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    Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • J
      joyjit
      last edited by

      For comparison, I tried another distribution.

      ahem. That one starts with "o" and rhymes with pfsense. ahem 🙄

      That distribution does not have this bug. When I create a static IP mapping without any IP Address, it shows up only once, with the friendly hotsname I assigned, in the DHCP Leases page.

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      • bingo600B
        bingo600 @johnpoz
        last edited by bingo600

        @johnpoz said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

        • not sure where users get the idea that reboot fixes everything ;)

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        • johnpozJ
          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
          last edited by johnpoz

          I might fire up a 2.5 snap to validate same behavior. Or can anyone else validate this behavior in 2.5?

          @stephenw10 yeah I validated the behavior.. See my screenshots from above. If you create a reservation and don't put in an IP you get two entries in the lease table. Tried with hostname or not hostname as well.

          I even validated that the client was pulling the reservation, by setting a different gateway in the reservation - which client correctly got via dhcp.

          If you do a normal reservation where you assign IP (outside the scope) then you only get the one listing in the leases table.

          If this doesn't occur in 2.5, then little reason to enter in redmine.. But if does, then more info given for the report.

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          • kiokomanK
            kiokoman LAYER 8
            last edited by

            2.5
            Immagine.jpg

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              So your seeing the same behavior then, where you see your lease and the reservation.. What about when you add a friendly name to the reservation.. Does that friendly name show up on the lease?

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              • kiokomanK
                kiokoman LAYER 8
                last edited by kiokoman

                nope only on reservation
                Immagine.jpg

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                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                  last edited by johnpoz

                  Well yeah this doesn't seem like expected or wanted behavior..

                  I have created this redmine
                  https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11004

                  edit: got some traction on my entry
                  https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11004#change-48989

                  And yeah as I expected, not really a bug.. More a feature request - because currently it is working as designed ;)

                  "It's actually expected because the static section is not parsed from the lease database, but pulled from the configuration. It doesn't try to correlate the two lists. So it's not a bug, but could potentially be improved in the future."

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                  • T
                    terryzb @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    I tried to enter a friendly device name just for the UI to keep track of things but it seems like this is still not possible? Would be great if the Description field was editable on the DHCP leases page. Adding a description in the static page results in the UI looking confusing, unless I'm not doing it correctly.

                    temp.jpg

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                    • johnpozJ
                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @terryzb
                      last edited by

                      @terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

                      Adding a description in the static page results in the UI looking confusing, unless I'm not doing it correctly.

                      huh??

                      The host name you use in your reservation is where I would put in a name that makes sense - description in the reservation would be for clarification..

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                      • T
                        terryzb @johnpoz
                        last edited by

                        @johnpoz Thanks for the reply John. I see the same thing if I edit the hostname.

                        temp.jpg

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                        • johnpozJ
                          johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @terryzb
                          last edited by

                          @terryzb see the same what - your pointing out the 172.16.10.104?

                          Did you assign an IP? I have zero things in my dhcp table that use an IP as the hostname

                          You have a static entry - and then you actually have another lease?

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                          • JKnottJ
                            JKnott @joyjit
                            last edited by JKnott

                            @joyjit said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

                            Would be nice to be able to assign user-friendly names to each MAC address, just for UI purpose.

                            It's very easy. Plug the device into your network and then look for it in Statys > DHCP Leases. You can then edit it and plug in the desired IP address and host name. You can even add a description when you want. Then, at the next DHCP renewal, it will move to the assigned IP address. Of course, you can always force a renewal, to move it sooner.

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                            • T
                              terryzb @johnpoz
                              last edited by

                              @JKnott Thank you. I wasn't really thinking to give it a static IP, I just wanted to give it a description to make it easier to identify in the DHCP lease list. Seems like in order to do this it has to have a static IP?

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                              • T
                                terryzb @johnpoz
                                last edited by terryzb

                                @johnpoz I didn't assign an IP, just a description. That made 2 entries in the DHCP lease list, like the OP saw (and you also). You mentioned adding a hostname so I did that and it also creates 2 entries. This was a couple years ago so I was hoping that it had been addressed.

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                                • johnpozJ
                                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @terryzb
                                  last edited by johnpoz

                                  @terryzb I never understand why you would not assign an IP to a reservation? If your going to go to the trouble of setting a reservation - put in a name and IP.. Some devices do not send a name..

                                  Here I had updated one of my alexa's awhile back - and never got around to setting its IP in a reservation. So I just did.. And now it has the IP and name I want it to have, and the other lease is gone..

                                  static.jpg

                                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
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                                  • T
                                    terryzb @johnpoz
                                    last edited by

                                    @johnpoz To answer your question about not assigning an IP, I guess my thought process is that I'm not really trying to change the DHCP behavior by making a static reservation, just trying to add a friendly name in the UI associated with the MAC address.

                                    johnpozJ stephenw10S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • johnpozJ
                                      johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @terryzb
                                      last edited by johnpoz

                                      @terryzb Let me try and duplicate what your doing..

                                      So you want to set a reservation that doesn't assign an IP, so the IP is just pulled from the pool but the name is there for clients that do not send a name. I have never done that - I always assign a IP to clients I am setting a reservation for. I just personally see no point to not doing that.

                                      To me the whole point of reservation is setting an IP..

                                      I also know a new dhcp server is coming.. in some upcoming release, since the current isc dhcp is eol.. I believe they are moving to kea

                                      Is there a feature request for this - I would have to look, but prob be good idea to put it in so it might be included when they move to the new dhcp server.

                                      An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                      If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                      Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                      SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                                      • JKnottJ
                                        JKnott @terryzb
                                        last edited by

                                        @terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

                                        @johnpoz
                                        about 10 hours ago

                                        @JKnott Thank you. I wasn't really thinking to give it a static IP, I just wanted to give it a description to make it easier to identify in the DHCP lease list. Seems like in order to do this it has to have a static IP?

                                        What else are you going to assign the name to?

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @terryzb
                                          last edited by

                                          @terryzb said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

                                          just trying to add a friendly name in the UI associated with the MAC address.

                                          That I assume^

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                                          • JKnottJ
                                            JKnott @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 said in Friendly names on UI for DHCP Clients?:

                                            That I assume^

                                            What's the point of assigning a name to a MAC instead of an IP address or not assigning an IP to a MAC? On my network, every device that "lives" here has a static mapped IP address with a name assigned. I also have a pool of unassigned addresses for any visiting device, though they would only be on my guest WiFi/VLAN.

                                            PfSense running on Qotom mini PC
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