Re: parallel computing, rsh, and DHCP environment?
On Fri, 9 Apr 1999 kvaughan@bc.cc.ca.us wrote:
> In <[🔎] Pine.LNX.4.05.9904090848470.17876-100000@weck.brokersys.com>, on
> 04/09/99
> at 08:52 AM, Jonathan Guthrie <jguthrie@brokersys.com> said:
> >Of course it is! If the LAN was mostly static, then I'd suggest using the
> >/etc/hosts files on each computer, but if things are going to change with
> >any frequency at all, then you'd probably want to set up a name server on
> >one of the computers and set up the others to refer to that so that you
> >don't have to change the configuration of each computer when you change the
> >address of one of them.
> OK, but if the addresses change occasionally, then it would still be a mess
> even with setting up a DNS, yes? (given that the hosts file needs IP
> addresses?)
Well, the advantage of using DNS is that the required changes are limited
to the file on the master DNS server. That means there is only a single
place that needs to be changed. Of course, DNS servers work best when
their addresses are fixed and known.
> Perhaps I'm simply stuck with making the best of a bad situation ... :(
> Out of curiosity, do DHCP-administered addresses change only when a lease
> expires without renewal? (These machines are not allowed to stay up
> constantly.)
That depends upon whether or not you (as opposed to some MIS department)
are running the DHCP server. Normally, computers that need names get
fixed IP addresses and the DHCP server is configured accordingly. That
means that a given computer would ALWAYS have the same IP address.
If you don't have that sort of control over the network addresses, then
you'll need to do some sort of dynamic updates of a name server. If you
can't get a fixed IP address of at least one computer under your control,
then getting everything to work can get ugly. It's not particularly
complicated to write a program to handle the dynamic IP allocation under
any circumstances, I've written similar address discovery code for my
current day job, but the more control you have over the infrastructure,
the easier it is to do. (You comment about the machines not being
permitted to stay up 100% implies to me that you don't have a lot of
control over the infrastructure.)
I'm certainly not aware of any available application that can do what you
need. However, someone else might be. Dynamic DNS is not exactly unheard
of.
--
Jonathan Guthrie (jguthrie@brokersys.com)
Brokersys +281-895-8101 http://www.brokersys.com/
12703 Veterans Memorial #106, Houston, TX 77014, USA
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