Apple 034-2351_Cvr Setting Up DHCP Service for the First Time, Assigning Reserved IP Addresses

Interacting With Other DHCP Servers

You may already have other DHCP servers on your network, such as AirPort Base Stations. Mac OS X Server can coexist with other DHCP servers as long as each DHCP server uses a unique pool of IP addresses. However, you may want your DHCP server to provide an LDAP server address for client auto-configuration in managed environments. AirPort Base Stations can’t provide an LDAP server address. Therefore, if you want to use the auto-configuration feature, you must set up AirPort Base Stations in Ethernet-bridging mode and have Mac OS X Server provide DHCP service. If the AirPort Base Stations are on separate subnets, then your routers must be configured to forward client broadcasts and DHCP server responses as described previously. If you wish to provide DHCP service with AirPort Base Stations then you can’t use the client auto-configuration feature and you must manually enter LDAP server addresses at client workstations.

Using Multiple DHCP Servers on a Network

You can have multiple DHCP servers on the same network. However, it’s important that they’re configured properly as to not interfere with each other. Each server needs a unique pool of IP addresses to distribute.

Assigning Reserved IP Addresses

Certain IP addresses can’t be assigned to individual hosts. These include addresses reserved for loopback and addresses reserved for broadcasting. Your ISP won’t assign such addresses to you. If you try to configure DHCP to use such addresses, you’ll be warned that the addresses are invalid, and you’ll need to enter valid addresses.

Getting More Information on the DHCP Process

Mac OS X Server uses a daemon process called “bootpd” that is responsible for the DHCP Service’s address allocation. You can learn more about bootpd and its advanced configuration options by accessing its man page using the Terminal utility.

Setting Up DHCP Service for the First Time

If you used the Setup Assistant to configure ports on your server when you installed Mac OS X Server, some DHCP information is already configured. You need to follow the steps in this section to finish configuring DHCP service. You can find more information about settings for each step in “Managing DHCP Service” on page 10.

Step 1: Create subnets

The following instructions show you how to create a pool of IP addresses that are shared by the client computers on your network. You create one range of shared addresses per subnet. These addresses are assigned by the DHCP server when a client issues a request.

See “Creating Subnets in DHCP Service” on page 10.

Chapter 1 DHCP Service

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