See Nick's append below - do as he suggests and let us know what is in the logs

Also with a bit of research you would have found https://sourceforge.net/p/ddclient/wiki/Home/#documentation
What happens when you follow this?

Why on earth do you have the config file in two locations?
This backup machine's external interface goes direct to your modem in bridge mode? (ppp0)

EDIT: problem fixed. I ran

ddclient -daemon=0 -noquiet -debug

and realised that I should have put

use=if if=ppp0

instead of

use=ppp0

I am trying to set up ddclient on my backup server and I am having trouble. I tried installing by doing

yum install ddclient

and I also tried doing it manually by following the instructions that come with ddclient but it won't work.

/etc/ddclient.conf:

## ddclient configuration file

daemon=300

# check every 300 seconds

syslog=yes

# log update msgs to syslog

mail-failure=e-mail address hidden # Mail failed updates to user

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid

# record PID in file.

## Detect IP with our CheckIP server

use=ppp0

## DynDNS username and password here

login=username hidden

password=password hidden

## Default options

protocol=dyndns2

server=members.dyndns.org

## Dynamic DNS hosts

URLs hidden

## Dyn Standard DNS hosts

custom=yes, URLs hidden

ssl=yes

/etc/ddclient/ddclient.conf:

## ddclient configuration file

daemon=300

# check every 300 seconds

syslog=yes

# log update msgs to syslog

mail-failure=e-mail address hidden # Mail failed updates to user

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid

# record PID in file.

## Detect IP with our CheckIP server

use=ppp0

## DynDNS username and password here

login=username hidden

password=password hidden

## Default options

protocol=dyndns2

server=members.dyndns.org

## Dynamic DNS hosts

URLs hidden

## Dyn Standard DNS hosts

custom=yes, URLs hidden

ssl=yes

systemctl status ddclient.service

● ddclient.service - A Perl Client Used To Update Dynamic DNS

   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ddclient.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)

   Active: inactive (dead)

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Success!

[root@server ~]# cat /var/log/messages | grep ddclient

Aug 23 14:39:43 server systemd: Starting SYSV: ddclient provides support for updating dynamic DNS services....

Aug 23 14:39:44 server ddclient: Starting ddclient: [  OK  ]

Aug 23 14:39:44 server systemd: Started SYSV: ddclient provides support for updating dynamic DNS services..

Aug 23 14:39:44 server ddclient[2096]: FATAL:    Error loading the Perl module IO::Socket::SSL needed for SSL connect.

Aug 23 14:39:44 server ddclient[2096]: FATAL:     On Debian, the package libio-socket-ssl-perl must be installed.

Aug 23 14:39:44 server ddclient[2096]: FATAL:     On Red Hat, the package perl-IO-Socket-SSL must be installed.

Aug 23 14:39:44 server ddclient[2096]: FATAL:     On Alpine, the package perl-io-socket-ssl must be installed.

[root@server ~]# yum install perl-IO-Socket-SSL

Thanks for the help.

Start with googling "man ddclient". You'll find you need to add a -v switch to the start up. You can do this by adding -v to /etc/sysconfig/ddclient.

I don't know which log to look in but I'd start with /var/log/messages. There aren't many log files in /var/log so have a look at them all. A bit of self-help will go a long way.

Nick Howitt wrote:

What do you see in your logs? Can you also enable verbose logging?

Sorry but which logs do I look in and how do I enable verbose logging?

What do you see in your logs? Can you also enable verbose logging?

I changed ddclient.conf to this:

## ddclient configuration file

daemon=600

# check every 600 seconds

syslog=yes

# log update msgs to syslog

mail-failure=<my e-mail address> # Mail failed updates to user

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid

# record PID in file.

## Detect IP with our CheckIP server

use=if if=ppp0

## DynDNS username and password here

login=<username>

password=<password>

## Default options

protocol=dyndns2

server=members.dyndns.org

## Dynamic DNS hosts

<websites>

## Dyn Standard DNS hosts

custom=yes, <websites>

ssl=yes

With username, password, e-mail address and websites changed for privacy.

And it still doesn't work.

Any ideas?

Your configuration looks wrong to me. You've removed the line continuation character "\" from you DynDNS bit which, otherwise, could be on one line like:

server=updates.dnsomatic.com, protocol=dyndns2, login=****, password=***** all.dnsomatic.com

Yours may work if they are all default settings. You'll just have to try it. DynDNS should have a sample configuration on their site.

And yes, I imagine you set your interface to ppp0, but I don't use PPPoE so I can't check. Try and you'll find out. Nothing will break.

If it all goes wrong, the worst that will happen is a temporary ban from checking/updating your IP. Once it works, as you are using your interface IP, you can reduce the daemon interval.

Ultimately you can also hook up to /etc/ppp/ip-up or /etc/ppp/ip-up.local to force an update as soon as your IP changes.

Thanks for the reply.

This is what my ddclient.conf file looks like:

## ddclient configuration file

daemon=600

# check every 600 seconds

syslog=yes

# log update msgs to syslog

mail-failure=<my e-mail address> # Mail failed updates to user

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid

# record PID in file.

## Detect IP with our CheckIP server

use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com/, web-skip='IP Address'

## DynDNS username and password here

login=<username>

password=<password>

## Default options

protocol=dyndns2

server=members.dyndns.org

## Dynamic DNS hosts

<websites>

## Dyn Standard DNS hosts

custom=yes, <websites>

ssl=yes

With username, password, e-mail address and websites changed for privacy.

My ClearOS box connects to a modem in bridge mode and according to Network > Settings > IP Setting it is called ppp0 so should I change "use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.com/, web-skip='IP Address'" to "use=if if=ppp0"? Is there anything else I should change?

Thanks.

In the line which starts "use", for mine it is set to:

use=if if=eth0

Change it to your WAN interface. Near the top of the file it a global parameter, but I think it can bu used on a per-configuration basis if you have MultiWAN. My file, with comments removed, looks like:

daemon=300				# check every 300 seconds

syslog=yes				# log update msgs to syslog

mail=root				# mail all msgs to root

mail-failure=root			# mail failed update msgs to root

pid=/var/run/ddclient.pid		# record PID in file.

ssl=yes 				# use ssl-support. Works with ssl-library

use=if if=eth0



##

## DNS-O-Matic account-configuration

##

server=updates.dnsomatic.com,      \

protocol=dyndns2,                  \

login=****,          \

password=*****        \

all.dnsomatic.com

Thanks for the reply.

Nick Howitt wrote:

Come on, I'm sure you can do better than that! Have you looked at /etc/ddclient/dclient.conf? Does your DDNS provider provide a configuration if it is not already in the file? Does ClearOS get your WAN IP. If it does configure ddclient to use the interface. If it does not, use the web.

I have looked at /etc/ddclient/dclient.conf and configured it properly according to dyn.com. I also followed the readme file that came with the version of ddclient that I downloaded from Sourceforge.

Does ClearOS get your WAN IP

Yes; I can use the Internet.

If it does configure ddclient to use the interface. If it does not, use the web

How do I do that?

Thanks.

Come on, I'm sure you can do better than that! Have you looked at /etc/ddclient/dclient.conf? Does your DDNS provider provide a configuration if it is not already in the file? Does ClearOS get your WAN IP. If it does configure ddclient to use the interface. If it does not, use the web.

I have it installed but I don't know how to configure it. Any tips?

Thanks.

Very useful tip - thanks Nick

Can I also suggest another switch for the yum command, "--showduplicates". Otherwise "yum list --enablerepo=*" always shows the currently installed and latest installable packages only. The latest installable may be in one of the testing, development or unverified repos. This switch lists all packages. Having said that, it would not have helped in this case as the only package available is in clearos-epel-unverified.

FWIW, I only found the switch a few weeks ago.

Great - In most cases you are better off looking for an rpm suited for your distribution than installing a tar file.
It is also much easier to remove an rpm. Use the yum list or search options with all the repos enabled in the command line for a first check to find what may be available. Then make a decision whether to install or not, for instance you might not want something in a "testing" or "test" repo etc.

Tony Ellis wrote:
Why didn't you install the one from the clearos-epel repository?

Because I didn't know about it. I just tried it though and it worked. Thanks.

Why didn't you install the one from the clearos-epel repository?
That would have installed any required pre-requisites...

[root@sandra ~]# yum list ddclient --enablerepo=* 

Loaded plugins: clearcenter-marketplace, fastestmirror

ClearCenter Marketplace: fetching repositories...

... snipped

ddclient.noarch             3.8.3-1.el7              @clearos-epel-unverified

[root@sandra ~]# 

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the lack of detail.

ddclient comes in a tar file but you have to set it up manually.

 ddclient -daemon=0 -noquiet -debug

DEBUG:    proxy  =

DEBUG:    url    = checkip.dyndns.com/

DEBUG:    server = checkip.dyndns.com

DEBUG:    get_ip: using web, checkip.dyndns.com/ reports <IPADDRESS>

DEBUG:

DEBUG:     nic_dyndns2_update -------------------

DEBUG:    proxy  =

DEBUG:    url    = http://members.dyndns.org/nic/update?system=custom&hostname=<website1>,<website2>&myip=<IPaddress>;

DEBUG:    server = members.dyndns.org

FATAL:    Error loading the Perl module IO::Socket::SSL needed for SSL connect.

FATAL:     On Debian, the package libio-socket-ssl-perl must be installed.

FATAL:     On Red Hat, the package perl-IO-Socket-SSL must be installed.

FATAL:     On Alpine, the package perl-io-socket-ssl must be installed.

So I guess I need to install perl-IO-Socket-SSL. I am not sure how to do this.

"won't work" doesn't tell us much :-(

What exactly did you install? an rpm using yum, a tar file? What version?

What errors? What's in the log files? etc
What dynamic dns provider? What's your configuration file for it?
How are you starting it?

It is also possible the readme hasn't been updated with instructions for a "systemd" distribution like CleaOS 7.x