Server Logic

How Dynamic Naming Works

Assign Name by HW Address is primarily intended for use when the name service can be updated. When the name service cannot be updated, there is a latency between a machine acquiring a new IP address and its name being associated with that address.

JOIN maintains its own internal name database for use in tracking prior name-hardware-IP address combinations. This is useful when the name service is cannot be updated. When you load or dump name data via jdbmod or jdbdump, this database is modified, not the name service.

Accept Client Name is used:

When the policy is assigned a name by the hardware and the client has never been seen before,
When the policy is assigned the IP address as its name, and the IP address offered is not in the database. The client name cannot be used if it is assigned to another client.
Assign Name by IP Address can often be very slow because if the IP address offered is not in the name service, NIS looks for the address via DNS.
The name pool is for use when the policy in force does not imply a name and the client does not suggest a name or the Accept Client Name convention is not in force. Then, a name is taken from the pool. Names in the pool, once used, are never returned to the pool.
You cannot update any name service in a domain which differs from the server's domain.
You also can use a simple text editor, such as vi, to edit DHCP name files.

How JOIN Resolves a Client Configuration

Each group of parameters has a key. A key is a single field, or combination of fields, that identifies a particular scope of validity for those parameters. Valid keys are:

client identifier-net

The parameters are valid for the particular client machine on that particular network. The parameters are not valid for a different client on the network or for the specific client on a different network.

net-client class

The parameters are valid for the specific class of machine on the specific network.

client identifier

The parameters are valid for the client, regardless of the network, unless overridden by a client identifier-net combination.

client class

The parameters are valid for the class, regardless of the network.

net

The parameters are valid for the network, regardless of the client identifier.

no key

Do not use a key when you want to factor out parameters with identical values. For example, assume a configuration where all networks use the same domain name and they use the same name servers. If you name an entry with these two data items, then that name can be referenced from all other records which require those values.

Last Modified: 11:32am , November 11, 1996