DHCP Server Role Windows Server 2008


Installing Windows Server 2008 DCHP Server is easy. DHCP Server is now a “role” of Windows Server 2008 – not awindows 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.

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

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.

If you do not have a static IP address assigned on your server, you will get a warning that you should not install DHCPwith 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:

What the wizard is asking is, “what interface do you want to provide DHCP services on?” I took the default and clicked Next.

Next, I entered my Parent Domain, Primary DNS Server, and Alternate DNS Server (as you see below) and clicked Next.

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.

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.

After only a few seconds, the DHCP Server was installed and I saw the window, below:

I clicked Close to close the installer window, then moved on to how to manage my new DHCP Server.

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

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 a Administrative Tools a DHCP Server, like this:

When expanded out, the MMC offers a lot of features. Here is what it looks like:

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 theDHCP Server did, indeed, work. The scope IP address range is there, and so are the DNS Server & default gateway.


Figure 11: DHCP Server Address Pool


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.

To test this, I have a Windows Vista PC Client on the same network segment as the Windows Server 2008 DHCPserver. 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 DHCPserver, as you can see below:


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 DHCPserver. This did indeed check out, as you can see below:


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 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 configureDHCP 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!

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