🚀 go-pugleaf

pkrause@triton.unm.edu (Paul Krause CIRT) writes:

>We have several thousand numbers out there and while we have a database of
>who is assigned each number, it is static.  With the way people 
>move around, hard drives get trashed, employees are hired or replaced, etc.
>the data gets stale real fast. 

It's never occurred to me to assign IP numbers to _people_ rather
than machines - what are your reasons for doing things this way?
How does a hard drive getting trashed affect the IP number, anyway?


-- 
Pat Wilson
Systems Manager, Project NORTHSTAR
paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu

In article <1991May21.203820.11396@ariel.unm.edu> pkrause@triton.unm.edu (Paul Krause CIRT) writes:

   Perhaps this is a good group for a discussion of IP number management.  I
   posted to comp.protocols.tcp-ip without much response.  

I am sure that IETF has a working group that is looking at this.  I don't
recall which group it might be.. but I assume UNM has someone who has been
involve with IETF and can help you out.

   We have several thousand numbers out there and while we have a database of
   who is assigned each number, it is static.  With the way people 
   move around, hard drives get trashed, employees are hired or replaced, etc.
   the data gets stale real fast. 

Well... this is one of the reasons for subnets and delegated
authority.  Except in very rare situations there should be no need for
a central database with 1000s of IP addresses.  In the university
environment let departments colleges, or whatever division of labor
makes sense in your environment to take responcibility for pieces
of your address space.

Having people move around is a good reason *not* to bind IP addresses
to people.  It would be routing hell.  I don't see why hard drives
getting trashed should change IP number.


Mark Verber
Ohio State Physics Dept / Computing Services

In article <1991May22.130444.1410@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> paw@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Pat Wilson) writes:
>It's never occurred to me to assign IP numbers to _people_ rather
>than machines - what are your reasons for doing things this way?
>How does a hard drive getting trashed affect the IP number, anyway?
>-- 
>Pat Wilson
>Systems Manager, Project NORTHSTAR
>paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu

When people change offices they usually take their equipment with them.  I find
that a name is often very usefull in finding a particular machine.  Hard drives
get invloved when John Doe accidently erases his and asks Jane Doe if he can
copy the files from hers.  Now they both have the same number.  However, Jane
doesn't use hers much so they never happen to conflict.  Jane gets a job in
another department of the university where they buy her a new pc and she gets
another IP number.  Harry is hired to replace Jane, he likes his pc so now
we get a call from John that he is having conflict problems. 

Paul

In article <1991May22.171817.21820@ariel.unm.edu> pkrause@triton.unm.edu (Paul Krause CIRT) writes:
>When people change offices they usually take their equipment with them.  I find
>that a name is often very usefull in finding a particular machine.  Hard drives
>get invloved when John Doe accidently erases his and asks Jane Doe if he can
>copy the files from hers.  Now they both have the same number.  However, Jane
>doesn't use hers much so they never happen to conflict.  Jane gets a job in
>another department of the university where they buy her a new pc and she gets
>another IP number.  Harry is hired to replace Jane, he likes his pc so now
>we get a call from John that he is having conflict problems. 
>
>Paul

   Oh my god.   This is a joke, right?
--scott

In article <1991May21.203820.11396@ariel.unm.edu>, pkrause@triton.unm.edu (Paul
Krause CIRT) writes:
> Perhaps this is a good group for a discussion of IP number management.  I
> posted to comp.protocols.tcp-ip without much response.  
> 
> We have several thousand numbers out there and while we have a database of
> who is assigned each number, it is static.  With the way people 
> move around, hard drives get trashed, employees are hired or replaced, etc.
> the data gets stale real fast. 
> 
> I gather that dynamic solutions are technically difficult (and probably not
> real intersting to non administrative types).  

Here at ARCO, we are beginning to use DNS to help break up our networks into
smaller more managable sub-domains.  The admin. of each sub-domain is now able
to assign IP address at will, without having to contact the MIS IP address
aministrator.  The use of DNS (domain name service) will automatically update
the tables at the central name server, thus providing a current listing (within
one hour of reality) on demand.

The downsides to DNS are many: SAs must learn DNS, sendmail needs some work,
users don't like using fully qualified host names, etc., etc..

I would also be interested in other peoples solutions.
-- 
+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
| Phil Meyer         phil@arco.com  Work:(214) 754-6805                      |
+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+

In article <1991May22.171817.21820@ariel.unm.edu> pkrause@triton.unm.edu (Paul Krause CIRT) writes:
>In article <1991May22.130444.1410@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> paw@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Pat Wilson) writes:
>>It's never occurred to me to assign IP numbers to _people_ rather
>>than machines - what are your reasons for doing things this way?
>>How does a hard drive getting trashed affect the IP number, anyway?
>>-- 
>>Pat Wilson
>>Systems Manager, Project NORTHSTAR
>>paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu
>
>When people change offices they usually take their equipment with them.  I find
>that a name is often very usefull in finding a particular machine.  Hard drives
>get invloved when John Doe accidently erases his and asks Jane Doe if he can
>copy the files from hers.  Now they both have the same number.  However, Jane
>doesn't use hers much so they never happen to conflict.  Jane gets a job in
>another department of the university where they buy her a new pc and she gets
>another IP number.  Harry is hired to replace Jane, he likes his pc so now
>we get a call from John that he is having conflict problems. 
>
>Paul


Wouldn't it seem more reasonable to use BootP to obtain IP addresses?
That way all numbers are allocated dynamically, and there is no
problem with potential conflicts (unless someone manages to copy the
PROM from one interface to another, so the hardware addresses are the
same).

Matt Petach
Information Systems Group,
Stanford University Medical School

-- 
************************************************************************
Alaric Morgan Kestrel   |buckaroo@med, mpetach@portia (.stanford.edu)    
"For every problem, there exists a simple and elegant solution which is 
absolutely wrong." -- J. Wagoner, U.C.B. Mathematics