[OpenIndiana-discuss] OpenIndiana server networking problem.

[James Carlson]

On 07/02/13 22:27, Jim Klimov wrote:
> On 2013-07-03 01:59, James Carlson wrote:
>> On 7/2/2013 6:11 PM, Jim Klimov wrote:
>>> properly you'd need to update the /etc/netmasks file with this
>>> entry:
>>>
>>> 69.146.183.56   255.255.255.248
>>
>> /etc/netmasks is so 1980s.  I suggest "/24" (CIDR notation) instead.
>> It's simpler to use and doesn't have the sketchy matching heuristics
>> that /etc/netmasks uses.
> 
> And where would you suggest I put this? Into the /etc/hostname.XXX
> entry directly (and generally repeat for each interface on this net,
> though irrelevant for this discussion - Peter only has one per zone)?

Yes, I suggest that if you're going to use explicit configuration, then
it would be a good idea to be explicit about the subnet mask in use.

If you insist on explicit configuration, you're going to have to repeat
the insertion of a host name into each /etc/hostname.XXX file directly
for each interface you want to configure, so what's the beef with adding
three characters ("/xx") to that overall sad chore?

When I was at Sun, I far too often had to deal with people who'd managed
to hurt themselves with /etc/netmasks, because the matching rules don't
always work the way you expect.  In particular, they differ between
files and centralized services such as NIS.

Of course, I don't think any of this is a good way to administer the
system.  It's much better (in my opinion) to set up DHCP and use it to
centralize your network administration.  You can use it to provide
static addresses to the machines that need static addresses, provide
addresses based on arbitrary client identifiers, and it greatly
simplifies the almost inevitable renumbering and service changes that
administrators occasionally need to go through.  Plus, it "plays nice"
with other vendor's boxes.

Using a name rather than a number here is a nice small step you can
take, and (provided that you have "files" first in your nsswitch.conf) a
good way to minimize configuration blunders, but it's just one step.  I
just happen to view /etc/netmasks as a step sideways.

> BTW, do you have any opinion on ipadm and whether it would be easier
> to configure with it vs. nwam or old-school static files? Can ipadm
> conflict with these two methods, or would it provide addressing info
> to both of them (whichever is enabled)?

Good questions, and I don't know.  I've stumbled into ipadm a few times,
and even though I was somewhat involved in some of the design decisions,
I can't say I really understand it well.  It seems harder to me than the
files I grew up with.  ;-}

Yes, it's entirely possible.  It's also possible that this system has
some extra special configuration service installed that mucks with
things.  It'd be good to have someone with more experience to look the
system over.

-- 
James Carlson         42.703N 71.076W         <carlsonj at workingcode.com>