I know there are mixed feelings about running multiple DHCP servers on one LAN, but I'm wondering about the best way to set their ranges.
In my case, I have a router which performs DHCP and also my Ubuntu Server which I use for FOG ghosting (among other things of course). Since FOG packages itself with a DHCP server, I figured it best to use it and help things run smoother for FOG. I'd probably rather run just one DHCP server so that I could look over all the leases in one place.
Anyways, is it better to distribute the ip ranges among the DHCP servers? or is it okay to just overlap them. or is there even a difference.
Also, would it be possible (and advantageous) to have my wireless router service only the wireless requests, while having the Ubuntu Server Box service the Ethernet ones?
Thanks,
Best Answer
A DHCP server will service all the requests it receives. If the wireless Ethernet network and the wired Ethernet network are the same broadcast domain then you don't want to be running two DHCP servers in that single broadcast domain (in the vast majority of cases). If they're separate broadcast domains (implying that they're different IP subnets, too) you can run a DHCP server on a host in each broadcast domain, or if the router separating the subnets supports DHCP relaying you could run a single DHCP server and receive relayed requests from the clients on the "far" subnet.
I suspect you've got a single broadcast domain, since you're talking about "overlapping" the address scopes. That being the case you really should have only one DHCP server servicing that entire broadcast domain. (There are situations where you could have more than one in a broadcast domain-- typically in a failover scenario-- but that's beyond the scope of your question.)