Getting IP Addresses for Docker Containers from an External DHCP Server

Honestly, if you're assigning IPs to containers, you're complicating things unnecessarily. Containers communicate via the host's IP address. If they are on the same custom bridge network, they can resolve each other's names dynamically without needing fixed IPs. Only use MACVLAN if a specific container needs a public-facing IP for a service like DNS or DHCP.

You might want to reconsider. Many beginners think containers are like virtual machines and try to assign them their own IP addresses directly from the router. In reality, you generally don't need individual IPs for each container. Instead, you should expose just the necessary ports on the Docker host's IP. Consider using a reverse proxy to manage your traffic more efficiently. Containers aren't designed to be network devices, so it's usually better to let Docker handle networking for you.

If you want to expose multiple services, using a reverse proxy is the way to go. It allows all your services to share a single public IP while routing requests to the right container based on the URL. It's not secure to expose services directly without a reverse proxy/load balancer, so keep that in mind. You might find the Docker MACVLAN documentation helpful if you still want to go that route.