Configuring a DHCP Server

To access the DHCP server click Administrative Tools> DHCP.  To view DHCP server statistics, right-click on the server. Then select Display Statistics. The Server Statistics box shows general information about the DHCP server such as the number of Acknowledgements and address usage.

To configure the properties of the DHCP server, right-click on the server. Then click Properties. The Automatically update statistics every box automatically refreshes DHCP server statistics at the time interval shown. The interval can be lowered if more frequent readings are required. The Enable DHCP audit logging check box specifies whether to log DHCP server activity. The information is recorded to the event viewer which can be used for troubleshooting. The Show the BOOTP table folder specifies whether to display the BOOTP Table folder for this server. Click this option to enable and configure support for BOOTP clients on the network. The DNS tab is used to configure DHCP/DNS integration. The DNS tab is used to configure DHCP/DNS integration. The Automatically update DHCP client information in DNS check box specifies whether the DHCP server sends DNS updates to the DNS server, and when to do it.

The Enable updates for DNS clients check box specifies whether the DHCP server sends dynamic updates to the DNS server for any DHCP clients that do not support performing these updates. Legacy Windows clients (NT/9x) don’t support updating DNS, therefore enabling this option will enable legacy clients to be registered with DNS. N.B. DNS may also need configuring. The Discard A and PTR records when lease is deleted check box specifies whether the DHCP server will erase the DNS record once the client’s lease has expired. If Network Access Protection is enabled on the server the policies can be enabled or disabled for all scopes. If DHCP cannot contact the Network Policy Server the client’s network access can be controlled with these options. Default is Full Access.

The Advanced Tab. The Conflict detection attempts box specifies the number of conflict detection attempts the DHCP server will make before leasing an address to a client.

The Audit log file path. Click on Bindings to configure server connection bindings. If the DHCP server has more than one network card, then you can specify whether the DHCP server should supply addresses to the second network as well.

Click on Credentials to configure server Credentials. The DNS dynamic update credentials. If the supplied credentials belong to an object (such as a computer) that is a member of the DnsUpdateProxy security group, the next object to register the same name record in DNS will become the record owner.  If you specified the credentials (user name, domain, and password) that the DHCP server uses when registering DHCP client computers in DNS, these credentials are not backed up with either synchronous or asynchronous backup. After a DHCP database is restored, new credentials must be configured.

The DnsUpdateProxy security group. This group is installed in Active Directory when DNS is installed.  Members of this group are DNS clients that can perform dynamic updates on behalf of other clients, such as DHCP servers. Members of this group do not own the records they create.