|
DHCP Recommendations
Insight into the first major DHCP deployment and what was going
through our heads
By: Bruce Bahlmann - Contributing Author (your
feedback
is important to us!)
Created: June 5, 1996
Note: Birds-Eye.Net offers a DHCP Stress Testing Suite [evaluation/buy]
as well as expert consulting help for the peskiest of DHCP configurations [consulting].
Problem: As part of level 1 customer support CSRs will need to ping computer
- Using know MAC address, Remedy will look up IP address from DHCP active lease text file
Problem: DHCP will give out IP addresses without knowledge of whether user is valid
- Restrict DHCP to known MAC addresses
Problem: What happens to users with built-in MAC addresses
- Enter MAC in the field using installer’s laptop and Remedy client
Problem: Manual data entry must deal with duplication, completeness, mistyped
information (sync Remedy/DHCP)
- DHCP server must be able to communicate with other systems (mainly Remedy)
- Use Remedy as a front end for modifying MAC addresses in the DHCP server
- Installer has capability to modify customer’s MAC address using Remedy client
Problem: Reorganizing the network may change IP addresses assigned to each node
- Unresolved (?) DHCP address assignment pool may need to be modified because router
addresses (passed in request for IP) are changed - DHCP keys off the router address found
in the DHCP request to lease customer an IP address that will work on the subnet which the
customer resides
Problem: Customers who consistently receive the same IP address encourage Web site
building
- Short leases 3 days maximum
- Unresolved (?) Windows do not release IP addresses even on power cycle, Macs release IP
on power cycle
- Unresolved (?) When DHCP lease expires renewals receive the same IP address
Problem: DNS synchronization for users who pay for a DNS name
- Use DHCP with built in DNS communication (protocol is under development) – future
feature
- Note DNS consistency encourages Web site building
Problem: Need one common place to look up and assign IP addresses
- Unresolved (?) Use Remedy as a front end for all MAC address entry and IP address lookup
for static, reserved (hubs, routers, servers), and DHCP customers
Problem: Efficiently use IP address blocks assigned to DHCP
- Unresolved (?) will expired IP leases be reassigned before assigning unleased IP
addresses
- Unresolved (?) based on a DHCP request, can DHCP assign an IP from a different Class C
related only through the routing table (and Remedy available pool for a specific city)
– if so will this work for more than two Class C blocks assigned to a subnet
Summary: Which features should be incorporated into DHCP server
- Commercial versus Freeware— commercial product Join costs $5 per node
- DHCP should include BOOTP functionality for LCh and LCp
- Use a DHCP server that runs on a open system platform (do not use NT server’s DHCP)
- DHCP server will allow remote modification of services without killing application
- Output a text file which includes current leased IP addresses, MAC - time stamped
- DHCP server must lease IP addresses only to known MAC addresses (external MAC text file)
- Output a text file which includes all address blocks allocated to DHCP
Check out these other Birds-Eye.Net papers/products regarding DHCP:
Products:
White Papers and Reading Material
Can Birds-Eye.Net help you or your Company?
Receive your Birds-Eye.Net articles and white
papers hot off
the presses by adding our RSS feed to your reader.
|
|
(C) Copyright Birds-Eye.Net, All rights reserved.
It is against the law to reproduce this content or any portion of it in any form without the explicit written permission of Birds-Eye Network Services, LLC. Federal copyright law (17 USC 504) makes it illegal, punishable with fines up to $100,000 per violation plus attorney's fees.
|