Can Unix utilize WINS?

Jonathan Abbey jonabbey at arlut.utexas.edu
Fri Feb 11 21:34:31 UTC 2000


In article <9eZo4.5139$3W4.32530 at news1.teleport.com>,
Mark <mtunnell at telemark-inc.com> wrote:
| We're considering changing our static IP network to an DHCP network.  Right
| now our Unix boxes look at their hosts files to resolve IP addresses.  Our
| network analyst wants to use a WINS server to track IPs to names.  Can our
| Unix boxes use WINS name resolution?  We're running HP-UX and Linux.

No, but your UNIX boxes can use DNS name resolution, which is what you
want to be doing, especially looking forward to Windows 2000.

When doing DHCP/DNS/WINS with Microsoft's stuff, what happens is when
a system gets a DHCP lease from the Microsoft DHCP server, the DHCP
server queries the new system via Microsoft's WINS RPC calls to ask it
what hostname it has been configured with.  Based on that information,
the DHCP server will then turn around and update the Microsoft DNS
server, as I understand it.

Since your UNIX systems can't respond to a WINS RPC call, you won't be
able to have your UNIX systems take advantage of the DHCP->DNS
bridging, but if you have a relatively small number of UNIX systems,
you can set those up with static IP addresses in the DNS server, and
everybody will be relatively happy.

Microsoft's DHCP/WINS/DNS connection is non-standard and generally
evil, of course, but that's what your network analyst probably has in
mind.  Just be sure that he can explain what's going to happen in
Windows 2000.

| Thanks,
| 
| Mark

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Abbey 				              jonabbey at arlut.utexas.edu
Applied Research Laboratories                 The University of Texas at Austin
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX     http://www.arlut.utexas.edu/gash2



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