DHCP setup

[Penny]

I'm in a situation where I came on board with this company not long ago and
found that they're running DHCP via sonicwall appliance. This sonicwall
appliance has become unstable.

I have always run DHCP on a DC and am planning on moving it to the DC.
Although I've been in systems admin for a while now, I've never had to do
anything like this before and wanted to put this out there for any advice I
can get.

I'm assumming all I've got to do is after hours disable the DHCP on the
sonicwall and install DHCP in add/remove programs windows components. I
would then mimic how it is set up on the sonicwall and everything should work
okay from there. I know it's going to disconnect everyone for a split second
and there's a chance it might change some IP addresses, but I'm wondering
what will happen to the current leases?

Unfortunately I don't have an environment I could effectively test this in.
It's what happens to the current leases that's got me a little concerned. I
don't think it would work trying to export from the sonicwall to the DC, it's
probably a proprietary format.

Again any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated. I know there's a
right way to do this.

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello Penny,

The easiest way is, that all machines are shutdown when you do the change.
So shutdown the machines remotely or instruct the users to reboot at the
day after you made all changes.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
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[Muhammad Usman]

no problem about lease. sut down all the PC's
shut down the sonicwall.reset the data switches (ON-OFF)
installl DHCP, create a scope, configure server options, (optional but
recommended)

power on workstations

everything will work.

 

[Penny]

Do I have to reset ALL data switches? The other locations have their own
DHCP, this change will effect only the corporate office and one of the
stores, all others are on their own DHCP.

 

[Muhammad Usman]

NO, just your network

Do I have to reset ALL data switches? The other locations have their own
DHCP, this change will effect only the corporate office and one of the
stores, all others are on their own DHCP.

 

[Penny]

I have it set up and am a little confused on how to identify my static IP
addresses.

I turned a computer on and it obtained the lease, but the default gateway is
wrong, how do I correct this?

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello Penny,

On the DHCP server console check the scope options, here you can configure
the Default gateway, the DNS server and some more settings.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

 

[Penny]

Lots of folks have reported performance problems with their PCs. Is it
possible that this change in DHCP might have something to do with it. Just
today on my PC I have noticed considerable slowness on my own PC. I just
defragmented my drive last night, and my machine is still sluggish. Just
doing things local on my machine, for instance Windows Explorer takes a long
time to load.

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello Penny,

What kind of problems, be more specific? Access to servers, using mapped
drives, copy data etc. Also check that your AntiVirus is not blocking some
things, often happen with On access scanning. Check the taskmanager for the
service or .exe name which maybe causes high cpu.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

First off, defragging a drive *might* get you some minimal improvement.
IMNSHO, it a much over rated procedure.

We need to know what is slow? Give us some more details.

If it's the logon time, accessing network drives, and the like, DNS
issues are the prime candidate. Check the DNS settings on the local
workstation and make sure they point to local and valid DNS servers.

The DHCP settings will dictate the gateway & DNS servers if the
workstation is set for automatically finding them.

Slowness on workstations can be due to plain old too many applications
being automatically loaded during boot. It can also be due to
Spyware/Malware.

You should run one or more decent spyware programs as well as a good AV
scanner. Check what is in the startup folder. Load Task Manager and see
what processes are running and using resources. Go to "Add/Remove
programs" and see if everything installed is known to you. use Google to
identify programs & processes.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

 

[Penny]

On my PC I'm seeing that whenever I go into windows explorer there's a long
pause before I can see all my mapped network drives.

Copying files takes a lot longer than it used too as well.

 

[Meinolf Weber]

Hello Penny,

Please post an unedoted ipconfig /all from one problem machine and the DHCP
server.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

When that happens to me, it's almost always due to a network drive that
is no longer accessible. It *could* be related to DNS since a mapped
drive will probably depend on the DNS server to resolve a server name...

More often, though, it's due to my mapping to a server/computer/resource
that is no longer on line...

I've seen situations where the DNS server specified in the settings for
a computer points to external DNS servers. This is a no-no. All DNS
servers specified in the TCP/IP settings *MUST* be internal. Any
external ones must be specified in the "Forwarders" section in AD.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services