I spoke too fast in my reply (see below).
-----Original Message----- From: poeml@poeml.de [mailto:poeml@poeml.de]On Behalf Of poeml@cmdline.net Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 10:29 AM To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [SLE] SuSE Pro 9.1 - DNS and DHCP interaction
On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 11:40:10PM -0700, Richard Mixon (qwest) wrote:
I am a noobie when it comes to configuring DNS - some guidance is appreciated.
I am reading the DNS info in the 9.1 administration guide. It talks about setting up zone files where one ends up hardcoding the IP addresses for each hostname on the network. That seems to defeat the purpose of DHCP though.
No, that is a misunderstanding. You would in fact put IP addresses and their names into the zone files, but list _names_ only in the DHCP server configuration. (The DHCP server automatically does the necessary lookups.)
Your dhcpd.conf doesn't need to list any (server) hostnames _at all_.
The DNS zone files would be the primary repository of the name/address allocations.
Nevertheless, to associate fixed hostnames to clients you still need to tell the DHCP server some identifier that is coupled to a name (usually MAC address), and you would need to add hostnames to the DNS zone manuall.
That's where DDNS steps in: It reduces the administrative task to nothing but entering a hostname on the client -- the DHCP server will automatically update the DNS zone for you if that new client pops up.
OK, I've done my research on DDSN. But everything I read about DDNS indicates its only purpose it to let folks on the internet get to your home website (or other IP server) using a hostname, even if your IP address is assigned and renewed using DHCP (i.e. you do not have a static IP address). I thought maybe DDNS is also a more generic feature of DNS servers. I looked through the BIND9 README and FAQ. I do see the mention of dynamic updates, an "allow-updates" parm and something called TSIG. Is that the feature I want? THANKS again - Richard all I find, is about pointing your home/office to a DDNS provider
That's pretty elegant and very efficient. No more editing of dhcpd.conf for host statements, and no more editing of zone files, and always a working and consistent installation.
/usr/share/doc/packages/dhcp-server/DDNS-howto.txt
[...] I'm currently using a Linksys firewall as a DHCP server for my Windows clients.
I am setting up a SuSE Pro 9.1 server that will serve two main purposes: - Samba file and print sharing; - CVS source code server.
We currently only have six users. I would really like to get rid of the host files that I have been using on each server and workstation (servers Linus, workstations Windows 2000/XP). I think I need to setup a caching DNS server, plus 1 zone that identifies my local network servers and workstations.
Oh. Host files. You'll NEVER get them consistent. Really, get rid of them for good. :)
But as I said above, that seems like it defeats the purpose of DHCP. What am I missing.
Thank you - Richard
Peter