Linking to a network -------------------- Finally, there are a few attributes which can specified on the link when a server is linked to a network:
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- Local DHCP (e.g. the server operating system is internally configured to DHCP. I am connecting it to the public internet, and want it to appear with my assigned public static IP. Please send a DHCP response with that specific IP address).
Hmm... sounds unnecessary. Once you've assigned an IP to a server if you want to make life easier by offering it over DHCP then go right ahead... I don't see the use case otherwise.
That one's actually pretty important to us at least: >50% of our servers work this way.
The classic case is that a customer running a standard pre-installed operating system wants to use one of the public static IPs that they purchased.
The high-hassle option for them is that they have to go into their OS and configure the static IP.
We go with the other option - they can leave their OS configured to DHCP, and they can specify via the Web UI (or equivalently API) that the right static IP should be returned to that DHCP request, rather than just a random free one.
So by "once you've assigned an IP to a server" I mean in OCCI, not in the server. If OCCI knows the server (presumably by MAC address) has a given IP and your DHCP server can talk to the OCCI backend (or vice versa) then there's no special case here... if you can support it then do and people won't have to (but can anyway) configure statics. Have I missed something?
I think we're on the same page(?) The point I was trying to make was about the mechanism by which we assign IPs to a server in OCCI. I think that the assigned IP(s) should be specified an attribute of the link between the server and the network. A less detailed version would be like the last paragraph: just list the assigned IP(s) as attributes of the link. A more detailed version with better support for multiple IPs (e.g. for SSL web hosting) would be like my original e-mail in this thread and distinguish between two type of IP assignment: 1) A potentially large set of IPs which the server is permitted to use (i.e. all of the SSL web hosting IPs which they have purchased) 2) A single IP which is the primary IP to tell the server if it sends a DHCP request Cheers, Richard.