Determining Network Connectivity Strategies
Determining Network Connectivity Strategies |
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When designing or upgrading your network, you can implement DHCP by using a centralized or distributed approach. (See Figures 7.7 and 7.8.) In a centralized environment, IP addresses are distributed centrally to the DHCP server with one DHCP server responsible for distributing addresses in its associated subnet or site. In a distributed environment, a DHCP server can be responsible for the site that it resides in, and any other site, local or remote, that is included in the given corporate structure.
In order to effectively plan which address distribution scheme you will use, consider the issues discussed in the following sections.
How many sites do you have in your domain structure? If you have only a central site and two remote sites, then implementing distributed DHCP is ideal. A domain structure with three or more sites requires a centralized DHCP structure in which DHCP servers assign IP addresses to their given sites.
Figures 7.7 and 7.8 are examples of distributed and centralized DHCP environments. A distributed environment is used to distribute IP addresses to remote sites. A centralized environment is used to distribute IP addresses within the site. Because Windows Clustering works with all clustering-enabled Windows services, other clustering-enabled services can be run on the same server that is running cluster-enabled DHCP services.
In Figure 7.7, there are two sites, one main or central site, and one remote site. Both sites have a DHCP cluster that hands out IP addresses in their respective sites with no DHCP traffic traversing the wide area link.
Figure 7.7 Centralized DHCP
In Figure 7.8, there are again two sites, central and remote, but this time the central site is responsible for distributing IP addresses to itself and the remote site. Note that the remote site has a backup DHCP cluster server that handles DHCP traffic in case of a wide area link failure or other problem.
Figure 7.8 Distributed DHCP
For more information about DHCP, see Windows 2000 Help and the Windows® 2000 Resource Kit TCP/IP core Networking Guide.
