Systemd Service file for no-ip.com dynamic ip updater

noip2.service

# Simple No-ip.com Dynamic DNS Updater
#
# By Nathan Giesbrecht (http://nathangiesbrecht.com)
#
# 1) Install binary as described in no-ip.com's source file (assuming results in /usr/local/bin)
# 2) Run sudo /usr/local/bin/noip2 -C to generate configuration file
# 3) Copy this file noip2.service to /etc/systemd/system/
# 4) Execute `sudo systemctl daemon-reload`
# 5) Execute `sudo systemctl enable noip2`
# 6) Execute `sudo systemctl start noip2`
#
# systemd supports lots of fancy features, look here (and linked docs) for a full list:
#   http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html

[Unit]
Description=No-ip.com dynamic IP address updater
After=network.target
After=syslog.target

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=noip.service

[Service]
# Start main service
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/noip2
Restart=always
Type=forking

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/sh -c 'until ping -c1 google.com; do sleep 1; done;'

@msdos you're the boss. Worked like a charm on my Raspberry Pi OS Lite.

I made some modifications to this to support the 3.0 rust duc client.

Compile the 3.0 linux client using the instructions here: https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/install-linux-3-x-dynamic-update-client-duc/#install_from_source

Also changed how the autorestart works as having it fail permanently if networking is not available is far from ideal.

# Simple No-ip.com Dynamic DNS Updater
#
# By Nathan Giesbrecht (http://nathangiesbrecht.com)
# Modified by Jake (https://github.com/macdja38)
#
# 1) Install binary as described in no-ip.com's source file (assuming results in /usr/local/bin)
# 2) Run sudo /usr/local/bin/noip -C to generate configuration file
# 3) Copy this file noip2.service to /etc/systemd/system/
# 4) Execute `sudo systemctl daemon-reload`
# 5) Execute `sudo systemctl enable noip`
# 6) Execute `sudo systemctl start noip`
#
# systemd supports lots of fancy features, look here (and linked docs) for a full list:
#   http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html

[Unit]
Description=No-ip.com dynamic IP address updater
After=network.target
After=syslog.target

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=noip.service

[Service]
# Start main service
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/noip-duc -g <domain-name> --username <username> --password <password>
Restart=always
RestartSec=5s
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

Essentially without StartLimitIntervalSec if you don't have internet when the service starts it'll enter a permanent failed state.
Setting StartLimitIntervalSec=0 means it'll try forever.

We don't want to be restarting it every 100ms and having it fail if there's a real error condition though. So we'll set RestartSec=5s.
Matching the default no-ip update rate.

See here for more info systemd/systemd#2416

Not sure if leaving a password in a systemd service is a great idea, if anyone has a better option I'd love to hear it!

(also renamed service to noip from noip2, maybe noip3 or noip-duc would be a better name)

why syslog? it doesn't exist on ubuntu 22 anymore (https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/255887/how-to-install-enable-syslog-target)

I had the same state and I thought there was something wrong but not necessarily. Then I found this link. (check Systemd Journal Basics section) https://www.loggly.com/ultimate-guide/linux-logging-with-systemd/ It seems this is the current standard for logs with Systemd systems. Inside the link, I found this rather clear statement: With systemd journal, there is no reason for a traditional syslog utility

Thanks macdja38 for your changes for noip-duc 3.0!

I tested it and it works fine on OpenSuse Tumbleweed 20230503.

A couple minor modifications:

StartLimitIntervalSec was introduced in systemd 230 and must be placed in the [Unit] section, not the [Service] section.

In systemd 229 and earlier you need to use StartLimitInterval and StartLimitBurst in the [Service] section.

See:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/463917/systemds-startlimitintervalsec-and-startlimitburst-never-work
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2017-July/039255.html

We don't want to be restarting it every 100ms and having it fail if there's a real error condition though. So we'll set RestartSec=5s.
Matching the default no-ip update rate.

Also the default update rate is 5 minutes, not 5 seconds, so the RestartSec should be 'RestartSec=5m'.

Below is an updated version for systemd 230 and later:

# Simple No-ip.com Dynamic DNS Updater
#
# By Nathan Giesbrecht (http://nathangiesbrecht.com)
# Modified by Jake (https://github.com/macdja38)
#
# 1) Install binary as described in no-ip.com's source file (assuming results in /usr/local/bin)
# 2) Run sudo /usr/local/bin/noip -C to generate configuration file
# 3) Copy this file noip2.service to /etc/systemd/system/
# 4) Execute `sudo systemctl daemon-reload`
# 5) Execute `sudo systemctl enable noip`
# 6) Execute `sudo systemctl start noip`
#
# systemd supports lots of fancy features, look here (and linked docs) for a full list:
#   http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html

[Unit]
Description=No-ip.com dynamic IP address updater
After=network.target
After=syslog.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=noip.service

[Service]
# Start main service
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/noip-duc -g <domain-name> --username <username> --password <password>
Restart=always
RestartSec=5m

Author of noip-duc v3 here. Great to see the interest!

I like the restart changes, I'll get them incorporated into the package. In 3.0.0-beta.7 (2023-08-08) it will no longer exit if it cannot resolve hostnames for checking the current IP during start up.

As for the configuration, a better way to handle it so that you don't need to put your password in the unit file it to use environment variables and the systemd Service setting EnvironmentFile. Nearly every command line option has an equivalent env var. You can find them all in the help as well as the README.md.

/etc/noip-duc.env

NOIP_USERNAME=example-username
NOIP_PASSWORD=eXamPle-Pas5w0r&
NOIP_HOSTNAMES=h1.example.com,h2.example.com

Addition to unit file

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=/etc/noip-duc.env

By using EnvironmentFile= instead of EnvironmentFile=- the service will not start unless the file exists, in that way the service will not take any resources unless configured.

Please send in other suggestions or recommendations! I'm so happy to see the interest here!

I've created this project ... if someone it's interested, more than welcome! Cheers! https://github.com/felipealfonsog/NoIP-Manager

Thanks, @felipealfonsog! That is very cool.