Small feature requests for DHCP

Jakobud · Jun 15, 2010, 6:14 AM

Just a couple small feature requests for the DHCP server

Customizable gateway for each static lease entry
Enable/Disable option for each static lease entry

Keep up the good work on pfSense!

jimp · Jun 15, 2010, 3:57 PM

I've been considering adding the gateway option, but I haven't seen anyone ask for the enable/disable choice. Not sure how often that might be used.

Jakobud · Jun 15, 2010, 5:16 PM

@jimp:

I've been considering adding the gateway option, but I haven't seen anyone ask for the enable/disable choice. Not sure how often that might be used.

I think it would be more useful than you might think. We currently run a dhcpd server on our network, but its a mess and needed to be redone. And administration of it is not very easy. At the same time, we are making the move over to pfSense as our primary firewall of choice. The fact that it also has a DHCP server in it is icing on the cake, so we are going to make the transition over and use it as our primary DHCP server as well and eventually turn off the other dhcpd server.

So basically, the enable/disable option would simply make it a lot easier for an IT staff to make a smooth transition from one dhcp server to another. It would allow me to make sure all our static leases are put in accurately before flipping the switch on them one by one and testing them one by one if necessary. Basically, it would ease the transition and testing period for someone switching to pfSense and/or pfSense's DHCP server. Transitioning a small (or large) business from one firewall to another or one dhcp server to another is no simple task. It can get messy.

On a related note, switching from one firewall to another is the reason I was asking for the gateway option. Right now, while our small business is transitioning to pfSense, we are running two firewalls in parallel. So being able to slowly switch individual static lease entries from one gateway to another would greatly help the transition.

The easier and more convenient it is to transition to pfSense, the more people will use it :-)

jimp · Jun 15, 2010, 5:15 PM

I opened a ticket for adding more options, but I'm not sure it's something that will get into 2.0 or if it will have to wait for 2.1:

http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/663