[UFO Chicago] dhcp noob question

[Jesse Becker]

--- "Christopher D. Heer" <cheer at heerfamily.net> wrote:
> Is there any reason I can't set this up on a second
> server?  The second
> would have a different "pool" for dynamics, but the same
> list of static
> DHCP assignments.  I would think that PCs would accept an
> assignment from
> whichever server responded first.  Any downfalls that I'm
> missing?  I
> looked into the DHCP redundancy feature, but that seems
> mainly to
> synchronize dynamic assignments.


So basically, server Alpha would handle all of the static
DHCP assignments, and server Beta would deal with dynamic
assignments?

That should work fine.  DHCP clients usually respond to the
first server that answers the initial "Can I get an
address?" reqeuest.  You don't really get any "redundancy"
from this (although you could argue for resilience), and
you now have to manage 2 DHCP servers.  Just configure
server Alpha with only static assignments, and when "new"
systems come online, it will find that it has no free
leases in it's pool, and do nothing (except log that fact).
 Server Beta should hand out something it's pool, which the
client should accept.

The catch is that you may have to impose some sort of delay
on server Beta, so that you give Alpha a chance to respond.
 It is entirely possible for a device that is normally
statically assigned to get a dynamic address, because Beta
replied first for some reason.  You should be able to
blacklist the statically-assigned MAC addresses though.

Is there any particular reason you want to split the
duties?   DHCP isn't exactly a heavyweight service, and
managing a single server is quite a bit easier than
two--especially since I don't see much benefit from this
setup.  That's not to say there isn't one, just that I
don't see it. 


--
Jesse Becker
GPG-fingerprint:  BD00 7AA4 4483 AFCC 82D0  2720 0083 0931 9A2B 06A2


       
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