DHCP assignment - router or SBS server
drone
for win server 2003.
So far, our SBS server has been the DHCP server, and everything had been
working well. However after a crash, we lost connectivity to the server, and
only after i stopped ipnat.sys that all the clients were able to see the
server.
After that happened, somehow miraculously, i got a notification from the
server saying that the DHCP has stopped, since its found another DHCP server
on the network. Which happens to be the router. Everything is working fine
now.
So my big question:
What should be the DHCP server? - the router or the SBS server itself? We
are currently getting a static IP and will be using VPN also.
What are the advantages/disadvantages of using the router as DHCP server? If
we go that route, does everyone lose server connectivity in case the router
goes down?
Thanks in advance for all your help!
Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]
Your SBS server should be the DHCP server - disable DHCP on any/all other
devices. Not sure what your crash consisted of or how precisely you
recovered, but this shouldn't be a regular issue, surely....
SuperGumby [SBS MVP]
(SBS) and other DHCP options (WINS, node type, etc...). It is _highly_
unlikely you have, or can, configure your router to hand out this
information correctly. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting you are at
fault, it is highly unlikely your router has this ability.
"drone" <dr...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C4CC0D16-F338-4176...@microsoft.com...
drone
why do you suggest the router should not be the DHCP server? Are there any
major disadvantages?
As for the crash, that might have been an electrical issue...but did not
constitute much more than a restart, thankfully.
Leythos
dr...@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> What should be the DHCP server? - the router or the SBS server itself? We
> are currently getting a static IP and will be using VPN also.
> What are the advantages/disadvantages of using the router as DHCP server? If
> we go that route, does everyone lose server connectivity in case the router
> goes down?
SBS DHCP provides information about the server and domain that your
router has no clue about.
DNS should be provided by the SBS box also, never, never, configure any
options for the workstations or DHCP to use the internet DNS settings or
you will experience intermittent problems connecting to the server.
If you use the wizards, DHCP will be configured to pass the workstations
(via DHCP) all the information they need to know about the server,
including that the server is the sole DNS connection.
If you want to maintain server/network access while the "Router" goes
down, you really need to consider that you're most likely using a cheap
NAT router that is not business class.
If you're doing VPN you want to VPN INTO A FIREWALL APPLIANCE and not
the server as the VPN Endpoint, better security, more stability.
If you use the ROUTER to provide DNS/DHCP you will experience many
problems that you are not sure about, it's just a worst case move.
--
Leythos
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Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]
> hi lanwench thanks for your reply...
> why do you suggest the router should not be the DHCP server? Are
> there any major disadvantages?
Yes - dynamic DNS updates, for one.
>
> As for the crash, that might have been an electrical issue...but did
> not constitute much more than a restart, thankfully.
Good - get yourself a decent managed UPS if you don't have one, though.
drone
One clarification - we are using the SBS server mostly for file sharing
purposes and later, VPN. Hence i dont know if we need the server to dish out
dynamic DNS updates. Do you think we need to ?
Yes, we are using a cheap router now, but we are looking to get a VPN
firewall router before we set up the VPN solution. I am not sure if the VPN
firewall router will even be enabled to be a DHCP server....
Leythos
dr...@discussions.microsoft.com says...
> Thanks leythos,
> One clarification - we are using the SBS server mostly for file sharing
> purposes and later, VPN. Hence i dont know if we need the server to dish out
> dynamic DNS updates. Do you think we need to ?
> Yes, we are using a cheap router now, but we are looking to get a VPN
> firewall router before we set up the VPN solution. I am not sure if the VPN
> firewall router will even be enabled to be a DHCP server....
When it comes to SBS, use SBS for DNS and DHCP, do not use anything
else.
Dynamic DNS is for your PUBLIC Internet connection, so that you can use
a cheap/residential grade connection for your public connection to the
server and still have proper public name resolution that points to the
server PUBLIC Address.
NEVER, at least not for any good reason, use a routers/firewall DHCP
service when using SBS.
Joe
> Thanks leythos,
> One clarification - we are using the SBS server mostly for file sharing
> purposes and later, VPN. Hence i dont know if we need the server to dish out
> dynamic DNS updates. Do you think we need to ?
A slight misunderstanding here. The SBS DNS system can obtain the
mapping information for the network from the SBS DHCP server, and it
can't from any other DHCP server. This is what LW was referring to,
internal dynamic DNS updates.
It's not a show-stopper, SBS will use regular ARP queries to keep track
of its workstations if it is not itself doing DHCP, but that's another
little extra load on the network which is avoidable.
Ultimately this is a troubleshooting issue. If you are having problems
with an SBS feature, perhaps intermittently, almost the first advice is
to switch to using the SBS for DHCP if you aren't already. You might as
well set it up that way from the start. When you have unknown problems
to identify, eliminating the 'usual suspects' is normally the best way
to begin.
As to fault tolerance, I believe the usual DHCP lease is a week or so,
which ought to allow enough time to sort out a DHCP failure.