Re: [tlug] NAS and DHCP?

["Daniel A. Ramaley" <daniel.ramaley@example.com>]

> (The router is a Buffalo AirStation, and it also acts as the DNS
> server for my network. So I'm thinking maybe there is a clever option
> to assign a DNS name based on the mac address, and all clients would
> use the name not the IP address. Where I got stuck was working out
> how, even if it was possible, that would be better than a static IP
> address...)

What i do in my private network is have 1 machine with a truly static IP 
(as in hard-configured on the machine rather than a static address 
pulled from DHCP). That 1 machine acts as my DHCP and DNS server.

On that machine, IPs are assigned in DNS. For example, i have a machine 
in DNS like so:

        anthracis               IN A    192.168.1.18

Then in my DHCP configuration, i just use the name of the machine 
instead of duplicating the IP:

        host anthracis {
                hardware ethernet 00:19:e3:35:50:2b;
                fixed-address anthracis;
        }

Bind is smart enough to do a name lookup for "anthracis" to get the IP 
that it should serve. This way DNS -> IP mappings are only stored in one 
place (the DNS configuration) and MAC addresses are also only stored in 
one place.

Now, you mentioned that you are using the device as a DNS server. That 
might make this exact setup non-trivial; it would be difficult for the 
DHCP server to do a DNS query to a DNS server that doesn't have an IP 
yet. (Assuming DHCP is on a different server... if it is on the same 
device, maybe it can work.) I'm not sure if this way of configuring 
would work for you, but it is what i do and i'm just throwing it out in 
case it helps someone else.

__
Daniel A. Ramaley
Network Engineer 2

Dial Center 112, Drake University
2407 Carpenter Ave / Des Moines IA 50311 USA
Tel: +1 515 271-4540
Fax: +1 515 271-1938
E-mail: daniel.ramaley@example.com