After struggling with some issues recently around the current DHCP server daemon, I am opening a discussion thread to garner support to replace the current DHCP server daemon in Solaris.
Specifically, I proposed that the current daemon be replaced with ISC's implementation of the DHCP server. I've outlined the reasons after my signature. Please post your comments and suggestions. If you would, please indicate your support for this initiative by including "YES" in the Subject line or within the first couple of lines of your posting. Thank you, Dave Pickens, Principal Engineer US Government, Education and Heathcare (GEH) Sun Microsystems, Inc. --- The following outlines some of the reasons gathered from Solaris admins and other sources (these may or may not be 100% factual -- however perception is reality in some cases): 1) Old code The Solaris DHCP is older code and not actively updated -- no one wants to accept responsibility within Sun for the maintenance, updating of the code since it's not new and exciting. Realistically it needs a re-write and re-architecture. Much of it hasn't changed since Dave Miner rewrote the code for the initial release of Solaris 9 (or earlier). 2) GUI The current Solaris DHCP Admin GUI is slow and considered non-standard in the industry. Does not work with large #'s of scopes or IP addresses. While ISC's DHCP server does not offer an admin GUI, 3rd party open source options that can be bundled or added to do the equivalent of the current Solaris DHCP Admin GUI. http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/dhcpweb.htm 3) Scalability and Performance ISC DHCP daemon being a more modern code base scales and performs better than Solaris' out-of-date DHCP daemon even when ISC is using a text file for IP information vs. Solaris' SUNWbin format. When the Solaris DHCP daemon is configured to use SUNWtext format, performance and scalability is even more noticeable. 4) Availability ISC DHCP daemon can be made completely redundant using the IETF Draft standard for DHCP Failover. The current Solaris DHCP daemon requires significant more effort including the use of a shared filesystem and the requirement to maintain the IP scope data in text file format, a known performance issue. 5) Supportability DHCP escalations often aren't done when necessary and customers feel like the current Solaris DHCP daemon isn't supported that well. (First level support at Sun can't even spell DHCP sometimes). The OpenSolaris community is no different. While there is significant work being done within the Networking area here, none is around the DHCP server. 6) Not core competency While some parts of IP networking are sexy and definitely a core competency, DHCP along with DNS are not. Other outside 3rd party open source packages for DNS (BIND) for example are integrated into Solaris rather than being maintained by Sun or the OpenSolaris community. So if it's not a core competency, why are we playing like we should keep maintaining our own code? In fact the BIND code is largely, if not wholly, ISC's code base for BIND in Solaris... why this and not DHCP server? 7) Not aligned with direction If the direction is innovation where it matters most, why again are we not admitting that DHCP just isn't a place where Sun and the OpenSolaris can actually provide innovation... and that with the direction of being compatible or more linux-like (a la Project Indiana) then keeping our own DHCP daemon is not in line with this direction 8) Not aligned with other linux distros Ubuntu, Redhat, Suse and Debian distros all use ISC by default 9) Most DHCP appliances (eg. BlueCat) don't use Sun Solaris They use the DHCP daemon from ISC... along with their own wrappers and management tools... 10) More articles on the Sun's own website BigAdmin about ISC available than Sun's DHCP Sun's own BigAdmin website for Solaris admins has more information around ISC than Sun's DHCP product. 11) More articles on ISC's product on the internet There's a larger community out there around ISC's DHCP daemon than the Solaris' DHCP daemon... this goes back the number of distros using it as their default DHCP server and is evidenced by the amount of articles on the internet around ISC's daemon vs. the current Solaris' DHCP daemon. >From this, it confirms that ISC is *the* reference DHCP server and a de facto >standard. 12) Lagging functionality The shear number and frequency of updates and new features introduced by ISC is an order of magnitude higher than that of Solaris' current DHCP server. In a recent update, ISC now offers new functionality not available in the Solaris DHCP daemon: a) A significantly enhanced Failover protocol implementation, which: i) Implements MAC Address Affinity to reduce the frequency of clients being assigned new IP addresses; ii) Supports the assignment of failover-protected addresses to legacy BOOTP clients; iii) Implements a dynamic lease reservation system that provides improved accounting of the use of fixed address assignments, by allocating fixed addresses out of the pool of dynamic leases; and iv) Further improves tools and reduces operator oversight necessary for maintaining a functioning system. b) Support for DHCP Leasequery, and the VIVCO/VIVSO options, which makes easy and comfortable integration with DOCSIS devices and the environment in which they are used. c) Management of class and subclass statements via OMAPI. d) Several server configuration options related to dynamic DNS behavior The current DHCP code base just isn't keeping up with these features and advances. 13) IPv6 / DHCPv6 The current code will require significant effort and revision to support IPv6 / DHCPv6. The resources within Sun and within the OpenSolaris community just haven't rallied around doing this. Migrating the DHCP server to ISC's code base will allow for IPv6 / DHCPv6 and other new features to be more easily integrated and supported. This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ networking-discuss mailing list [email protected]
