[Maas-devel] Strategy regarding DNS and static DHCP leases

[Jeroen Vermeulen]

On 2012-07-19 19:38, Gavin Panella wrote:

>> Note that a node will be without a hostname until an IP has been allocated
>> for that node.  We will need a way to display (in the UI) a name for that
>> node even before a proper hostname is set.  I suggest we revisit our
>> decision not to display the (auto-generated) node's system_id and use that
>> in the UI until a hostname is set.
>
> If we're auto-generating the hostname, and it's read-only, does this
> matter? On reflection, isn't MAAS meant to be uninterested in the
> preciousness of a single machine? We /could/ forego DNS altogether...

Actually I said the same thing, but Julian tells me there's tons of 
things that really do need hostnames.  Masochism, I suppose: “yes I have 
the IP address I need, but I owe the dominatrix a DNS lookup.”  :)

As for whether having a name matters: I think the only time when we may 
need to display a machine without having an IP address (and thus, 
hostname) for it would be enlistment.  Simply because the leases update 
may not have arrived yet.  AFAIC we could show a blank there, or 
“<address not yet known>,” and worry later about refreshing the display.


> Maybe what we want is a way for an external user to refer to their own
> allocated nodes that, when they deallocate their node, no longer
> works. In other words, if someone else allocates that node, the first
> user doesn't have a reference to it (in the form of a hostname). A
> scheme like ${system-id}.${username}.${maas-domain} might be one way
> to achieve this.

Juju already invented that wheel, didn't it?


> And, as Raphael has already said, none of this actually solves the
> problem that started this conversation, classful/classless networks :)

Would it be possible to treat all of the MAAS as a single zone with a 
mandatory “class boundary” netmask?  And if so, would it be helpful?

Yes, that means a potential million hostnames in one zone.  Is that bad? 
  No idea.  But maybe it's not so much worse than a thousand zones of a 
thousand hostnames each.  And we certainly won't be rewriting it all the 
time: even if you change an IP range, chances are you're just shifting 
internal address boundaries within the MAAS — no rewrite needed.


Jeroen