DHCP settings over the Internet?
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I want to move my Captive Portal management system to the cloud, one thing I would like to do is have the system decided on client IP address, that the PFSense Router would had out thru DHCP.
My goal if possible, no PFSense modification. I would rather build the complexity into my system if possible.
Second option would be if the PFSense DHCP Server was "easily" modifiable, to call out to the cloud with the MAC address and return the required DHCP settings.
Third, do I disable the PFSense builtin DHCP server, and create a package that does what I want?Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
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I want to move my Captive Portal management system to the cloud, one thing I would like to do is have the system decided on client IP address, that the PFSense Router would had out thru DHCP.
I don't understand this. You want to move the pfSense configuration file to the cloud? You want to be able to change your pfSense configuration by accessing the pfSense web GUI through the pfSense WAN interface? What Captive portal management system" do you mean?
My goal if possible, no PFSense modification. I would rather build the complexity into my system if possible.
Probably not possible but then that probably depends on exactly what you hoping to offload to the cloud.
Second option would be if the PFSense DHCP Server was "easily" modifiable, to call out to the cloud with the MAC address and return the required DHCP settings.
Probably not a good idea. What happens if the "cloud" can't be accessed for a time and a DHCP request comes in? Some DHCP clients try for only a limited time (e.g. in my experience Ubuntu 10.04,11.04, 11.10) and I don't know of any DHCP clients that will request a new lease when "the cloud" becomes accessible again.
Third, do I disable the PFSense builtin DHCP server, and create a package that does what I want?
You need not enable the pfSense builtin DHCP server and you can create your own package. However getting that package to do what you want might prove to be a considerable challenge. Among the challenges are deciding exactly what you want in all the scenarios and then deciding if that makes sense when you consider the way other components of your network behave.
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I have a virtual machine running that does radius/mysql/php as a payment management, PFSense is being used as an access controller.
I would expect better uptime in the cloud for my "Management" virtual machine, then my single point of failure it is now. If the internet goes down, then I don't care that I can't access the cloud because nothing can. Plus, if I where to mange several PFSense boxes being used as access controllers, the cloud should be better for what I want.
I had not thought about my own package until I wrote up the post, so I do like that approach. It should make debugging easier rather then changing the base system (only have my package to debug). Running the PFSense access controller stock with my DHCP package should be the easiest to accomplish what I want.
wallabybob, thanks for the feedback.