Warning: accidental duplicate static DHCP leases break DNS

[bwainscott]

Just a heads up to anyone trying to set up static DHCP leases.  I had some set up in R69 and then updated to R70 and they APPEARED to be gone (no longer showed up in the NutsOS or OpenWRT interfaces).  What I did not know is that they were still in /etc/config/dhcp on the A+ and in fact were still working.

I found that if I tried to add one of them through the GUI (either one), this resulted in duplicate entries in /etc/config/dhcp, which resulted in dnsmasq failing on the A+.  The result is that the A+ stopped serving DNS to my LAN.  Using the GUI to delete the entries I'd added cleared everything up -- the old entries are still in /etc/config/dhcp and working fine, dnsmasq is running and serving DNS to my LAN.

Hopefully Securifi will be able to fix this synchronization problem between the config file and the NutsOS/OpenWRT gui interfaces.

[grouter]

I had similar symptoms when I upgraded to 69cb. I've since upgraded to 70 and have a new problem in place of the dns issue. I'll have to look in /etc/config/dhcp and see if there are duplicates and clean up if needed. And then see how things work...

Thanks

[RevdMark]

I had the same problem, not just this time, but previously when the static leases vanished from NutOS. I posted the following in a thread in the A+ forum, but yet to hear any comment from the staff:

Call for a comment from the staff on this, I think the progress on static leases has been unacceptable. Earlier versions of the firmware allowed us to add static leases in the NutOS. Then an update caused them to be invisible there, but accessible from the OpenWRT interface. Update again and the option to add them from NutOS disapears, but remains in OpenWRT. Update again and they are no longer visible in Open WRT, but the interface to add them remains. Let me guess, next update will remove the ability to add them from OpenWRT???

C'mon guys, this is basic functionality. I can understand difficulty implementing some of the newer functions like rules, but this should have been in there from the start and simply maintained. It didn't even need improving! Now I have to dick about with command line interfaces just to deal with this? Not a lot of point having a touch screen on the router when this happens....

[jjoepaulines]

you will face this issue when you used openwrt "DHCP and DNS" to add static leases and when you added static leases in your LAN Page which is available before R69 firmware. we are aware of this incompatibility issue and i agree that  it's really annoying when you have duplicate entry which make dnsmasq fail to distribute the ip's.

Please don't use the openwrt "DHCP and DNS"  page to add static leases.

Let me clear this thing for you ..

" Call for a comment from the staff on this, I think the progress on static leases has been unacceptable. Earlier versions of the firmware allowed us to add static leases in the NutOS. Then an update caused them to be invisible there, but accessible from the OpenWRT interface. Update again and the option to add them from NutOS disapears, but remains in OpenWRT. Update again and they are no longer visible in Open WRT, but the interface to add them remains. Let me guess, next update will remove the ability to add them from OpenWRT???  "

All our web UI page [ openwrt and NutOS ] is rendering with the help of luci framework which use lua programming language and the config files. At the initial stage LAN Page rendered with the help of Lua. So the was no compatibility issue between the LAN page of ours and "DHCP and DNS" like whatever you added in the any pages will get appear in the other one . But that UI has a lot of  issue like getting white page when you add more then 8 static lease, few validation leads were missed . So we developed the custom LAN page which render the page from the config file in different way.

So when you add any static leases in openwrt UI "DHCP and DNS" won't be appear in NutOS UI.

Difference between the config file

From Our UI

config 'host' 'host1'
        option 'name' 'joepcfromNutOS'
        option 'mac' 'f0:de:f1:5d:e7:33'
        option 'ip' '10.10.10.102'

From OPEN WRT UI

config 'host'
        option 'name' 'joepc_from_openWRT'
        option 'mac' '10:fe:ed:c2:1a:e5'
        option 'ip' '10.10.10.104'

As we already have static lease option  available in the NutOS,  We don't want to leave that static lease option in OPENWRT "DHCP and DNS" which will create lot of headache.  So we removed that static leases adding option from "DHCP and DNS" [ openwrt page ]

[bwainscott]

Joe,

So are you saying that if I delete the existing leases from /etc/config/dhcp then add them back via the NutsOS GUI, I'll be OK going forward?  I'll try that. Thanks

[Automate]

But that (OpenWrt) UI has a lot of  issue like getting white page when you add more then 8 static lease, few validation leads were missed . So we developed the custom LAN page which render the page from the config file in different way.

@Joe, thanks for the detailed information.  I would like to encourage the the Securifi developers to, when at all possible, stay compatible with OpenWrt and not use forked code in the Almond+.  It would be best to fix the bugs in OpenWrt and submit them for inclusion in the next OpenWrt release.

One of the nice features of the Almond+ is that it uses OpenWrt.  Using OpenWrt will allow the Almond+ to use the thousands of application packges that have already been developed.  In the long run this will make support for the Almond+ easier for Securifi because they will not have to develop every feature  their users want in their router.  They will be able to say just go install pack xyz for the requested functionality.

I understand your reasons for the NutsOS and making the router easy for non-technical people to use but please don't make changes to the Almond+ that make it incompatible with standard OpenWrt,

[czyzczyz]

Seconded.  A strength of the router is that it includes an advanced OpenWRT interface. It'd be a shame to have incompatible sets of settings between the LuCi and the Almond's native UI.

[NCBob]

I agree, making changes to the Almond+ that makes the Open WRT pages unstable defeats the whole purpose of having Open WRT available.  I struggled with this for the past day and was getting ready to refresh everything when I ran across this post.

I found the new Reservations in the NutOS and it would have been nice if this had been mentioned in the release notes.  But my problem now is that the leases I already had before upgrading aren't showing up either in Open WRT or in the NutOS interface, so now I'm going to have to edit the config directly, then re-enter them in the NutOS.