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DHCP Management Across a Diversified Network?
ET Admin writes "I work for a small Wireless ISP, where we are deploying new network hardware to allow for growth and contain broadcast traffic. All routing/switching equipment is Cisco. We use Linux stand-alone boxes and VMs (running on Win 2003 boxes). We have decided on a hybrid VLAN layout where we have certain VLANs limited by location, and other VLANs that are global across the network. And I want DHCP served across it all. Does anyone have experience with IPAM software that handles multiple DHCP servers? Our network is small so spending a couple grand is overkill at this point. Any recomendations to help me decide between serving DHCP from the Nix boxes, or from the Cisco gear? Knowing that a single DHCP server will handle from 100-500 hosts."
setup DHCP Relaying on the switches to forward/relay all dhcp request across the vlans and subnets to one (or two) dhcp servers
Seriously, do not use the Cisco gear to handle the DHCP. There are several ways to handle this, either have a system with an interface on all the networks, or setup your Cisco gear to forward the HDCP requests to the one subnet that does have your system.
With using Unix/Linux you can setup failover servers so that if one does not respond, the other will take over the requests and that way you will not lose DHCP across your entire network due to hardware/software issues on a single system. Go read up on dhcpd, it is not too difficult to understand, and is really probably your best low cost solution.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Also, here's a small sample config for serving a particular pool on a particular interface (which would be the vlan "interface" on the Cisco), easily found on Google:
class "vlan1234"
{
match if
(
(binary-to-ascii(16, 8, ".", option agent.remote-id) = "0.15.63.ab.52.16") # This is the MAC of the switch
and
(binary-to-ascii (10,8, ".", option agent.circuit-id) = "0.0.0.47") # This is the interface number
);
}
pool {
range 192.168.100.5 192.168.100.254;
max-lease-time 300;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option routers 192.168.100.1;
allow members of "vlan1234";
}
Just because you disagree doesn't make it offtopic or flamebait.
To everyone who tagged this "domyjobforme", I hope every single one of you gets the same response the next time you ask for help doing you job. At least this guy had the sense to say, "Hey, there's a community of people that contains a multitude of experts in many fields, I bet someone might have some good suggestions." And guess what else? Maybe some readers will find the suggestions helpful too. Ask Slashdot is for questions that the general community might find interesting and helpful, not just one guy. It's not just about the submitter, and it's certainly not about your need to be snide to those who recognize their shortcomings and try to expand their base of knowledge.
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]