Best practice for network configuration

[William Muriithi]

Hi buddies,

On 28 June 2011 08:14, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Christopher Browne wrote:
>>
>> 1.  Minimization of local configuration information + central
>> management means that the central server is a potential Single Point
>> of Failure.  If the DHCP server is, for any reason, inaccessible, that
>> server will remain mute.
>
> No reason why you can't have multiple DHCP servers, so long as there's some
> method to prevent assigning the same address to multiple computers.
========================
First, apology for the typo I have in my initial mail.  I meant to say
the following

"I have googled on what is recommended method of network setup and I
do not seem to get anything authoritative."
 and
"Would anyone out there know of any reason ..."

=====================

Hmm, good idea. I still do not like the set up one bit and has too
many potential problem for negligible convenience. Think about it.

When we use DHCP, you still have to map the IP address to a MAC on
each and every server you deploy, else the server may randomly change
their IP leading to an outage. So, all this involve is moving the
necessary change from the deployment server to DHCP, not doing away
with change.  Worse, when you have two or three DHCP servers, you now
need to make 3 changes for every server deployment, in effect
increasing configurations needed.  That sound counter intuitive to me.

On change dispatch, it also sound like a REALLY REALLY BAD idea.  In
fact, if I have 150 servers and plans to change the IP through DHCP, I
would write and sign my resignation letter first. Think of all the
application configurations that are likely to be bound to a specific
IP.  I have seen a good number of them in the few years I have been
administrator. I will give you an example, if you have a server that
uses ISCSI, check the ISCSI configuration.  Chances are it has an IP
dependence, and that will not be taken care of by DHCP.  So with 150
servers, you are guaranteed to have lots of things that will stop
working.  Worse, you can not easily figure what is wrong, as you
introduced 150 changes with a single keyboard strike. That mean, you
are likely to have a couple of rough days and lots of people breathing
on your neck.  Not something I would opt for to save myself 3 lines of
changes

Regards,

William
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