[syslinux] Network Boot IP Configuration Dilemma
H. Peter Anvin
hpa at zytor.com
Fri Sep 5 17:33:21 PDT 2003
Fred Feirtag wrote:
>
> If the pxelinux.cfg "IPAPPEND 1" entry is used, an "ip=..." string is
> appended to the parameters passed to the kernel. This is, as I will
> ultimately conclude below, a less problematic approach, however,
> it is in need of being extended to use the currently unused "device"
> parameter.
>
Except, it's not. If the "device" parameter is specified then the
kernel may very well configure a different device. Always tagging
::eth0: at the end is highly problematic (in fact, it's downright wrong.)
There is another issue to keep in mind: unless you're running a dhcp
server in userspace, your dhcp lease will eventually time out and the
dhcp server may assign an IP address conflict.
> 3) A second DHCP server answers the request differently than
> the first. This is from my experience, the much more likely
> and frequent problem. Where different servers, possibly
> unintentionally, are answering on the same network, one may
> often answer first for the first request, and the other may
> often answer first for subsequent requests, as the busier, but
> faster system has dhcpd swapped in.
Of all your problem descriptions, this is the only one which isn't
actually a problem. You will either obtain a legal configuration, or
you have a much more serious problem of two unsynchronized dhcp servers
stomping on each other.
Since both your #1 and #2 are problems that would occur *with* your
change, and #3 is not a problem in a properly set up environment, I
don't see this as beneficial in any form. I am, however, willing to
listen to arguments to the contrary.
-hpa
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