Updated on 31 Oct 2005

DHCP Server

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a TCP/IP standard designed to reduce the complexity of administering address configurations by using a server computer to centrally manage IP addresses and other related configuration details used on your network. Windows 2000 Server provides the DHCP service, which enables the server computer to perform as a DHCP server and configure DHCP-enabled client computers on your network as described in the current DHCP draft standard, RFC 2131.

I strongly recommend having two DHCP servers to improve the server's availability. The explanation is below this page.

Sample Network

Server Name hoge-server
Network Address 192.168.0.0
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Server IP Address 192.168.0.1
Default Gateway 192.168.0.1
DNS Server 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server 192.168.0.1
WINS Server 192.168.0.1

Install DHCP Server

  1. Open [Windows Components Wizard], select [Network Services] and click [Details...]

  2. Select [Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)] and click [OK]

Configure DHCP Server

  1. Open [DHCP] window from [Start], [Programs], [Administrative Tools] and [DHCP]. To add new scope, click [Action] and [New Scope]

  2. Click [Next]

  3. Type Scope Name and click [Next]

  4. Type IP Address Range and click [Next]

  5. Click [Next]

  6. Click [Next]

  7. Click [Next]

  8. Type Default Gateway IP Address and click [Next]

  9. Type [Parent domain] name and DNS server IP Address and click [Next]

  10. Type WINS server IP Address and click [Next]

  11. Click [Next]

  12. Click [Finish]

  13. After finishing installing Active Directory, authorize the DHCP Server

  14. Close DHCP window

Two DHCP Servers

We need to consider that if there is only one DHCP server and it's down, clients can not get IP address. It's better to have two DHCP server as below,

If server1 is down, other clients still can communicate with server2.

\Server1 (DHCP,DNS,WINS)Server2 (DHCP,DNS,WINS)
Server IP Address 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2
IP Address Range 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.200 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.200
IP Address Exclution 192.168.0.151 - 192.168.0.200 192.168.0.100 - 192.168.0.150
Scope Options
DNS 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.1
WINS 192.168.0.1, 192.168.0.2 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.1

Note:
The point is both server's scope options must have different order of servers. See above table. You can also assign different IP address ranges to servers, then you don't need to configure exclusions.

If you have two scope
Two Servers
Two scopes (DHCP 80/20 Rule)
DHCP ServerRangeExclution
DHCP1 192.168.10.10 - 192.168.10.254 192.168.10.200 - 192.168.10.254
192.168.20.10 - 192.168.20.254 192.168.20.10 - 192.168.20.200
DHCP2 192.168.10.10 - 192.168.10.254 192.168.10.10 - 192.168.10.200
192.168.20.10 - 192.168.20.254 192.168.20.200 - 192.168.20.254

Testing at Client

  1. Release and renew the current DHCP configuration uging ipconfig /renease and ipconfig /renew 
    C:\> ipconfig /release
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
C:\> ipconfig /renew
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : grape-info.com
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
    Note: Practically I have noticed that some computer does not get the new configuration. In such a case, restart the computer.
  2. Display full configuration information uging ipconfig /all 
    C:\> ipconfig /all
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : grape-info.com
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Hoge hoge LAN Card
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-02-2D-4F-57-3B
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
                                            192.168.0.2
        Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 12 June 2002 12:34:22
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 20 June 2002 13:35:22
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