Can you use a reservation in DHCP? This can be done by specifying a MAC address. Once the device appears on the network it will be assigned the IP address you have reserved.

 

DNS is just a host name to IP address mapping, you don't actually assign IP addresses using DNS.

 

PS I don't think this is the right forum for this question, this is the Dell System Management forum dealing with Dell Management software queries & issues.

I would say the IP addresses have been statically assigned to the devices then. DNS doesn't assign IP addresses, it can only link a hostname to an IP address. It is possible to setup DNS entries in advance but that will count for nothing if the device hasn't been configured with an IP address. The device would need to be configured with an IP, if DHCP is not assigning IP addresses then someone needs to configure the IP directly on the device.

See, that's where I'm confused... the box in my cube is set up to recieve DHCP, and there aren't any routers on this side of the DNS.

Noted on the forum discrepency, if a mod wants to move it, that's fine.

 

The DHCP server isn't even installed. As far as I can tell, the IPs are being assigned by the DNS, with the hostname of the computer being the determining factor. Is that possible, or am I totally off?

Now you've got me confused, the box in your cube? Is that a PC on your desk? It's setup to obtain an IP address from DHCP but you don't have a DHCP server? Is a router handing out the IP addresses? Are we talking about one subnet here?

 

If you want to assign an IP address to a device then forget about DNS, it's not relevant. If you want to assign a hostname to an IP address then DNS comes into play.

Yeah, it's a PC on my desk. And it's setup for DHCP. See why I'm confused?

 

And yes, it's all one subnet. The winserv2k3 box running is DNS, no visible DHCP service, and yet, according to the tech manual left by the previous tech guy (I didn't setup the network), it's running DHCP, and according to every box on the network, it's running DHCP. I'll look into it more on monday, but I was just curious if it were possible for the box to assign the IPs via DNS.

So an ipconfig /all on the PC shows the DHCP server as the W2K3 server? But there's no DHCP server service running on the W2K3 server? It sounds a bit weird. You could check for sure by using Ethereal on the PC, renewing the IP address using ipconfig /renew from the command line and checking to see what is renewing the IP address.

 

I would suggest double checking for the DHCP Server service under Services on the W2K3 box first.

Reported default gateway on the box is is the w2k3 server, as is the primary DNS.

 

And trust me, I checked for the service, both in the add/remove windows components and the running services list... multiple times. In hindsight, it's possible there's a third party service running DHCP... but I'm not sure why that would be the case. Regardless, I'll check on monday.

As well as the default gateway & DNS server in use, ipconfig /all should show what DHCP server is being used as well. If this is the w2k3 server then I guess there must be a non-native DHCP server running on there. As you've said I'm not sure why anyone would do that though!

Turns out that ipconfig /all turned up a separate DHCP server. And of course, there's no name resolution on it, so I have no idea which device it is... I'll have to poke around and possibly give the previous tech a call. Thanks for the help regardless.