DHCP

[cpjitservices]

I have noticed on here that alot of people are using DHCP through servers, we use routers for the dole out of IP's using dhcp pools, we have 2 Cisco 2600's for DHCP and they dole out the addresses for tftp pxe boot too.

 

At the moment we have both AD and Netware (eDirectory) running on the network - so is there a right and wrong regarding what you use for DHCP ? I know it has a lot of overhead on the routers but these routers were already installed with this role when I got here they seem to do nothing but dole out IP's, it seems to work no problem we've had the AD and Netware go down due to a power failure, but because the DHCP routers where on a different circuit all the hosts still got addresses and internet access.

 

Does it matter - is there a better way of doing it ? - I like having it through the routers actually you cant beat IOS

[m25man]

The only reason I can see why using M$ DHCP would be better for AD clients will be the Dynamic updates that MS can do that your switches won't!

 

I use Microsoft DHCP on my AD clients and Sonicwalls DHCP for the various routed subnets with non AD clients such as tills, press wifi, IP CCTV

The private ESSID wifi uses VLan routing and DHCP Relay from the MS server for my roaming AD clients.

 

This makes sure my DNS and RDNS lookups are consistent in AD which is vital for policy and sophos deployment.

[SYNACK]

No major difference, if the routers can handle it and do all you need them to then there is no harm in using them. The benifits of having it on the server are mostly for quicker updates of DNS and ease of configuration/reduction in devices/power usage.

[cpjitservices]

Thanks Dude, was just wondering really - I'm not entirely sure how we have our DNS, I think that is also in one or 2 of the routers - we have a stack of 2600's with different roles for different sites and I think one of them does the DNS for the LAN & WAN.

 

Cheers

[SYNACK]

Thanks Dude, was just wondering really - I'm not entirely sure how we have our DNS, I think that is also in one or 2 of the routers - we have a stack of 2600's with different roles for different sites and I think one of them does the DNS for the LAN & WAN.

 

Cheers

 

For AD to work propperly without a bunch of additional hassle you really need to be running DNS on a AD machine so that it can publish all of its records easily, you can do it with a different DNS server but it is much more hassel.