I'm toying with moving the DNS/DHCP functions off my router and onto a server.  Trying to decide what makes the most sense:

 

1) unRAID Plugin.  There was one for v5 but I haven't seen one for v6 yet.  Would this be a good solution ?  What are the pitalls ?

2) unRAID Docker. running DNSMASQ and some frontend .  But I think I need the DNS/DHCP up first before too much else happens.  Not sure we can control that yet.

3) unRAID KVM session.  I don't have any VMs yet but this is possibly a way to start.  But would a DNS/DHCP running in a VM on unRAID make sense ?

4) Buy a Rasberry PI and install it on that.  I've wanted a reason to get an RPI and this might be it.  This might be the soundest choice.

 

Any thoughts on those options, pros or cons ?  I assume a small dedicated RPI might be the best bet as it is an always on appliance that really never needs to be rebooted I guess.  Or am I missing something ?

Just for interest why move those functions off the router?  You just seem to be adding an additional box for not obvious reason.

 

The RPI could easily do the job.  Any unRAID based solution seems to suffer from the issue that it would not be available when unRAID is initially booted.

Just for interest why move those functions off the router?  You just seem to be adding an additional box for not obvious reason.

 

A couple of reasons.  My router's implememtation of dnsmasq has some of the features disabled.  The iterface is annoying and slow.  I'd like to have a dedicated box so if I switch routers I won't lose everything.  But most importantly my inner geek has an urge I need to scratch.  It's more of a case of I want to more than I need too.

 

The RPI could easily do the job.  Any unRAID based solution seems to suffer from the issue that it would not be available when unRAID is initially booted.

 

Yeah, I suspected as much.  Though of the 3 unraid solutions I'd beinterested to see if the VM would be more viable than the plugin.

DDWRT

Looked at that but with a K2 build of the asus N66u, it's easier to get another device to do it.

I run pfSense VM and several Win7 VMs performing utility functions in the same box that runs my unRAID server.  I've been happy with pfSense as a firewall/router/DHCP server.  I've been running it this way for several years with no issues.

 

(Johnm's Atlas thread inspired me to virtualize:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14695.0)

I run a win2003 server VM using the XEN kernel for unraid that takes care of DNS and DHCP.  Works great for me.  While the DNS and DHCP would come up after unraid its not a big deal to me because my systems run for months at a time without reboot.  I just start the VM's from the go file at reboot and make sure my unraid server has a static address instead of a DHCP reservation. 

Easy to do on the raspberrypi.

 

One of the things I use mine for.  Also it is the "last machine on" so I can VPN in and WOL my other boxes if needed.  VPN runs on my N66U.

 

Raspberry Pi performance is pretty bad by the way...  very slow even compared to ancient x86 systems running linux.

I run a win2003 server VM using the XEN kernel for unraid that takes care of DNS and DHCP.  Works great for me.  While the DNS and DHCP would come up after unraid its not a big deal to me because my systems run for months at a time without reboot.  I just start the VM's from the go file at reboot and make sure my unraid server has a static address instead of a DHCP reservation.

 

Cheers.  Though a wondows server VM was a big more than I was thinking of...but... Now that I think about it, that might be a fun task.

 

Easy to do on the raspberrypi.

 

One of the things I use mine for.  Also it is the "last machine on" so I can VPN in and WOL my other boxes if needed.  VPN runs on my N66U.

 

Raspberry Pi performance is pretty bad by the way...  very slow even compared to ancient x86 systems running linux.

 

Is it really that bad? If the rpi can run xbmc I thought it could handle DNS/dhcp quite easily

I run a win2003 server VM using the XEN kernel for unraid that takes care of DNS and DHCP.  Works great for me.  While the DNS and DHCP would come up after unraid its not a big deal to me because my systems run for months at a time without reboot.  I just start the VM's from the go file at reboot and make sure my unraid server has a static address instead of a DHCP reservation.

 

Cheers.  Though a wondows server VM was a big more than I was thinking of...but... Now that I think about it, that might be a fun task.

 

Easy to do on the raspberrypi.

 

One of the things I use mine for.  Also it is the "last machine on" so I can VPN in and WOL my other boxes if needed.  VPN runs on my N66U.

 

Raspberry Pi performance is pretty bad by the way...  very slow even compared to ancient x86 systems running linux.

 

Is it really that bad? If the rpi can run xbmc I thought it could handle DNS/dhcp quite easily

 

The pi has hardware acceleration to handle video playback

I run a win2003 server VM using the XEN kernel for unraid that takes care of DNS and DHCP.  Works great for me.  While the DNS and DHCP would come up after unraid its not a big deal to me because my systems run for months at a time without reboot.  I just start the VM's from the go file at reboot and make sure my unraid server has a static address instead of a DHCP reservation.

 

Cheers.  Though a wondows server VM was a big more than I was thinking of...but... Now that I think about it, that might be a fun task.

 

Easy to do on the raspberrypi.

 

One of the things I use mine for.  Also it is the "last machine on" so I can VPN in and WOL my other boxes if needed.  VPN runs on my N66U.

 

Raspberry Pi performance is pretty bad by the way...  very slow even compared to ancient x86 systems running linux.

 

Is it really that bad? If the rpi can run xbmc I thought it could handle DNS/dhcp quite easily

 

The pi has hardware acceleration to handle video playback

 

Though I still found the pi to be a crappy xbmc client even with that. Too laggy in the menus and video likes to buffer at 720p/1080p (sometimes but not always). I would think it would be a reasonable DNS/DHCP server though as it's such a minimal load.