Header Ads

ad728
  • Recent Posts

    DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol)

    Installing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server



    Installing Windows Server 2008 DCHP Server is easy. DHCP Server is now a “role” of Windows Server 2008 – not a windows component as it was in the past.

    To do this, you will need a Windows Server 2008 system already installed and configured with a static IP address. You will need to know your network’s IP address range, the range of IP addresses you will want to hand out to your PC clients, your DNS server IP addresses, and your default gateway. Additionally, you will want to have a plan for all subnets involved, what scopes you will want to define, and what exclusions you will want to create.

    maxresdefault%2B%25281%2529

    To start the DHCP installation process, you can click Add Roles from the Initial Configuration Tasks window or fromServer Manager à Roles à Add Roles.

    Slide1

    Figure 1: Adding a new Role in Windows Server 2008
    When the Add Roles Wizard comes up, you can click Next on that screen.
    Next, select that you want to add the DHCP Server Role, and click Next.

    Slide2

    Figure 2: Selecting the DHCP Server Role
    If you do not have a static IP address assigned on your server, you will get a warning that you should not install DHCP with a dynamic IP address.
    At this point, you will begin being prompted for IP network information, scope information, and DNS information. If you only want to install DHCP server with no configured scopes or settings, you can just click Next through these questions and proceed with the installation.
    On the other hand, you can optionally configure your DHCP Server during this part of the installation.
    In my case, I chose to take this opportunity to configure some basic IP settings and configure my first DHCP Scope.
    I was shown my network connection binding and asked to verify it, like this:

    Slide3

    Figure 3: Network connection binding
    What the wizard is asking is, “what interface do you want to provide DHCP services on?” I took the default and clickedNext.
    Next, I entered my Parent Domain, Primary DNS Server, and Alternate DNS Server (as you see below) and clickedNext.

    Slide4

    Figure 4: Entering domain and DNS information
    I opted NOT to use WINS on my network and I clicked Next.
    Then, I was promoted to configure a DHCP scope for the new DHCP Server. I have opted to configure an IP address range of 192.168.1.50-100 to cover the 25+ PC Clients on my local network. To do this, I clicked Add to add a new scope. As you see below, I named the Scope WBC-Local, configured the starting and ending IP addresses of 192.168.1.50-192.168.1.100, subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, default gateway of 192.168.1.1, type of subnet (wired), and activated the scope.

    Slide5

    Figure 5: Adding a new DHCP Scope
    Back in the Add Scope screen, I clicked Next to add the new scope (once the DHCP Server is installed).
    I chose to Disable DHCPv6 stateless mode for this server and clicked Next.
    Then, I confirmed my DHCP Installation Selections (on the screen below) and clicked Install.

    Slide6

    Figure 6: Confirm Installation Selections
    After only a few seconds, the DHCP Server was installed and I saw the window, below:

    Slide7

    Figure 7: Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server Installation succeeded
    I clicked Close to close the installer window, then moved on to how to manage my new DHCP Server.

    How to Manage your new Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server

    Like the installation, managing Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server is also easy. Back in my Windows Server 2008Server Manager, under Roles, I clicked on the new DHCP Server entry.

    Slide8

    Figure 8: DHCP Server management in Server Manager
    While I cannot manage the DHCP Server scopes and clients from here, what I can do is to manage what events, services, and resources are related to the DHCP Server installation. Thus, this is a good place to go to check the status of the DHCP Server and what events have happened around it. However, to really configure the DHCP Server and see what clients have obtained IP addresses, I need to go to the DHCP Server MMC. To do this, I went to Start à Administrative Tools à DHCP Server, like this:

    Slide9

    Figure 9: Starting the DHCP Server MMC
    When expanded out, the MMC offers a lot of features. Here is what it looks like:

    Slide10

    Figure 10: The Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server MMC
    The DHCP Server MMC offers IPv4 & IPv6 DHCP Server info including all scopes, pools, leases, reservations, scope options, and server options.
    If I go into the address pool and the scope options, I can see that the configuration we made when we installed the DHCP Server did, indeed, work. The scope IP address range is there, and so are the DNS Server & default gateway.

    Slide11

    Figure 11: DHCP Server Address Pool

    Slide13

    Figure 12: DHCP Server Scope Options
    So how do we know that this really works if we do not test it? The answer is that we do not. Now, let’s test to make sure it works.

    How do we test our Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server?

    To test this, I have a Windows Vista PC Client on the same network segment as the Windows Server 2008 DHCP server. To be safe, I have no other devices on this network segment. I did an IPCONFIG /RELEASE then an IPCONFIG /RENEW and verified that I received an IP address from the new DHCP server, as you can see below:

    Slide12

    Figure 13: Vista client received IP address from new DHCP Server
    Also, I went to my Windows 2008 Server and verified that the new Vista client was listed as a client on the DHCP server. This did indeed check out, as you can see below:

    Slide14

    Figure 14: Win 2008 DHCP Server has the Vista client listed under Address Leases
    With that, I knew that I had a working configuration and we are done!


    In Summary 

     In this article, you learned how to install and configure DHCP Server in Windows Server 2008. During that process, you learned what DHCP Server is, how it can help you, how to install it, how to manage the server, and how to configure DHCP server specific settings like DHCP Server scopes. In the end, we tested our configuration and it all worked! Good luck configuring your Windows Server 2008 DHCP Server!

    No comments

    Post Top Ad

    ad728

    Post Bottom Ad

    ad728
    Theme images by RBFried. Powered by Blogger.