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DHCP and DNS Cache

Install dnsmasq

I decided to use dnsmasq since it can fulfull multiple roles as both a DHCP and DNS cache. I'll first configure it for IPv4 and then later add in the few extra IPv6 lines needed.

Setup DHCP

The following can look complicated but that is just becuase there are a ton of MAC Addresses and IP Addresses mixed throughout. If you look closely you can see that there are only four types of lines.

  1. no-dhcp-interface=eth0,lo prevents DHCP binding on our loopback address and eth0 which is the interface facing the Internet.

  2. dhcp-range= declares a start and stop address and lease lifetime for each subnet. I am also setting an optional tag for each so I can target them later if I want.

  3. dhcp-option= allows me to set specific DHCP options. The tag: allows me to target addresses matching a specific tag. I am overriding the default DNS servers because I want lan and dmz to use my Pi-hole server and warp should use a public DNS server since any device on that subnet is routed through a VPN tunnel so it doesn't have local network access.

  4. dhcp-host= defines what IP addresses and hostnames get assigned to which network device with a specific MAC address

# /etc/dnsmasq.d/dhcp.conf
+ no-dhcp-interface=eth0,lo
+ 
+ dhcp-range=set:lan,10.0.5.1,10.0.7.254,12h
+ dhcp-range=set:dmz,10.0.8.1,10.0.8.254,12h
+ dhcp-range=set:warp,10.0.9.1,10.0.9.254,5m
+ 
+ dhcp-option=tag:lan,option:dns-server,10.0.1.2
+ dhcp-option=tag:lan,option:dns-server,10.0.1.2
+ dhcp-option=tag:warp,option:dns-server,1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1
+ 
+ # LAN - network infrastructure
+ dhcp-host=aa:af:57:f3:4e:90,10.0.1.2,pihole			# pihole
+ dhcp-host=b4:fb:e4:8f:f9:74,10.0.1.3,unifi-switch-8	# unifi-switch-8
+ 
+ # LAN  - proxmox
+ dhcp-host=e0:d5:5e:63:fe:30,10.0.3.2,blackbox			# blackbox
+ dhcp-host=70:85:c2:fe:4c:b7,10.0.3.3,mini				# mini
+ dhcp-host=6e:91:84:4a:74:f1,10.0.3.4,backup			# backup
+ 
+ # LAN - assigned devices
+ dhcp-host=d0:a6:37:ed:8c:7f,10.0.4.4,silverbook		# silverbook
+ dhcp-host=82:13:00:9c:c7:00,10.0.4.5,thunderbolt		# thunderbolt
+ dhcp-host=34:36:3b:7f:18:1e,10.0.4.8,jess				# jess
+ dhcp-host=96:64:5F:1C:A6:2C,10.0.5.6,refuge			# refuge
+ dhcp-host=7A:BC:46:D1:A3:1B,10.0.5.9,unifi			# unifi
+ 
+ # DMZ - assigned devices
+ dhcp-host=62:59:92:A7:1D:F1,10.0.8.5,bitcoin			# bitcoin
+ dhcp-host=32:cc:fb:a3:1a:57,10.0.8.2,contained		# contained

Setup DNS Caching

Everything here is commented with an explanation of what it does. The only thing slightly interesting is I have two server= parameters pointing to the IPv4 loopback addresses which is where Unbound is listening. If Unbound wasn't being used I'd either remove no-resolv and use the system namesevers or change the server= parameters to point to a public recursive name sever.

# /etc/dnsmasq.d/dns.conf
+ # Add the domain to simple names (without a period) in /etc/hosts in the same way as for DHCP-derived names.
+ expand-hosts
+ 
+ # Log the results of DNS queries handled by dnsmasq.
+ log-queries
+ 
+ # Do not listen on the specified interface.
+ except-interface=eth0,lo
+ 
+ # Accept DNS queries only from hosts whose address is on a local subnet, ie a subnet for which an interface exists on the server.
+ local-service
+ 
+ # Dnsmasq binds the address of individual interfaces, allowing multiple dnsmasq instances, but if new interfaces or addresses appear, it automatically listens on those
+ bind-dynamic
+ 
+ # Return answers to DNS queries from /etc/hosts and --interface-name which depend on the interface over which the query was received.
+ localise-queries
+ 
+ # All reverse lookups for private IP ranges (ie 192.168.x.x, etc) which are not found in /etc/hosts or the DHCP leases file are answered with "no such domain"
+ bogus-priv
+ 
+ # Later versions of windows make periodic DNS requests which don't get sensible answers from the public DNS and can cause problems by triggering dial-on-demand links.
+ filterwin2k
+ 
+ # Enable code to detect DNS forwarding loops
+ dns-loop-detect
+ 
+ # Reject (and log) addresses from upstream nameservers which are in the private ranges.
+ stop-dns-rebind
+ 
+ # Exempt 127.0.0.0/8 and ::1 from rebinding checks.
+ rebind-localhost-ok
+ 
+ # Tells dnsmasq to never forward A or AAAA queries for plain names, without dots or domain parts, to upstream nameservers.
+ domain-needed
+ 
+ # Specifies DNS domains for the DHCP server.
+ domain=hermz.io
+ 
+ # Don't read /etc/resolv.conf. Get upstream servers only from the command line or the dnsmasq configuration file.
+ no-resolv
+
+ server=127.0.0.1
+ server=::1

Resolve Static Clients

One problem I ran into was that static clients never use DHCP so the DHCP server doesn't register their hostname with their intended IP address. To work around this limitation I just added those entries to the /etc/hosts file since by default dnsmasq will resolve using those entries too.

# /etc/hosts
+ 10.0.1.1        ember
+ 10.0.1.2        pihol
+ 10.0.1.3        unifi-switch-8
+ 10.0.3.2        blackbox
+ 10.0.3.3        mini
+ 10.0.3.4        backup
+ 10.0.3.5        edge
 
  # --- BEGIN PVE ---

Reboot

Now that dnsmasq is fully configured I just restart it using systemctl

# systemctl restart dnsmasq.service
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