I'm working on a school project to set up a realistic network for a doctor's office. At home, I'm running two virtual machines: a Windows 10 client and a Windows Server 2022 acting as a DHCP server. My problem is that the router is still assigning an IP address to my client PC instead of the Windows Server. The server recognizes this and registers it with DNS, but it doesn't assign an IP. I want to avoid messing with my router settings too much. Is there a way to prioritize the Windows Server for DHCP assignments?
1 Answer
You generally want to avoid having two DHCP servers on the same network unless they're configured in an active/passive setup. DHCP operates on broadcasts, meaning either server can respond to requests, which could lead to conflicts and confusion. Unless you specifically need two servers for some unique setups, it’s usually best to use just one. This can be your router or the server you're setting up, particularly in smaller networks.
Absolutely, if you're using a Windows DHCP server, they can be set up for load balancing. If you're working with PXE boot setups, they actually use DHCP as well for that depending on your needs.