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Managing Lots of IP Addresses?

Posted by Cliff on from the more-than-just-DHCP dept.

haggisbrain asks: "I'm a Systems Administrator and I've recently started work with a new company where I'm now helping to support a much larger number of nodes than I've previously supported. We have just over 1000 nodes to support, but no efficient method to manage the IP addresses and subnets used. Previously, an Excel Spreadsheet has been sufficient enough for my needs, but now I need to find a new way. Can someone recommend a piece of software which can help me? Is there a simple way to list and view the IP addresses used on my network?"

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol by Colin+Smith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Imagine using spreadsheets these days.

    On top of DHCP, add Dynamic DNS and you're almost all set. Just make sure to use a DHCP and DNS server from the same producer, they're generally not 100% compatible with one-another if you don't. They might be 99% but that 1% creates a whole world of trouble.

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  2. Re:Need more information by IAN · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While I'm not managing more than a couple of /22s, that's still a lot of subnets, as we're mainly doling out /29 and /28 blocks. I've had all of parent's issues (minus router memory, so far), and I'm still doing fine with a spreadsheet.

    What's the trick? Visualisation. Look at the image:

    • Each row is a single allocation.
    • Unallocated subnets have a light yellow background.
    • The leftmost column (dark gray boxes) tracks /28s, and the second column (light gray) tracks /27s.

    So, if a box occupies a single row, the corresponding allocation is of that size (cf. 160/27, 192/27 and 224/28.) If it spans multiple rows, the allocation is subdivided. With a little practice, it's quite obvious if there's a free subnet, what size it is, how easy would it be to expand etc.