Changing Static IP and /etc/hosts file

Folks,

I changed the IP structure on my network due to security flaws with most home routers. Went from 192.168.1.x to 10.x.x.x No DHCP just static IP's for OMV.

All went well and the OMV change went well - on the working system. I forgot to change the new box I'm building. No problem though the program OMV-Firstaid worked. Thank you Volker!

What I did find though is the /etc/hosts file last line entry of;

192.168.1.12 servername.local servername

had not changed to the new assigned IP of;

10.11.12.13

(not the actual IP) it was still as the 192 entry. I reviewed the Network settings/options and they were correct. So I used nano and edited the /etc/hosts file to reflect the correct IP. No problems.

I also checked the /etc/hosts file on the working box and had the same issues. Edited there as well.

So this leads me to think that when a change is made to the static IP either through the network settings of the GUI or through OMV-Firstaid they are not updating the /etc/hosts file.

Do not know if it is a problem or not. But figure if it was pointing to the original static IP it should point to the new static IP.

ryecoaaron

I had not fully read the top of the hosts file and noticed that the server was at 127.0.0.1 and since the hosts file is read from top to bottom and the first one gets precedence the one I edited would not get used. So even with that I # commented the edited line, and will see what happens.

Though I do not know how it got there either as I had not edited the hosts file before on either machine. Just out of curiosity have you looked at the hosts file on your machines?

@tekkbebe

I've heard of DD-WRT and looked at it, though it is time to revisit it as I believe my router is supported. Yet in the back of my mind I don't want to brick it. So I've been looking at pfsense. Now if OMV and pfsense could coexist in the same box.......

[EDIT] Found out Buffalo's WZR-300HP router has DD-WRT installed from the factory and they are less than $60.00 from Amazon. Will have to read through the DD-WRT manuals.

Well I must have done something then to the hosts files, though for the life of me I don't know what. Because they had their original static IP's. Chalk it up to an intellectual intermission.

Appreciate the offer of help with DD-WRT. My Netgear WNR-3500L will support it. Though it is now several years old, so I'm looking at an upgrade and will probably go with their WNDR4300 as it too is DD-WRT capable. Like to keep my net connection alive while I set up another router.

OK. I was finally able to duplicate the original issue.

Went to the NETWORK - GENERAL tab and changed the Hostname and the Domain Name.

Hostname of: server
Domain Name of: local

Clicked on OK and then SSH'ed into the system and used NANO to view the /etc/hosts file. And there it was!

10.1.2.3  server.local   server

So the GUI of OMV will change the /etc/hosts file to add it's IP, Hostname and Domain Name, while OMV-Firstaid and a fresh OMV install does not. So it raises the question of what if any problems are created by this.

I've thought about this and did some more reading. Still trying to understand it but read about how avahi uses/provides the DNS Service Discovery (mDNS/DNS-SD) which can be found in the SMB/CIFS section. avahi has it's own hosts file at /etc/avahi/hosts Yet it requires it's entries to be like;

10.1.2.3 server.local

with the TLD being local as is in the man pages for avahi. And an OMV entry is not in the /etc/avahi/hosts file. Now is it because if a TLD other than local were used it would break some other OMV functionality?

I might be all wrong here with my thoughts.