Server is down - Best way to get clients accessing the internet while its fixed?

[TwistedHelixis]

Our Primary school server has died, its under a hardware warranty but it could be a while before its back up and running.

 

The teachers work files have recently been moved to Google File Stream but DHCP & DNS were all on the one server that has dies, so the clients can't connect to the internet.

 

I was wondering if it's possible / easy to use something else to issue DHCP & DNS while it gets fixed?

 

Would something like this do https://sourceforge.net/projects/dhcpserver/

or this

DHCP Server for Windows

 

I was also wondering if we need a DNS server for something like this? We route through our LA for internet, and they issue 2 DNS IP's that we enter in to our DNS servers DNS Forwarders settings. For this could I just add them to DHCP?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Norphy]

You might be better putting something like pfSense onto a spare computer and setting it up as a router. That can act as a DHCP server and as a DNS relay.

 

The pfSense machine would act as the DNS server for the network until you can rebuild your server.

[AlanD]

Well...you can just assign static IP addresses on computers...and as long as you have an internet connection - you can use google DNS directly....

 

In fact...what did you want a server for if your files were all externally hosted? And I assume your email? (MIS too?) And you could use Google's printing service....

 

No definitely don't have to have a server on site...

 

but there may be some benefits...

[TwistedHelixis]

In fact...what did you want a server for if your files were all externally hosted?

 

We are still in the process of moving files over, still have pupils, office folders etc. Also Sims, FMS are onsite, and our local authority require a few things pushed out from GPO. Obviously I would like the server out the windows ASAP.

[TwistedHelixis]

I have been playing with the DHCP Server for Windows at home, and its up and running in minutes, with very little config needed. I think PFsense is a bit overkill for this.

 

you can just assign static IP addresses on computers

Just trying to find an automated system.

[snagrat]

Just enable DHCP and DNS on the router. Could be done very quickly and disabled just as quickly

[ricki]

Once Dhcp router is up you need to work on internet filtering have a look at opens as a temp measure

[AlanD]

Is your server used for Authentication....guess it might me....but clients should be able to logon with cached credentials for a while....

 

You could try openDNS to provide at least an illusion of filtering (but perhaps that is done externally).

[TwistedHelixis]

Just enable DHCP and DNS on the router.

Not an option as its controlled by LA, it would take longer to get all the paper work sorted than its worth.

 

Once Dhcp router is up you need to work on internet filtering have a look at opens as a temp measure

Filtering is not an issue as our LA route us through their Smoothwall

 

Is your server used for Authentication

Yes, but the cache seems to last forever, I setup a laptop for home use about 6 months ago, and its still login in with the domain credentials.

 

Provided my clients have the LA gateway and LA DNS I do not need to worry about the firewall or filtering. I believe the proxy setting might also be cached.

[ibysmalls]

Hi,

 

In windows server you can get dhcp running in very less time, and if you have two windows servers you can split the scope between them for resilience.

 

If your network has tagged vlans etc then you might need to reconfig the switches for the dhcp helper / relay option. If its a bog standard network then yeah, i’d go with windows. Its clearer and easy to use.

 

Ibrahim

[TwistedHelixis]

It was a long time ago that I last setup dhcp on windows, but seem to remember the scopes need to authenticate to work, is that correct?

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using EduGeek mobile app

[ibysmalls]

It was a long time ago that I last setup dhcp on windows, but seem to remember the scopes need to authenticate to work, is that correct?

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using EduGeek mobile app

 

If they are setup in an windows Domain Controller environment then they need Authorisation. Its basically right clicking the server in the dhcp console and clicking on Authorise.

 

You’ll need admin credentials to setup the server or you could put dhcp role on any windows server on the domain.

 

At our company we install DHCP on the primary domain controller and have the scope split, then install dhcp on the secondary controller too. So both servers dish out ip addresses to clients within the same scope hut different range.

[chrisakak9]

having had this happen to me, get your router issuing dhcp and dns.

hopfully you wont have to rebuild the domain like me after the backups failed to restore.

 

as long as you have cached credentials you can logon fine, if not your going to have to use local accounts

Edited May 14, 2018 by chrisakak9