Creating DHCPv4 failover ranges in NIOS (1514)

Scenario

The network team has provisioned a new IPv4 subnet and has requested that a new range of 20 addresses in the subnet to be handed out dynamically. Please create the appropriate objects in NIOS.

Estimate Completion Time

• 15 to 20 minutes

Credentials

Requirements

• Read-only access to DHCP members and failover associations

• Read-write access to DHCP ranges

Learning Content

• Managing NIOS DHCP Objects

• NIOS DHCP Failover Overview

Lab Initiation

Access jump-desktop

Once the lab is deployed, you can access the virtual machines required to complete this lab activity. To initiate the lab, click on the jump-desktop tile and login to the Linux UI:

Username: training

Password: infoblox

Initiate lab

To initiate the lab, double-click the Launch Lab icon on the Desktop.

Choose the lab number from the list and click OK.

After clicking OK, you will see a pop-up message with a brief description of the lab task. If the description looks correct, click Yes to continue lab initiation.

Lab initiation will take a couple of minutes to finish.

Once complete, you will see another pop-up message with the login credentials and the URL for the Grid Manager’s User Interface. Note that the credentials may differ from those from prior labs.

Tasks

Task 1: Creating a DHCPv4 failover range

Login to the GM web interface and create the DHCPv4 range 172.31.110.17 – 172.31.110.36, enough for 20 IP addresses.

How do you know that this requires DHCP failover? And how do you find out which failover associations to use? Look at the network configuration to see which members are serving the network, then compare that to the DHCP Failover Associations to find out which one you should use for the range.

Task 2: Monitoring DHCPv4 failover association status

In the GM web interface, navigate to the DHCPv4 failover association and monitor its status change. Verify the status is Running OK.

Solutions

Task 1 Solution: Creating a DHCPv4 failover range

A Failover Range is a range that is served by an IPv4 DHCP Failover association and involves two DHCP servers. Creating the failover range object is like creating a regular range, except the failover range will be served by a Failover Association instead of individual DHCP servers. An important consideration while creating Failover ranges is to provide some buffer space for extra IP Addresses. This should be done to ensure service continuity in case one of the Failover peers fails and the service is restricted to just one server.

Subtask Solution: Finding which DHCP Failover association to use

1. Login to NIOS GM web interface.

2. Navigate to Data Management → DHCP → Networks

3. In the Go to field, type in 172.31.110.0 and click on the first match

4. Open the network object 172.31.110.0/24 by clicking on Open (→)

5. Once inside 172.31.110.0/24, click on the pencil icon next to the IPv4 Network to edit the Network Object

6. In the Network Editor(which will be read only), switch to Member Assignment tab and take not of the DHCP Members assigned to this network

7. Click Save & Close to exit

8. Navigate to Data Management → DHCP → Members → IPv4 DHCP Failover Associations

9. Select any DHCP Failover Association and Click the Show Statusbutton to see the DHCP Failover Primary and Secondary Server names.

Subtask Solution: Creating DHCP Failover Range

Now that we know which failover association to use, we can create the DHCP Range and assign it to the correct IPv4 DHCP Failover Association.

10. Navigate to Data Management → DHCP → Networks

11. In the Go to field, type in 172.31.110 and click on the first match (172.31.110.0).

12. Open the network object 172.31.110.0/24 by clicking on Open (→)

13. Once inside 172.31.110.0/24, click + from the dropdown and choose Range.

14. Click Next for the first step of Add IPv4 Range Wizard (no templates available in lab)

15. In step 2 provide Start and End IP addresses along with a name for the range and click Next. Here we are provisioning the range with an extra buffer of 30%. Instead of 20 IP Addresses, we are creating a range of 26.

16. In step 3 of Add IPv4 Range Wizard, choose IPv4 DHCP Failover Association and click Select Association

17. Since there is only one Failover Association in the lab (D1-D2 failover), it will be selected by default

18. Finish by clicking Save and Close.

19. Restart service when prompted.

20. Once finished, we can see our failover range in the network object 172.31.110.0/24.

Task 2 Solution: Monitoring DHCPv4 failover association status

Validate that the DHCP Failover Association comes up, and is Running OK.

1. From the Data Management → DHCP → Members → IPv4 DHCP Failover Associations tab

2. Validate the Status is Running OK. This could take a minute or two. You may also use the refresh icon

   

   in the GM interface to refresh the screen.