On Sun, 9 Jan 2000, Chad W. Skinner wrote:
> Regarding the information below: I believe I read in the documentation for
> dhcp a while back that the dhcp server keeps a database of the clients and
> the ip numbers assigned to them. From my understanding this was so that the
> server could reassign the same address to the clients (If in fact the
> address is available). Did I understand this correctly or does the database
> just keep track of addresses that are unavailable and can not be assigned.
DHCP server does not technically need to keep a database (on RedHat,
/etc/dhcpd.leases by default) on hard disk. In fact under Linux it does
not consult the database on the harddisk when handing out leases. DHCP
server keeps an internal database of leases in memory.
The sole reason of keeping a file on the hard disk is that the server can
start working where the previous DHCP server left off. Let's say the DHCP
server crashes for whatever reason. Upon startup (either server reboot, or
the daemon restart) it reads the file and updates its internal table
accordingly. So if the previous server gave out a lease (which has not
expired yet), the new server knows about it. This is so it doesn't start
handing out IPs which are already handed out (and current).
All the above is only valid in case you use dynamic IP ranges for lease.
In the case of static ones (the ones you relate each IP to a particular
MAC address in dhcpd.conf), you don't need this, and therefore DHCP server
does not update the file on the harddisk.
Hossein
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