May Love Amahi, DHCP and DNS Handing...Not So Much

[codylarson]

Amahi is obviously the clear OSS solution for Home Media Servers and it appears to have me completely convinced. My only issue is that rather than Amahi being a great simple Home Media Server, it appears it has to take over my networking as well and run DHCP and DNS.

Normally, I would not mind having Amahi handle DHCP and DNS, but I am a FIOS Internet AND TV customer, so I'm screwed if I want my VOD, Guides and other FIOS features to work. Currently I'm running a Lan-to-Lan setup to my Netgear WNDR37AV from my Westell 9100EM (Rev B). I have fully researched making the dual routers function, while having all the fancy FIOS features continue to work. So the way I have my setup now is just how it's going to be, I'm stuck.

I don't really know much about how DNS works or what caching DNS server means, so I may be able to only disable DHCP and leave DNS set to the way Amahi wants it.

In reading through the FAQ, I see DHCP/DNS can be disabled, but they are really pushing the issue of features being lost. However, the actual features lost are not really described in great detail and it says little testing has been done here, (although updated 11 months ago).

So, my ultimate question is this: what is truly lost here and is it so serious that I am better off looking elsewhere?

Thank you in advance for guidance in this area

[rgmhtt]

Let's assume that you MUST use your FIOS router as your DNS source for things other than Amahi.

Use the script hda-change-dns to set your DNS upstream server to your router. This script needs 2 IP addresses, so just repeat your router's address for the second address.

DHCP is a separate issue. What DHCP options do you need? I can help you mod the hdactl script to get them for right now. I am working up changes to how Amahi works with DHCP and DNS, and have submitted my first patch of changes. I have a few more things to work out still, and the changes may only come with the F14 version. It is up to the powers that be about what gets rolled in...

[rgmhtt]

I have just updated bug 714. This will allow for rather full customization of dhcp and dns. Let me know if you want to test this and I will assist you.

[lou1z]

generally, you can work around these issues manually.
when an app is installed in amahi, it writes to dns so ampache goes in as for example ampache.home.com = your hda ip
an entry is also made with apaches virtual servers & host headers etc.
so now that you are using amahi's dns, entering ampache or ampache.home.com would take you to the amapche home page.
that is what the dns side will do for you.
with dhcp, when a client or device logs on, they are assigned an ip address via the dhcp server. the hostname of the device will also entered into the dns cache forwards and reverse.
so if a pc logs on eg PC001 & gets an ip address of 192.168.1.100, you could in theory (if that pc was running a web server etc) put http://PC001.home.com and you would go to the web page of that pc. in reverse, you could enter http://192.168.1.100 and you would go to PC001.home.com
not sure about greyhole here????

so it's all niceties and not critical to the running of your hda. as long as you know the host header eg ampache.home.com
downside is, to get the same functionality, you would have to manually enter the host names & ip's into your other dns server which isn't too bad if you don't do a lot of changes. certain routers allow you to do this eg pfsense etc as they have dns forwarders etc on the router so have a look at your router to see if it can do this and you have a workaround. the router should take care of you dhcp clients easily enough but you will have to enter alias's etc for the servers on the hda itself eg ampache.home.com, squeeze.home.com etc

but you are right, amahi would truly be great once we have more control over dhcp & dns eg create slave zones or forwarding etc
a little bit more advanced control would make it perfect where the changes don't get overwritten every time and the advanced controls are a mode eg simple or advanced as i appreciate it's not everybody who needs them and it wasn't the orginal goal of amahi.
but there's one thing for sure..... it's a great way of getting people into linux!