On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Matthew W. Ross <[email protected]> wrote: > I'd be happy to use multiple dhcp servers, but support becomes a pain if you > cannot > find a computer's IP address.
Please explain what you mean by "cannot find a computer's IP address". As in, the computer can't get a lease, or your own records don't show what it should be, or the name doesn't resolve properly, or...? I'm not sure what the Microsoft DHCP server can do beyond what's in the management GUI, but I know with the ISC DHCP server, you can do all sorts of cool things. So if you're looking for redundancy/failover/etc., you may want to check that out. It's not point-and-drool, but it's very powerful. Scripting, multiple database backends, even just a simple rsync of the leases file to another machine might be useful to you. > Netbios names are not always what you expect them to be. Again I'm not sure if you mean "expect them to be" as an administrative or technical problem. If your records are simply not as good as you'd like, I can't help much with that. :) But if you mean NetBIOS names don't always resolve properly, some tips: (1) Use WINS servers. Without WINS, you're dependent on broadcasts for name resolution. (2) Set the NetBIOS node type to 0x2 P-node (peer). This means WINS only, never broadcasts. This can be done via DHCP. Broadcast name resolution sucks in several ways. First, it's very unreliable. Second, it doesn't work across broadcast domains (routers/subnets). Third, it clutters the network with broadcast traffic. (3) Prevent computers from attempting to become the browse master on all but a few reliable nodes (e.g., servers selected for the task). This means you have a small set of reliable browse masters. The browse list will be more accurate, and you won't clutter your network with constant browse master elections and other crap traffic. You don't want some workstation bouncing up and down causing an election every time. We do this by setting the following string value to "No" in the registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters\MaintainServerList You can also just disable the Browser service entirely, but that will mean no browse list (Network Neighborhood). That may or may not matter to you. > Basically, I think what I want is a good up-to-the-moment inventory system. Yah, we all want that. :) -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
