I don't think redhat 9 installer has the option to add in the hostname to the interface script. It is something they missed out by mistake I think.
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Linux DHCP and DNS in a Windows network
I am setting up a number of Linux systems on a Windows network. In the past, I have done this with small networks, where editing the host files on each system was practical. Now I need to configure the systems to use the Windows DHCP and DNS servers.
During the installation (Red Hat 9), I told the install to automatically configure both DHCP and DNS. As I understand it, the systems should do the following during startup:
1) Find the DHCP server, obtain an IP address from it, and configure the network interface with that IP address.
2) Find the DNS server so that it can be used to resolve domain names.
3) Pass the system's name and the assigned IP address to the DNS server so that other systems can connect to the system using that name.
The first two parts seem to work correctly. The Linux boxes obtain an IP address and configure themselves during startup. The Linux boxes also are able to resolve the domain names of other systems on the network.
However, it seems that the DNS server is not being informed about the Linux system's name and IP address, so other systems cannot refer to the Linux systems by their symbolic names.
Does anyone know how to configure the system so that #3 also occurs? I would also be interested to know what I should have done during the Red Hat 9 install to have this configured automatically, assuming that is possible.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
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Answers
What actually happens is that the Linux box sends out a DHCP broadcast looking for a DHCP server. It then queries the DHCP server aand sends its hostname and gets back the network settings to use including the DNS server to use. It is the DHCP server which updates the entry in the DNS.
I have configured this on Linux using dhcpd and Bind-9 a few times. You do need the 'DHCP_HOSTNAME' on Redhat Linux machines in order for the DHCP client to send a hostname to the DHCP server.
Thanks for your answer, grblades.
Unfortunately, I could not get that to work. I added the DHCP_HOSTNAME parameter, which was not in the icfg-eth0 file. I tried setting it to the simple name (db2) and the fully qualified name (db2.domain.com). I also tried adding DHCPCDARGS=-D, since that was not in the file, but it did not seem to have an effect.
The following are the contents of the file:
# Broadcom Corporation|NetXtreme BCM5703 Gigabit Ethernet
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
HWADDR=00:0B:CD:CB:05:97
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no
DHCPCDARGS=-D
DHCP_HOSTNAME=db2
I have checked the name server using "nslookup" on the Windows systems and "host" on the Linux systems, but the DNS servers do not appear to know about the Linux systems.
Regarding the installer / network configuration tools: The following bug report seems to be talking about the same problem, but it seems to indicate that the problem was fixed, which does not seem to be the case.
https://bugzilla.redhat.co
One interesting note: I have also been setting up SAMBA on some of the systems, and I found that both Windows and Linux systems can resolve the names of the Linux systems that have SAMBA running. I think that is the WINS stuff that does that, but I am not certain about that.
> It is the DHCP server which updates the entry in the DNS.
OK, I was not aware of that. Since this works with many Windows boxes on the network, there must be something different in the way that the Linux boxes are making the DHCP request, although I have no idea what that would be.
> You do need the 'DHCP_HOSTNAME' on Redhat Linux machines in order for the DHCP
> client to send a hostname to the DHCP server.
That makes sense - it cannot bind the name in DNS if it does not know the name.
However, I am somewhat confused about configuring the system name(s). First, there is the DHCP_HOSTNAME setting, which applies to the interface. There is also the value that you can configure through the menu "System Settings" | "Network", which applies to the entire system, appears on the login screen and seems to be what the uname command shows.
Are there two different settings because of the possibility of having multiple network cards? Note that the systems I am working with each have two network cards, although only eth0 is active.
AFAIK you can not get a windoze DNS server to register a none-M$ system
wondoze's DNS uses WINS to register DHCP-assigned IPs
may be I missed something last 5 years (please correct me if I'm wrong) , but it sounds like you either need to tell you DNS server the Linux IP, and the DHCP server to assigne that IP, or you need to change your DNS server
> Yes you are correct in that the two settings are so you can
> register different names for different network interfaces.
> Are you sure the windows machines have their data in the DNS?
> Remember windows name lookups use network broadcasts and WINS
> to find other computer names.
If I undersand your question correctly, the answer is yes. If I query DNS using "nslookup" on the Windows boxes and both "host" and "nslookup" on the Linux boxes, it resolves the names of systems that have been on the network, but not the new ones I am adding.
I just found some interesting information:
Most of the Windows boxes on the network are members of the Windows domain, but a few are not - they are "workgroup" members. None of the Linux boxes are members of the Windows domain.
With one exception (which can probably be explained), the systems that are not part of the Windows domain are not known to the DNS server.
It sounds like the problem is with the Windows configuration, not with Linux. I would think that it should be possible to have Windows workgroup systems attached to a Windows network make their names known via DNS.
guessing ('cause I [wd]on't touch M$):
windoze networking (whatever this means) is configured to be "simple to use" hence the default is that the dhcp service registers all hosts in dns service by default
a domain loggon only might not do that, therfor you may give the dhcp service hints like MACs or hostnames, then they are always given the same IP (and being registerd in dns, not shure)
You also can try to add your linux box to the domain by using Samba. Samba also can do a domain logon.
Don't know if that solves your problem.
grblades: Yes, it is Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. I am guessing that it might be a configuration issue with Active Directory, but that is someone else's territory, so I am limited in the investigation I can do.
ahoffmann: As I understand it, DHCP doles out the IP addresses, and it identifies the system it gave them to based on the MAC address. It allocates them based on a "lease time", so once it assigns an IP, it will not give it to anyone else until the lease expires.
Unfortunately, the lease time here is set to something in the range on 1 day, so I can power down systems at night without problem. However, when I shut the systems down for a weekend, they sometimes get different IP addresses on Monday. Without the DNS integration, I need to create /etc/host files with the IP addresses, and that causes problems when the IP addresses change.
In any case, the systems for which I was dealing with this issue have been shipped out, so I am pushing it to the back burner. I want to figure this out eventually, but this is no longer the time.
Thank you both for all of your help. I greatly appreciate it.
Regards,
John McGrath
Hi,
I've solved the exact same problem, here's the issue... windows servers 2000, and 2003 both can allow the client to update the dns server, this works fine with w2k,xp clients (this is the "register connection in dns" check box under tcp/ip networking).
However, the 3 big linux dhcp clients don't do this very well if at all. dhcpcd or pump, do not update the dns server, and dhclient can update an ISC based dns server, but I haven't tested with windows, see dhclients man page.
grblades had the right ifcfg-eth0 info, but that only sends the "hostname" to the dhcp server. In order to get linux clients hostnames into the windows dns, you have to turn on "dhcp server updates dns" on the windows box and restart the services.
mg
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by: grbladesPosted on 2004-06-28 at 10:44:31ID: 11418183
You need to set the 'DHCP_HOSTNAME' in the interface configutation file. For example the file '/etc/sysconfig/network-sc
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
DHCPCDARGS=-D
DHCP_HOSTNAME=yourhostname
ONBOOT=yes