Amparo Directo

Warning If this server is a stand−alone server, read through this section, but dont do the hands−on part. If the server is a domain controller, read this section and complete the hands−on part. Windows 2003 networking is based on the TCP/IP protocol. Every workstation or server in your Windows 2003 network requires at least one IP address. You can manually assign these addresses, or you can use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to automatically assign the addresses. Addresses are leased to a computer for a given period of time (usually several days). When the lease is up, the computer needs to release its IP address and request another from a DHCP server.. Unless you reserve an address for a specific computer, the computer might get a different IP address.

Open the DHCP tree in your MMC and select the DHCP container for your computer (see Figure 7.26). As you can see, the Configure Your Server Wizard has already done quite a bit for you. If you worked with DHCP in Windows 2000, you remember that you had to do quite a bit of configuring to get to the point where the Windows 2003 Configure Your Server Wizard leaves you by default. For example, unlike with the Windows 2000 DHCP setup wizard, your Windows 2003 DHCP server was authorized by default. A DHCP server that isnt authorized cant hand out IP addresses. You can tell that your DHCP server is authorized by the little up−pointing green arrow on the server icon. To unauthorize the server, which you might want to do if youre experiencing security problems, just right−click the server and select Unauthorize from the menu that pops up.

Figure 7.26: The DHCP container for Windows Server 2003

Now, lets look at each of the subcontainers in the DHCP container. Notice the Scope container. A scope is a range of addresses for DHCP to lease out. Scopes can also contain information about routers, DNS servers, and other things. One DHCP server can support many scopes. By default, the Configure Your Server Wizard activates your first scope. You can deactivate it by right−clicking on the scope and selecting Deactivate from the menu that pops up. Dont deactivate the scope unless you have good reason to do so or DHCP clients wont be able to obtain addressesunless, of course, there are other scopes to do the job.

You can configure some key scope settings by right−clicking the Scope container and selecting Properties. Then use the Scope Properties dialog box shown in Figure 7.27 to set such things as the length of address leases. Well get back to this dialog box and its other two pages in a bit.

Figure 7.27: Configure key scope settings using the Scope Properties dialog box.

Within the Scope container, the Address Pool container holds address ranges, from which your servers DHCP service picks the addresses it leases to its clients. You can see that the Configure Your Server Wizard set the range 192.168.0.10 through 192.168.0.254 for the DHCP service.

You can prevent DHCP from leasing specific addresses. In fact, as you can see earlier in Figure 7.26, the Configure Your Server Wizard excluded the address of my Windows 2003 server, 192.168.0.102, from the addresses that can be leased. To exclude additional addresses, right−click the Address Pool container and select New Exclusion Range. In Figure 7.28, Im excluding the addresses 192.168.0.230 through

192.168.0.254 from the addresses DHCP can lease. Figure 7.29 shows the new exclusion range in the Address Pool container.

Figure 7.28: Excluding addresses from a DHCP address pool

Figure 7.29: A new exclusion range for a DHCP address pool

The Address Leases container (see Figure 7.26, shown earlier) shows information on currently leased IP addresses. You can modify leases here. If this is your first DHCP−enabled Windows 2003 domain controller, there should be no addresses in this container. Once DHCP starts handing out addresses, youll see them here. You reserve specific IP addresses for specific computers in the Reservations container (see Figure 7.26, shown earlier). Well get back to this container soon. Hang on.

The Scope Options container (see Figure 7.26, shown earlier) contains information for the scope. This information is handed out to DHCP clients along with their IP address leases and includes such things as the IP addresses of DNS servers, gateway routers, and time servers. So, just as you dont have to manually enter IP addresses on each client computer when you use DHCP, you also dont have to enter DNS server and other information on each client. You can delete any option by right−clicking it and selecting Delete. You can add options by right−clicking the Scope Options container and selecting Configure Options.

You use the Server Options container (see Figure 7.26, shown earlier) to set scope options that can apply to any scope on your server. It works just like the Scope Options container. By default, the Configure Your Server Wizard creates an option in the Server Options container specifying that your new server is a DNS server. This option is included in the Scope Options container by default. You can delete this option in either the Server or the Scope Options container and you can create new Server or Scope Options to your hearts content.