DHCP Server(ADV)

[Swann]

OK.. this is what I need todo. I am wondering if I can make a DHCP server that works in a work group of about 100 Machines. I need this to do MAC address managment to the IP's.. I pretty much want it to sit on the net work and feed a certain IP to a specified Mac adress. This Machine will plug into a rack. I am using WinNT server to do the job right now. But I'm wondering if anything in Linux could do it any better. And I hope it can. If you have any info e-mail me at jswann@wvu.edu. Thanks.

[bleg26]

I don't know for sure if Linux will do it better than NT, but it can be done.
You'ld have to have an entry for every client. Which to me would be too much work for 100 clients. But, if you only need a handfull of those clients with an IP that is always the same, would probably save you some time. Just "man dhcpd.conf" to get the parameters you need.

Brian

[r]

Not sure if RedHat's DHCP server does it better than NT but linux is cheaper. Right now I'm testing 50 machines with static ip's and it works very well. It's very easy to change every computers ip configuration. If you dont do dynamic addresses then it's straight forward. Dynamic addresses rely on keeping an accurate lease file or you'll run out of ip's. You can create the dhcpd.conf file really fast using awk then a quick manual edit. I'm sure other could do it in perl but that would take me too long. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif We used arpwatch to obtain the needed MAC addresses. There is also Webmin to help you configure dhcp but it will take a while to enter in 100 computes.

One thing we tried was to increase the lease time to see if windows retained its ip address after a reboot when the DHCP server was not found, and it does.

.r

[Fandelem]

Yes, it's definitely possible. I have a DHCP server on my home network of 9 computers and for each of those nine computers, they are assigned .1-9, based on their MAC addresses (you have to get all of these MAC addresses and put them in the config file, but only once). Then, when my friends come over, they are assigned starting at .10 up to around .200 I believe.

I have started trying to write a NHF on Home Networking, and I'd love to hear input from people. I wrote the basic design last night, and there is a section in there about DHCP servers and how to set them up. If you would.. go check it out, and tell me if it helped you, and if you had to do anything else besides that, etc.. so I can make changes..
http://www.fandelem.com/nhf.html

hope it helps,

~kyle

(there's a dhcpd.conf file that you will definitely want to get, and change to your liking, btw)

[DucPilot]

Fandelem, can you do a once over on my problem? I listed it in the General Linux section because I wasn't sure where to post it. Basically, when one of my clients accesses the net via Linux, at some point, the Linux box will spit out a kernel panic, that's the title of the post. I'm not sure what it's related to. Please HELP! Thanks in advance. I'll refer to your document as well and see if that sheds any light. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/confused.gif

[Swann]

Thansk alot for your Help.. that web page is awsome

[Fandelem]

Here is your General Linux post:

"Okay. I've been messin' with Linux RH 6.2 for about 2 months now. My goal was to use it as a medium strength firewall from the Internet and allow the clients on my network to access the Internet, a bridge I guess. It's installed on a Pent 100Mhz, 64Mb RAM, IBM Aptiva with a 5 gig hard drive and all the standard hardware that came with Aptiva's. The hard drive is aftermarket. NIC's are by Linksys and are of the PCI variety 10/100 Fast Ethernet. Here's the problem: When I surf the net on my client, it seems to be running fine. All of a sudden, while surfing, it's spit out gobs of code. At the end there'll be a "kernel panic" message as well. I wish I could duplicate the message but it's obviously on the linux box and no way for me to copy and paste to my Win box. The client is a Win 98, AMD Athlon 500Mhz, 200+Mb of RAM. The hub is a Netgear DS104. Oh yeah, and my ISP is Roadrunner."

Honestly, if you have only been working with linux for two months, and have been messing around with stuff, I just recommend re-installing. A great way to debug problems when you are getting started with Linux is either write down on a piece of paper everything you do (upgrading, installing, files you configure, etc) or on another computer in notepad or something.. and test it out (whether it be dhcp via your other computer, or running apache, etc..) after every thing you do, because you'll be able to narrow down *where* your mistake are coming from, a lot quicker. It took me about 2 months to get a basic understanding on Linux.. mainly because I had no clue who to ask for help, so I stumbled around 'in the dark' configuring something.. messing up everything.. re-installing.. etc.. and first I did it sloppy and just did a bunch of things and it stopped working.. so I applied that method and it seemed to help narrow down where my problems were.. well, anyways.. enough babbling.. on to your problem:

you *can* check your messages (on your server) from your windows box.

start -> run -> telnet
enter in your server's ip address... login.. then type:
su
[enter your *root* password]
then type:
tail -f /var/log/messages &
and now you are "monitoring" your logfile (in the background, sorta..).

now try to get on the internet, or provoke your server to get the kernel panic, and you should be able to see what it is via your telnet window.. but I'm not sure if kernel panics are logged.. I never really bothered to diagnose it that far http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

well, if that *doesn't* work, I recommend just re-installing, and trying my (hopefully-soon-to-be)NHF out ( http://www.fandelem.com/nhf.html )

hope this could help,

regards,

~kyle

[This message has been edited by Fandelem (edited 02 November 2000).]