spectrum48k

We already employ our Win2k Server for this, but I was wondering in the event of a failure, why not use the DHCP server built into the firewall too ?

Is there any reason I *shouldn't* do this, or does it make sense to do it?

Obviously the 2 DHCP servers scope's won't overlap each other eg.

DHCP #1 = 192.168.0.100 - 154
DHCP #2 = 192.168.0.200 - 254

Sonic'

I have set multiple DHCP servers up at a customers request, with half the scope on one server and half the scope on the other (large scope)

The reason they wanted this was incase they ever had to reboot one of the servers, or take it offline

I had the other scopes on both servers but de-activated

jowl

I believe it is a good idea.

kelvin

We do this at our place for redundancy... good idea in my opinion

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

If you don't have many machines you can just assign static IPs. Do away with the need although basically. That way if you need to directly connect to a particular computer (thinking port forwarding for gaming, ftp, torrents, video conferencing, etc) then you just can.

spectrum48k

thanks guys

ChrisB

I run this on a few LANs to add a bit of fault tolerance. Only potential downside is that if you have reservations in place they might not work as you can't force a client to always use a specific DHCP server (well, AFAIK!).

Not a major problem, just means giving statics out instead.

spectrum48k

oh right, so if one DHCP goes off and the lease expires, the PC *doesn't* automatically use an IP address given to it by another available DHCP server ?

Sonic'

Chris

I have added in the past all the reservations on a second DHCP server but left it deactivated, if the primary one goes off, you just need to activate the secondary one, it seems to work pretty well, but still needs manual intervention