Change to "device add/change"

[chadd]

I would like to add a feild to the "device add" page for the IP address of the device. Currently there is a "hostname" field only. This would also require another column in the host table called "IP" maybe?? The reason for this is, I would like to run a DNS server (djbdns), as "hidden master", on my Cacti box. This DNS server would be the domain master for the subdomain which all my network equipment resides under. Currently I am running a Bind server on another machine doing this function. Long and short, it would make it much easier to keep all the IP to hostname stuff straight if it was all in the Cacti database. The second part of this (and the reason for using djbdns - aside from the fact that it is great!) is that you could write a simple function to update DNS, when you click the submit button on device page. djbdns has a command line utility to add and delete enties from zone files, so that part would be a lot easier if you used djbdns instead of Bind. Anyway, that is my idea. I just wanted to see if this kind of thing may be on the roadmap for Cacti, because if it is, I won't waste time on it - but if it isn't I will make an attempt and submit the results to the forum. I would like to know how useful such a thing would be to others. Thanks,

-chadd.

[rony]

/boggle

What?

Just put the IP address in the hostname field. And put the hostname in the description field.

Please clarify your request.

[TheWitness]

He is setting up a private DNS and he wants to manage Add/Deletes from DNS by virtue of Add/Deletes from Cacti. Definately a "corner case".

TheWitness

[chadd]

Yes, that is exactly right. It would be very helpful if I could reduce the number of tasks I have to do when adding a device to the network. DNS often gets forgotten, until someone complains that they can't get to a device by name, so I figured it would be nice to have Cacti manage my network equipment sub-domain. Maybe add two extra fields, like IP and Cname. That way you are allowed an A record and 1 cname per device. It could be messy, I'm not sure.. If it doesn't seem like this apeals to anyone, than I may try something on my own, or just decide to do IP/DNS management with a separate program - which we are working on, but it is a big project. BTW, what is "a corner case"? - really, I've never heard that expression before.

[rony]

A "corner case" means, in our development terms, that we will not implement this feature, because it does not help the masses.

[chadd]

Thanks for the clarification. No worries, and thanks for replying.

[TheWitness]

No offense Chadd, you should be able to do this with only a minor understanding of Cacti. It's not too hard.

TheWitness