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How to create a DHCP Scope for an (unmanaged) server

kevin-tt over 8 years ago

Hello there - I'm new to SolarWinds. I'm working with the IPAM module with the hopes of being able to manage our numerous subnets and DHCP servers in one central location.

The issue I'm having is that we do not want to (currently) manage the multiple DHCP servers directly through IPAM. In fact, since I'm new, I don't even know where all of the DHCP servers are on the network (there are several).

In reading the SolarWinds documentation, it seems that I have to first create a DHCP Server in order to be able to then create a DHCP Scope record. Since I do not know where the actual DHCP servers are (and do not need them managed by IPAM currently), I have attempted to create a dummy placeholder Node to fulfill the requirement of "DHCP Server"

So first I created a Node called "Loopback" and pointed it at 127.0.0.1, and told SolarWinds this is an "external" node that should not be managed.

Then I added this node as a DHCP Server in the IPAM section.

Then I added a scope for one of the subnets and attempted to submit it, but I get only a generic error when I try to create the Scope that simply says "Error in creating DHCP Scope..." and won't let me press [CREATE SCOPE].

Is there another or a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do here? We already have the subnets created, and a number of devices "discovered" within those subnets. However, the issue is that I want to set the exclusion ranges so that the DHCP ranges are marked as such (hopefully), and the remaining ranges can be left for manual static assignments.

I'll key the details of the summary screen below (this is the Scope window I cannot submit, due to "Error in creating DHCP Scope" error):

DHCP Server: Loopback

Scope Name: MyNameHere

Scope Description: MyDescriptionHere

VLAN ID: 8

Start IP Address of Scope: 192.168.0.1

End IP Address of Scope: 192.168.3.254

CIDR: 22

Subnet Mask: 255.255.252.0

IP Address Exclusions:

192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.9 (network range 1)

192.168.0.10 - 192.168.3.199 (static assignments)

192.168.3.250 - 192.168.3.254 (network range 2)

Delay before offering a lease: (default) 0 ms

DHCP Options: (default) 051 - Address Time 691200 seconds

The range of the DHCP on this subnet is 192.168.3.200 - 192.168.3.249 -- the leftover addresses after taking into account the above exclusions.

Thanks for any tips on setting this up.

Kevin