Advantages of DHCP Reservation over Static IP Assignment

ID: Q170062

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0

SUMMARY

There are many advantages to using dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) reservations for Windows NT clients (Server or Workstation) over statically assigning the client with an IP address. The following describes two advantages:

If your client is configured for Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and your WINS database becomes corrupt at any time, a simple "ipconfig /release", "ipconfig /renew" from an MS-DOS prompt will force the client to re-register with the primary WINS server.

Using DHCP reservations allows administrators to have a central point of reference for all IP allocations in the organization. When you use DHCP Administrator (Mappings/Show Reservations), a complete list of active reservations as well as active leases is available in one location. This is a major advantage, especially when you are tracking down particular clients or even reassigning new scopes.

NOTE: It is important to understand that using DHCP reservations has no basic functional difference from statically assigning a client an IP address. A client will not function any differently with basic WINS configurations (that is, expiration, release, re-registration, and so on), but will only be capable of re-registering itself on the fly when configured though DHCP (that is, ipconfig /renew). Hence, if you statically assign a server an IP address and need to refresh its WINS registration, you will need to execute a restart.


Keywords          : kbnetwork nttcp NTSrvWkst 
Version           : WinNT:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        :

Last Reviewed: February 19, 1999