[SGVLUG] How to manage DNS for DHCP-assigned clients?

[Emerson, Tom]

> [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On Behalf Of Adam Compton
> Emerson, Tom wrote:
> >
> > What about pulling [the files in an] "if-up" (or equivalent) script?
> 
> That is one of the solutions I had considered ...
> would like the computers to have valid DNS names so that we could 
> connect to them for one-offs, and also so that our logs were 
> easier to parse. ... Some clients are laptops that travel between 
> physical subnets, so I don't think static IP addresses would serve in 
> those cases.

In my original response, I had started down the line of "what about
monitoring 'arp -a'?" but realized this may not work in all cases (the
clients need to connect to the "monitor" at some point, though I suppose
you could force this by doing a periodic range-arping to hit every IP in
a subnet...)  In any case, ARP uses MAC addresses (no, not Macintosh
addresses...) which should remain constant over the lifetime of the
equipment (unless you have folks doing "funny" things) You could
maintain your own small db/table of MAC-to-Machine associations for your
"one off" updates.  (parsing may still be a pain, unless you put both
the log and your table into some form of relational/queryable database
to manage that part of the system...)