Adding a new machine

From Computer Club Wiki

Summary

Here are the details on how to add a new machine to the CCLUB office's network.

Adding DHCP static address reservation

Log onto rita and, as superuser, edit the /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf file.

You will need to add a line within the subnet 10.42.2.0 specification with the following format:

host <hostname> {
       hardware ethernet <hardware MAC Address>;
       fixed address <IP address>;
}

If you do not know the hardware MAC address associated with the network interface card of the new computer, you can find it by running the IP configuration utility. Plug the computer into the network and boot it up. It will automatically obtain an IP entry from the DHCP server, and should be able to access the Internet. If this computer will not have resources available to club members, the steps in this wiki article are not required. These instructions exist only to give a persistent means of accessing network resources. To find the MAC address run the IP configuration utility

 Linux and Unix-like systems (Look for the information after "HWaddr")
 ifconfig

 Windows systems (Look for the information after "Physical Address")
 ipconfig

The MAC address reported by your operating systems IP configuration utility may be formatted using ":"s or "-"s as delimiters. DHCP3 requires the ":" delimited format, you may need to replace "-" with ":" in the reported MAC address found above.

The IP address should be an IP on the 10.42.2.0 network that is not available for assignment in the dynamic host allocation pool. Use an IP address between 2 and 99. Make sure that the IP you choose is not already in use. To do this, from a machine already connected to the network and able to reach other machines run the ping command:

ping 10.42.2.55

Where 10.42.2.55 is an example of an IP you might have selected (replace it with the IP you actually want). If the output of ping comes back with messages such as "Host unreachable" and has 100% loss, it is probably safe to use this address assignment. Double check the rest of the /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf file to make sure this number hasn't been pre-allocated to a machine which may currently be offline.

You will need to restart the dhcp3 server daemon before changes will be effective. Type:

sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server restart

Adding the DNS and reverse DNS entries to the DNS server

Log into dot and, as superuser, edit the /etc/bind/db.cclub file.

Change the DNS zone files "serial" number to reflect the current date, for example if today was June 24th, 2007, and this was the first edit to the zone file today, the serial number line should be:

@  1D  IN        SOA dot.       hostmaster.cclub. (
                              2007062400 ; serial

Increment the last 2 digits (00 to 01) on subsequent edits for the same day. This change is required to make sure that all participating DNS servers and caches update to reflect the new changes.

For the IP address to be added, enter:

<machine>   IN      A       <IP Address>

Where "machine" is the host name you want to use to reach the new computer at. If you need help selecting a proper hostname for the cclub's network naming schema see: [Animaniacs]

The whitespace between the entries probably needs to be a tab.

For the reverse DNS, as superuser, edit the file "/etc/bind/db.10.42".

Edit the "serial" in "/etc/bind/db.10.42" in the same manner as described for "/etc/bind/db.cclub" above.

Entries in the Reverse DNS DB file are formatted as follows:

<num>.2    IN      PTR     <hostname>.

Where "num" is the last number in the four byte IP address and "hostname" is the hostname you indicated in the /etc/bind/db.cclub file. Important: Don't forget the trailing period after the hostname.