[Techtalk] serverless IP assignment?

[Malcolm]

On Tuesday 12 February 2002 12:21 pm, Raven, corporate courtesan wrote:

> 	Of course, I don't know how much your devices actually draw.  If
> they're PC-sized, you're probably okay under most circumstances.  

Under PC sized (PC motherboard, low class pentium-type cpu, harddrive, 
touchscreen).

> But
> I've seen people put 5 Netras and two huge monitors off one power strip,
> off a plug with older wiring, and it just gets ugly.

Yike.

> 	Under the circumstances you've outlined, Michelle's suggestion
> sounds like a good solution for you.  Give it the biggest range of
> bootable IPs you can to lessen the chance that you'll get duplicates
> (before they even start looking for the DHCP server).  The random
> backoff period would quite likely help with two boxes not deciding
> they're the DHCP server at the same time.

If we've got to do that for the DCHP server, what advantage is there for 
using the DCHP server over the same technique for picking a random IP?

> 	Is the hardware for these devices (both legacy and current)
> absolutely identical (same processor speeds, etc.)?  

No.

> That way your fastest-to-boot devices will become the DHCP server, if
> there isn't one already.

That assumes they all power up together, which is not predictable. (They 
might have a few machines on the same switch, they might all be seperate and 
turned on one at a time).

> > See above, this is not an unlikely situation as it's more than just power
> > cuts, but end users turning the machines off (generally by hitting the
> > power switch, which is a whole other set of problems).
> 	Journaling filesystem?  [grin]

Read-only partitions for most of it, and journaling on the variable data 
partition.

> > I'm not, there isn't any. Each location is a self contained network. (Not
> > entirely, each machine also has a modem it uses to 'dial home' as it
> > were, but no routing is needed between the internal and external networks
> > at this point in time).
> 	Okay.  Are you ever going to need that, in the foreseeable
> future?  If you are, might as well build it in now and save yourself an
> upgrade later.

Forseeable future being at least a year from now, it's possible. Time to 
working solution is important at this point in time though. The possible 
options for shared external network access are too varied to predict anything 
at this point now.

(It's not quite as bad as my first job where we used to joke when the latest 
industry magazine product "preview" was published that the new spec had 
arrived, but this is not a carefully planned corporate IT network I'm dealing 
with here).



-- 
Beauty carved in flesh
Desire set in stone.
Evolution calling...
Afraid to be alone.
- 'Sand' Spider Lilies

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