Client Host Name Generation

The dynamic nature of DHCP means that an IP address is not permanently associated with the host name of the system that is using it. The Solaris DHCP server can generate a client name to associate with each IP address, if you select this option. The generated client names are mapped to IP addresses in /etc/hosts or the NIS/NIS+ hosts tables. The client names use a prefix, or root name, plus a dash and a number assigned by the server. For example, if the root name is charlie, the client names will be charlie-1, charlie-2, charlie-3, and so on.

By default, generated client names begin with the name of the DHCP server that manages them. This is useful in environments having more than one DHCP server because you can quickly see in the DHCP network tables which clients any given DHCP server manages. However, you can change the root name to any name you choose.

Before configuring your IP addresses, decide if you want the server to generate client names, and if so, what root name to use for the names.

The client names are not automatically added to the DNS domain, thus the client names are not known outside your name service (NIS/NIS+) domain. However, you can load them into DNS manually. See "Administering DNS" in Solaris Naming Administration Guide and the in.named(1M) manual page for more information about DNS.