[Gllug] Best practice: Server IPaddr allocation

[Ian Norton-Badrul]

Your setup sounds rather complicated,

I would be tempted to go for dhcp and dns, it will save you trouble in the long
run. That would still allow you to separate your network either physically
and/or logically too.

Ian

On Fri, Jul 27, 2007 at 04:38:31PM +0100, DL Neil wrote:
> Learning Linux. Asking for advice:-
> 
> As is the way with life we have been gradually increasing the number  
> of PCs/servers on our LAN and adding extra components such as a  
> Freecom FSG-3 "Storage Gateway" which apparently will run a simple  
> LAMP stack, email server, file services, media server(?),... as well  
> as the usual routing, DHCP, and DNS facilities of such an appliance.  
> It has been running happily for a little while but I've been taking  
> some time today (Friday, yeah!) to rationalise the home/office network  
> by making it start to sing for its supper.
> 
> Instead of the more usual Bind/named and dhcpd, it uses dnsmasq to  
> accomplish both DHCP and DNS in one. Whilst the software is small, it  
> is not so frequently published on the web.
> 
> Previously I manually edited the hosts files on each of our machines,  
> but this has become more of an effort as the number of machines (and  
> Apache VHosts) has multiplied. So my first job was to point each  
> client computer to the FSG's DNS server and clear-out the various  
> clients' hosts files. Done. Great!
> 
> Guest machines (eg paying customers) have always been client-only and  
> thus configure with dynamic IP address allocation from the DHCP  
> server. However most of our own machines act as both client and  
> server, eg desktop or development and run Apache (etc), and thus have  
> been given a static IP address on the LAN.
> 
> As well as the traditional two allocation methods mentioned (static  
> and dynamic - the only ones that I've come across to-date = mea  
> culpa!?) Dnsmasq offers an additional config option, eg:
> dhcp-host=11:22:33:44:55:66,192.168.0.60
> 
> This always allocates a 'constant' (if not "static") IP address to the  
> host with the stated MAC address. The host thus being defined as a  
> dynamic DHCP client but allocated an address on the LAN sub-net  
> although outside the DHCP 'dynamic pool'.
> 
> In the same way that I have 'exported' name resolution from the  
> individual PCs' hosts files to the 'DNS server', would it be 'best  
> practice' to centralise the allocation of static addresses at the  
> 'DHCP server'? Why (not)?
> 
> Regards,
> =dn
> 
> PS for those who actually understand/like such detail:
> 
> dnsmasq is available from http://thekelleys.org.uk/
> 
> Details of the Freecom FSG-3 "Storage Gateway" can be found at  
> http://freecom.com/product.asp?CatID=8070
> (don't confuse Freecom (?Dutch company) with the multinational  
> networking company whose similar-sounding name begins with the digit 3!)
> 
> When it boots, the appliance puts out the following identifications to  
> its log:
> Linux version 2.4.27-uc1 (root at lindev) (gcc version 3.3.2) #1612 Fr  
> Jun 9 13:10:52 CEST 2006
> BusyBox v1.00 (2006.01.05-16:28+0000)
> Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
> Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
> 
> 
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-- 
Ian Norton-Badrul

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