Rants, Tips and Tricks…

If you would like to update your dynamic IP address to a dynamic DNS service using ‘ddclient’ and are using ClearOS, then you’ve come to the right place! Let’s get started:

First, log into ClearOS. You can do this physically at the ClearOS terminal or using SSH. Then download and “install” ‘ddclient’:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ddclient/ddclient-3.8.1.tar.gz
tar zxvf ddclient-3.8.1.tar.gz
cd ddclient*
cp ddclient /usr/sbin
mkdir /etc/ddclient

Now we need create our ‘ddcleint’ config file:

vi /etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf

Copy the following into the file and edit to suite your needs (I use DNS-O-Matic):

daemon=300 # checks every 300 seconds for a new IP address
syslog=yes # log update messages to syslog
mail=root # mail all messages to root
mail-failure=root # mail failed update messages to root
pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid # records PID
#ssl=yes # use ssl-support - works with ssl-library - uncomment if you have ssl support

##
## DNS-O-Matic Account Configuration
##
## 'all.dnsomatic.com' updates all hostnames in an account
## replace with an individual hostname if not needed
##
use=web, web=myip.dnsomatic.com #comment if using ClearOS as a gateway
#use=if, if=ppp0 #uncomment if using ClearOS as a gateway
server=updates.dnsomatic.com, \
protocol=dyndns2, \
login=DNS-O-MATIC USERNAME, \
password=DNS-O-MATIC PASSWORD \
all.dnsomatic.com

Next we need to create the cache folder for ‘ddcleint’ to use:

mkdir /var/cache/ddclient

Let’s make sure everything is working properly before telling ‘ddclient’ to startup automatically:

ddclient -daemon=0 -debug -verbose -noquiet

If everything looks good, continue with the following commands to add ‘ddclient’ to your autostart:

cp sample-etc_rc.d_init.d_ddclient /etc/rc.d/init.d/ddclient
/sbin/chkconfig --add ddclient

After adding ‘ddclient’ to the autostart, it’s a good idea to reboot and verify it starts automatically:

reboot
service ddclient status

If you ever need to forcefully update your IP address, you can use the following command to do so:

ddclient -force

That’s it! Hopefully you now have a fully operational installation of the Dynamic DNS Client ‘ddclient’.