my-box and that the DHCP server should be appending what ever I have the domain suffix set to in this case lets say home.lan, so the fully qualified domain name that should be getting sent to the DNS server would be my-box.home.lan.

The problem is that the DHCP server does not appear to be recieving the DHCP_HOSTNAME for what ever reason.. That's my confusion. I thought it might have had something to do with the original lease the machine had obtained but as far as I can tell I removed the lease from /var/lib/dhcp and from the servers dhcpd.leases ( and restarted the DHCP server) before tryng to aquire a new lease.

What dns server do you use? In the leases file you see the name of "my-box" after acquiring a lease? Did you look any exception in your "/var/log/messages" in both the server and the client machine?

<<What dns server do you use?>>

The server is an SME 6.0.1 server from contribs.org. It uses tinydns.


<<In the leases file you see the name of "my-box" after acquiring a lease?>>

For all other (Linux and Windows) clients but this one yes, I see the host name in the dhcps.leases file. The thing is that at one point the host name for this client showed up as well. It just stopped reporting it one day.


<<Did you look any exception in your "/var/log/messages" in both the server and the client machine?>>

"DAWN BREAKS ON MARBLE HEAD!!!"

Imagine that.. Me check the log files.... No like an idiot I haven't looked at them yet.. I'll do that now.

osvaldomarques you suggested looking at the ever so mystical messages log file. In it I found that eventually the system started reporting an error on line 1 of dhclient-eth0.conf. The log stated that there was a missing semi-colon. I added the semi-colon to the end of line 1 and still no joy.

What I ended up doing was removing the interface through the control panel. I then went and renamed dhclient-eth0.conf to old-dhclient-eth0.conf and once again I removed the lease from the workstation and the server. I then restarted the machine (probably unnecessary but it is an old windows habit) and went back to the control panel to add the network interface again. Checked the server and everything appears to be working properly now.

Thanks for the kick in the brain osvaldomarques

Hi Buddha joe,
Every problem is a challenge and an opportunity to learn more. I would suggest you compare both files now to see if there is a difference.

Have a nice week end!