My current setup has my DHCP + DNS on my Unifi USG. However, as I have all my apps hosted on a different server (unifi, plex, home assistant, NAS, etc.) I’ve ran into issues trying to get things set up.
Basically, Unifi needs to know where the unifi server is, but it’s assigning the IP address to it.
Should I put DHCP+DNS onto it’s own system? Should I put it on my current server? And any non-Pi recommendations for systems? (I’ve had the PI filesystem clobber itself too many times)
Edit: I’m starting to think that the real problem is having UNIFI on the same system as the server, as it prevents me reconfiguring any of the server routing information without also disconnecting unifi…
Edit 2: I’m going to try switching the server from a static DHCP lease to a static IP. If that’s doesn’t work, then I think I’ll move the unifi server onto it’s own system. Thanks!
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DHCP is a really stupid* service for the most part. Unless you are working with multiple subnets or have some very specific settings you need to pass to your clients, it’s probably not worth it to manage it yourself. I don’t want to discourage you though! Assigning static IP addresses by MAC can be extremely useful and is not always an option on routers. If you want static names and dynamic addresses, that is really where you need to manage both DNS and DHCP. It really depends on how and where you want names to be resolved and what you are trying to accomplish. (*stupid as in, it’s a really simple service. You want it simple because when DHCP breaks, you have other serious issues going on.)
Setting up your own DNS is worth its weight in gold. You can put it just about anywhere on your network (before your gateway, after, in China, whatever.) and your network won’t even know the difference if setup correctly. You can point BIND at the root servers and bypass your ISP completely if you want. ISP DNS services suck ass, so regardless of you resolve yourself, or forward all name queries to your anon DNS server of choice you have a really decent level of control on your network. It is the service to learn if you want to keep an eye on where your network wants to talk.
Your Unifi USG must play nice with your own server, by the laws of DNS. There may be some nuances when it comes to internal protocols like WINS, but other than that, it should be just fine.
I would setup a simple VM somewhere first, to answer your actual question. It’s good practice to keep core services isolated on their own, dedicated instances. This is to speed up recovery time and minimize down time. Even on your home network, DNS and DHCP are services you do not want going down. It’s always a pain when they do go down.
For the above reasons it’s very nice to use dnsmasq, because DHCP + DNS integration is really sweet, and a full featured local DNS is gold.
OpenWRT comes with dnsmasq btw so if you have a dodgy router but it supports OpenWRT you may be able to breath new life into it.
Damn, I didn’t realize the amount of hate for DHCP. Ive used an already configured system with a DHCP/DNS server set up and it was super easy to manage. Want to change or add a static IP? Edit the text file, add the MAC, reload.
I didn’t know this wasn’t reflective of the overall experience.
Meh, I didn’t mean to hate on DHCP. It’s just a service I have learned to keep running all by itself somewhere in a dark corner of my network. DNS and DHCP are just services that I don’t like going down. Ever.
If only everyone was on IPv6, then everything could use SLAAC and worrying about IP assignment for client systems would be a thing of the past. IPv6 on a home LAN generally only uses DHCPv6 for configuring the DNS servers - client systems get IPs using SLAAC and learn their gateway using RAs (router advertisements).
