Bug 10598

Summary:	DHCP WUI: New Fixed Leases Should be Enabled by Default
Product:	IPFire	Reporter:	Tom Rymes <tomvend>
Component:	---	Assignee:	Assigned to nobody - feel free to grab it and work on it <nobody>
Status:	CLOSED DEFERRED	QA Contact:
Severity:	Minor Usability
Priority:	- Unknown -	CC:	bbitsch, peter.mueller, stefan.schantl
Version:	2
Hardware:	all
OS:	All
See Also:	https://bugzilla.ipfire.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10629

Description Tom Rymes 2014-08-22 12:42:03 UTC

I don't know if this should be combined with #10400, but when adding DHCP fixed leases, the enabled checkbox is not checked by default. Working under the assumption that the vast majority of users wish to have their newly added fixed leases enabled by default, this checkbox should be set that way. 

Leaving it as-is is bound to result in:

1.) Best case scenario: User has to perform unnecessary clicks to achieve desired result.
2.) Worst case scenario: User does not notice that new lease is not enabled, resulting in a network interruption when that device renews to the wrong address (this just happened to me).

Food for thought,

Tom

Comment 1 Bernhard Bitsch 2014-09-23 00:40:45 UTC

That depends, I think.

According to our discussion in the forum about IPs for fixed and dynamic leases the behaviour of dhcpd is essential.
My experience is, dhcpd selects an IP out of the range defined for the interface if it is free ( no answer to a ping on this IP ). A possible definition of a fixed lease is not considered.
If this is true ( what has to been checked!), it is best if IPs of dynamic leases and fixed leases are disjunct.
Then it is necessary to alter the IP of the newly defined fixed lease before enableing the definition. Thus the default of "disabled" is right.

Comment 2 Bernhard Bitsch 2014-09-23 00:53:11 UTC

BTW: The IPCOP documentation about DHCP server configuration states this separation of dynamic and fixed leases.
If that holds true we should extend the wiki with a description about that.

Comment 3 Bernhard Bitsch 2014-09-23 01:01:41 UTC

Remark #2:
The default is ENABLED. But it is not easy to see, that you should edit the definition. The box for adding a new lease is prepared for this operation.

Comment 4 Tom Rymes 2014-09-23 03:15:23 UTC

Bernhard: I looked, and it seems that the behavior I saw was on a freshly installed system. In that scenario, it seems that the default is disabled. Then, once you add one lease and choose enabled, it seems to start defaulting to enabled. Perhaps I need to do a little more testing. 

On a related note, it appears that the DHCP options are not enabled by default, either (i.e.: if you forget to check the box when you add an option, it won't be enabled upon creation).

I will follow up on the dynamic/fixed address spaces on the forum. While I see what you mean about the enable check box, that is not the proper solution IMHO.

Comment 5 Bernhard Bitsch 2014-09-23 12:05:34 UTC

After some further investigation it is clear, that the process of IP allocation is as observed.
Therefore the WUI MUST do a check whether an IP for a fixed lease is contained in the dynamic range.
The operation "Add to fixed leases" puts the MAC info into the fields for "Add new fixed lease". Thats ok. But the new lease must not be added at once. The admin must edit the IP address. The "Add" button must not accept an IP out of the range defined for the associated network.
To simplify the handling, the "Enabled" field should be checked by default in this case.

For the standard operation "Add new fixed lease" the field "Enabled" may be unchecked by default. Thus the addition of a number of new leases may be faster.

Comment 6 Peter Müller 2017-11-08 18:19:19 UTC

Closing this bug (last update 3y ago). If it is still valid, please reopen.