How to manage hostnames via DHCP?

[Niki Kovacs]

Hi,

I'm just trying to figure out how to handle hostnames via DHCP on a 
small LAN. I know how to do it with CentOS, so I'll describe the process 
on my CentOS machines.

On the server side, I have a dhcpd.conf that looks like this:

--8<---------- /etc/dhcpd.conf ---------------------------------
# Options globales
ddns-update-style interim;
authoritative;
default-lease-time  86400; # un jour
max-lease-time      86400; # un jour

# Données du réseau local
option broadcast-address    192.168.1.255;
option subnet-mask          255.255.255.0;
option routers              192.168.1.254;
option domain-name-servers  192.168.1.252;
option domain-name          "presbytere.montpezat";

# Plage d'adresses dynamiques
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
   range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.250;
}

host babasse	{
	hardware ethernet 00:0d:61:ae:6b:8f;
	fixed-address 192.168.1.1;
	option host-name "babasse";
}

host bernadette {
   hardware ethernet 00:0d:61:a6:e7:1e;
   fixed-address 192.168.1.2;
   option host-name "bernadette";
}

host raymonde {
   hardware ethernet 00:20:ed:b8:e8:ec;
   fixed-address 192.168.1.3;
   option host-name "raymonde";
}

...
--8<------------------------------------------------

Then on the client side, every machine that gets its network 
configuration via DHCP is configured like this:

--8<---------- /etc/sysconfig/network --------------
NETWORKING=yes
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
--8<------------------------------------------------

--8<---------- /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 -
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
--8<------------------------------------------------

--8<---------- /etc/hosts --------------------------
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
--8<------------------------------------------------

In this example, no machine has a "static" hostname configuration. 
Everything is managed centrally on the server. The 'hostname' and 
'hostname --fqdn' commands work correctly, in that they return something 
like 'raymonde' or 'raymonde.presbytere.montpezat'.

Now, how can I do the same thing on a 100 % Ubuntu network, version 
10.04 on server and desktops?

Cheers from the sunny South of France,

Niki