Hi Randy,

What will happen if a dynamic IP address is used on a DMA?

If a dynamic IP address (assigned via DHCP) is used, the following issues may occur:

Internal communication problems: Some critical DataMiner services, such as NATS (the internal messaging bus), rely on the system’s IP address. If the IP changes, NATS might fail to start correctly or lose connectivity with other system components.

Service instability: Restarting the server or renewing the DHCP lease can cause the IP to change, leading to failures in DataMiner processes that rely on a fixed IP (e.g., SLNet, SLDataGateway, etc.).

Configuration or service errors: Log files may show errors like unable to bind, connection refused, or failed to resolve hostname, directly related to a changing IP address.

Therefore, using a dynamic IP address is not recommended, as it can impact the stability, reliability, and internal communication of the agent

Can a hostname be used instead of a static IP address?

In some cases, yes, a hostname can be used, but there are important conditions:

The hostname must resolve correctly (via DNS or the hosts file) in all services and processes that require it.

The hostname must always point to the same IP, ideally a fixed one.

Even if it works, DataMiner does not guarantee optimal functionality based solely on a hostname, since several services (like NATS) are configured directly using the IP address at startup.

For this reason, while technically possible, using a hostname does not replace the need for a static IP address.