FreeBSD Client Not Updating Dynamic DNS

T

ter2007

I have BIND up and running, and it works great except for one thing: FreeBSD clients will not update the dynamic zone files. This is for a LAN. Windows clients do update the zone files all the time. The FreeBSD server on which BIND runs does its own update to the zone files.

I am stumped. Been google-ing and read until I can't read anymore. I am using
Code: 
send host-name "hostname"
in dhclient.conf. Have tried all the variations of hostname that I can think of. Since everything is working except for this one issue, I am not going to post all of the configuration files, but I will describe my LAN.

A home setup that has a DSL modem connected to the internet. The DSL modem is the DHCP server that hands out local IP addresses. The FreeBSD server on which BIND is running has a static IP address, and has no DHCP configured on it. There are various workstations on the home network.

I can look up hosts on the FreeBSD client using dig - no problem. I can do name resolution for other machines on the client as long as there are records in the zone files. It is just that the client is not getting any records of its own in the dynamic zone files.

I suspect that there is something to turn on in the FreeBSD client so that it will register itself with DNS. Something like the "Register this Connection in DNS" checkbox in Windows XP which makes Windows XP work in dynamic DNS.

I also need to mention that my local names are of the form host.domain.local. I know that local might interfere with the Zeroconf (or whatever that is), but I don't think it is on my machines.
 
Answers to My Own Problem

I have done some more reading and found some reasons for my issues. Please correct me if I am wrong on some of these points.

  1. A DHCP server must also be running and handing out IP addresses on the same machine that is running named. This is how the server knows to update the dynamic zone files.
  2. Windows XP (and most likely other versions of Windows) blindly update DDNS when the 'Register this Connection in DNS' is selected. FreeBSD does not have this option so hosts do not get added to the dynamic zone.
  3. A cable modem that is handing out IP addresses (DHCP) has no way to inform the DNS BIND server about clients coming and going.
These points may or may not be correct, but as of right now this is my understanding of it.
 
  1. Yes, but the DHCP and DNS services don't necessarily need to be running on the same machine. They do need to "know" about each other and share a key to update.
  2. Yes, Windows will try to register directly with DNS. As far as I know this doesn't work with BIND.
  3. Correct.

There's no need for clients to register directly with BIND if DHCP and BIND are configured properly. It has been running fine for me.

Turn off the DHCP/DNS functionality on your router and configure a FreeBSD host to take over that role.
 
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