Problem with plugins and DHCP

[AngeleToR]

Hi everybody,

After almost a week setting up my freeNAS box, I've bumped into what it seems a bug, but don't want to file it yet may I be mistaken in the concept of how should it work.

My setup is a fresh 9.3 release install, any plugin I install works fine and gets random IP addresses from my router as they have random MACs. The problem comes when I try to set a fixed MAC to ANY plugin (tried with plex, minecraft and transmission). I set the MAC in the jail configuration, after stopping the plugin and the jail (in that order). When I restart the jail it boots up fine, but doesn't show the DHCP assigned IP in the GUI, and the plugins fails to start. In fact, the jail boots up but doesn't use the MAC I've set to it, it uses other one that I can't find where is it picking it from.

FYI, I've created an empty jail for services not availables as plugins (calibre server and others) and with the hand-made jails it works as expected when I set the MAC address, no problem at all.

I'm I doing something wrong??? I think I've readen everything related to plugins, jails and MAC to no avail. It looks like some sort of bug, as with standard jails works as supossed, but just to confirm.

Best regards

Angel

 

[joeschmuck]

I can replicate your problem.

Now if you wanted to you could just set up static IPs for the jail, that does work and do not worry about the MAC Address. It just depends on how you manage your system. On your router you could tell it that all DHCPs will be in the range of .50 to .100 and then you can assign FreeNAS to .101, Plex to .102, etc... (.101 = something like 192.168.1.101)

 

[AngeleToR]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your prompt reply!!! That's just the way I've set it up right now, forgot about static MACs for plugins and just plain static IP for them. BUT if you ever change your plugin to static MAC it will stop working (or correctly working at least) and I've found no way to fix it to a workable state again (deleting the static MAC won't fix it). Only could fix it deleting and reinstalling the plugin (not too much pain for, I was still testing them).

So bottom line is: Don't change your plugin's jail MAC or you'll be doomed (at least you plugins will).

I'll wait a little more before submitting a bug report, just in case it's supposed to be that way or whatever ;-)

 

[AngeleToR]

My bad...

I think I've just scratched the surface of something... If you try to change the IP in a plugin's jail, it gets screwed too (my mistake looking at it previously)... So, no way to deactivate DHCP for only one instance, then I tried to deactivate DHCP globally for all the jails and reactivate it only in the standard ones, leaving the plugins fixed IPs, and then the standard jails are the ones that fails... Will have to go with static IPs for everything, not a big problem but I like to manage everything IP related from my router...

 

[dlavigne]

Yup, this is by design. Plugins are automated, not very customizable, and designed for those who want a push button solution without necessarily knowing what they're doing. If you need to do anything different or customizable, Jails are the way to go.