MOSXS keeps forgetting its IP address

[jadnhm]

My MOSXS machine has had the OS reinstalled several times now, (which I’m sure you can imagine requires a load of time and energy) because it forgets (?) what its IP address is, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to set it again without running the setup program that runs post install.

If I use ifconfig to alias the ethernet port to some IP it seems to grab the IP temporarily, but I can’t seem to get the link status to become “Active” – no matter how many times I tell it to “up” it stays “Inactive”.

Also, as soon as the machine needs to be rebooted it forgets its IP again and the whole process gets repeated.

Any ideas would really help.

Here’s my setup I’m working with right now as a test setup for the real thing when my Xserve comes in a few weeks:
– 1 snow iMac running MOSXS 10.2
– 1 tray-load blueberry iMac NetBoot client
– 1 snow iMac NetBoot client
– physically segregated private network

[jadnhm]

No, I haven’t been trying to configure IP using ifconfig. I just tried it once in an attempt to get a that network port working again.

Do you know what text file the IP configuration info is kept in?

Do you know when/why/how that file is used for configuration?

Do you know anything about resetting that address, or how to change it?

Can anyone think of any reasons why my MOSXS machine would be working fine for a while and then lose its IP configuration details?

Thanks for the advice on networksetup. This looks like a powerful utility, though it doesn’t really seem to be doing much for me right now. I’ll keep you posted.

[jadnhm]

PS

networksetup reports that my Built-in Ethernet interface has the following info:
Manual Configuration
IP address: 10.0.0.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 10.0.0.1
Ethernet address: [it’s correct]

which all looks fine to me, but both the Network Utility and ifconfig report that the machine has no IP address. So something is messed up between what the MOSXS software thinks is going on and what’s really being done at a lower level.

Once again, this is not the first time this has happened.

[ElgertS]

Just wondering if you changed the IP since you first set up the system? I configured several OS X Servers with one IP that was later changed. The NetInfo database still remembered the first IP and would cause major problems until you basically went through the procedure of reseting and starting the whole initial config process over again.

[jadnhm]

on a previous iteration of MOSXS install I had tried to change the IP and you’re totally right, everything falls apart as soon as you try to do that.

This time though, I did not attempt to change the IP address of the machine.

I have, actually, rerun the setup assistant (by deleting the file /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and rebooting ) and the configuration went just as expected, but it didn’t reset things for me…. So I still have this no IP problem

[jadnhm]

I have been testing my NetBoot clients using just a crossover cable to create a private network …

So if what you said is right, then not having the connected client powered on (or connected) would make the server machine’s (physical) network interface fail to establish that it is on a network, and not configure the software correctly?

Does this make sense?

Thanks again for the help.

I’ll try some things out and let you know how it turns out.

[jadnhm]

It seems that my problems with dropping IPs has been traced, at least preliminarily, to the dead link problem.

When the server machine was running with an inactive network jack (no link to a network keeping it alive) the software would drop its IP. This seems to be reproducible.

I have acquired a 10Mbs hub for testing now from an associate, and things seem much smoother now.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I’ve learned some very valuable things from all of you through this process.

-Joel

[legacyb4]

On a parallel note, is it safe to simply edit these two files to change the IP address of the server and reboot or is it necessary to run the Setup utility to make the changes stick?

We put a vlanning switch in at work where my server is being hosted and I’d like to move it off the regular work subnet and was wondering what the easiest way would be without having to reinstall or possibly lose user data…

Cheers.

[quote:172c3ff7cb=”MacTroll”]/var/db/SystemConfiguration/preferences.xml holds all of you configuration information. This is written out by the Network system preference and then used by configd to configure your network.

Information about your interfaces, speed settings and such, are managed by /var/db/NetworkInterfaces.xml[/quote:172c3ff7cb]

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