host config file based on vendor specific options and service level

[roger murray]

Dear dhcp-users,
We have a problem that we have solved, but we are not completely satisfied
with the results. It works, but we were wondering if any of you had a
suggestion to a better solution. The main problem with the solution is that
it doubles our start up time. 30 seconds from 15. We restart the dhcpd every
5th minute.  We have discussed OMAPI, but are not mature to the idea yet.
Problem:
Based on vendor-specific-options and a service level defined by a
provisioning system offer the proper configuration file to the host.

Constraints:
All hosts will be assigned a fixed ip address due to monitoring tools and
current routines. (190,000+ hosts, 350+ shared networks, 1800+ subnets)

Current solution is that we specify the hosts and service levels in a
database and build the dhcpd.conf file with a script restarting the dhcpd
every 5 minutes. Start up takes 12-15 seconds.

The proposed solution is to using vendor-specific-options match the proper
configuration file in the host declaration.

ex. host declarations before change:

host A1 {
       filename "service_A";
       hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;
       fixed-address 10.xx.yy.zz;
}

ex. host declarations after change:

host A1 {
       if (substring (option Vendor.model, 0, 6) = "Model_1") {
               filename "config_file_1";
       } else (substring (option Vendor.model, 0, 6) = "Model_2") {
               filename "config_file_2";
       }
       hardware ethernet aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff;
       fixed-address 10.xx.yy.zz;
}

Best Regards,

Roger Murray