Published by KermMartian on February 27, 2009 at 7:22:16 PM CST | Discuss this article (3)

DHCPgen is a PHP package to manage ISC DHCPD configuration files, much as programs like phpMyAdmin manage the contents of MySQL databases through a web interface. DHCPgen is unique in that it not only stores and organizes data and generates dhcpd.conf files, it can also automatically install such files, make sure that the update succeeded, and revert the change if it failed for some reason. In addition, it has been carefully written to permit updating a DHCP server running on either a local or remote machine, particularly important if your webserver and your DHCP server are separate physical or virtual machines.

Information in the DHCPgen system is organized into three sets of items: subnets, categories, and entries. Categories are general groupings of computers or machines with similar purpose or geographic location, subnets are groups of IP addresses, and entries are individual machines, as identified by hostname, MAC address, static IP (if not DHCP-leased), and any possible comments. Entries are contained within categories. Adding categories, subnets, and entries is as simple as going to the appropriate tab and clicking 'New'. To remove categories, subnets, or entries, just click 'Delete' next to the requisite item. You can find entries by keyword using the search feature.

The Check tab can help you verify that a configuration will work before you generate a config file; if it succeeds, the Generate tab will produce a plaintext config file that can be used. If you have SSHing properly set up for DHCPgen (which the install wizard helps automate), you can click the Install tab to automatically SCP the new config file to the DHCP server and attempt to restart DHCP in order to parse and use the new config file. If the process fails for some reason, examine the Check log for possible solutions.

You can download DHCPgen and view more screenshots at the link below; please give it a try and let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, criticisms, or real-world usage stories.

DHCPgen v1.0



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