LAN DNS resolution by description / mac address

baba

Hello,

is it possible to access the clients by the description as hostname in nebula cloud. Many consumer/professional routers provide this feature, but i cant get it work with nebula. Is there any other feature providing dns for lan clients by MAC Address (not by ip)?

Zyxel_Emily

Hi @baba,

If you'd like to ping hostname only between two laptops in the LAN, just connect the laptop to LAN and ping the Windows hostname.
Example: The hostname of the laptop is emily and its IP address is 192.168.11.33.

If you'd like to ping hostname with DNS suffix between two laptops in the LAN, you need to configure DHCP extended options in LAN interface.

Go to Firewall > Configure > Interface > lan1 and click Edit. Click "ADVANCED OPTIONS" and click "Add new". 

Configure DNS suffix

Then go to Firewall > Configure > Firewall settings > DNS and click "Add" to add an Address Record. 
FQDN: hostname+DNS_suffix
Example: emily.cso.com 192.168.11.33

baba

Hi @Zyxel_Emily :-)

You've answered another question, but ping/access by client hostname also does not work for Linux/Mac clients with Nebula. We've only Mac and Linux clients in our network and ping/access by client hostname does not work since we moved to USG Flex 200. Multicast DNS (mDNS) is active on all clients. 

To the actual question:
Is it also possible to access clients by the client description in Nebula? The administrator could rename the device description with the Nebula App for a new device. Now all clients could access it by this name e.g. "printer-room23". If not can I make a feature request? It is much easier than configuring the hostnames of each client. Some clients also do not offer the possibility to set a hostname. We do not work with fixed IP addresses or a Static DHCP Table, so we need the possibility to have a fixed hostname when the IP address changes. The Nebula Description would be the perfect starting point to set a hostname for a MAC address. This way the hostname stays the same even after changing the IP address, because Nebula sets the description based on the MAC address.

A DNS suffix is not mandatory, but would be interesting for larger networks. e.g. [CLIENT_DESCRIPTION].[SITE_NAME] => printer-room23.branchXY

baba

Hi @Zyxel_Emily :-)

You've answered another question, but ping/access by client hostname also does not work for Linux/Mac clients with Nebula. We've only Mac and Linux clients in our network and ping/access by client hostname does not work since we moved to USG Flex 200. Multicast DNS (mDNS) is active on all clients. 

To the actual question:

Is it also possible to access clients by the client description in Nebula? The administrator could rename the device description with the Nebula App for a new device. Now all clients could access it by this name e.g. "printer-room23". If not can I make a feature request? It is much easier than configuring the hostnames of each client. Some clients also do not offer the possibility to set a hostname. We do not work with fixed IP addresses or a Static DHCP Table, so we need the possibility to have a fixed hostname when the IP address changes. The Nebula Description would be the perfect starting point to set a hostname for a MAC address. This way the hostname stays the same even after changing the IP address, because Nebula sets the description based on the MAC address.

A DNS suffix is not mandatory, but would be interesting for larger networks. e.g. [CLIENT_DESCRIPTION].[SITE_NAME] => printer-room23.branchXY

baba

Hi @Zyxel_Emily,

do you have any update?

Thanks!

Zyxel_Emily

Hi @baba,

Thanks for your detailed description. We will check if "access clients by the client description" is supported in Nebula an let you know the next action.