DHCP for Windows 2000

Leases

A lease is a length of time that the DHCP server agrees to let a DHCP client use an assigned IP address. When a client is using a lease, the lease is considered active. During the duration the client holds a lease, the client must attempt to renew the lease. These times are known as T1, which occurs at 50% of available lease time remaining, and T2, which occurs at 87.5% of available lease time remaining. If the lease is not renewed and expires, the lease is considered inactive.

Lease Duration Strategies

By default, when a scope is created, the lease time is set to 8 days. Usually 8 days is plenty of time. However, you may want to adjust the lease duration to improve performance of DHCP servers or to reclaim IP addresses more quickly.

• If there are a large number of IP addresses available and the environment is very stable, i.e., there are not many changes being made, the lease duration could be increased. By increasing the lease duration, DHCP traffic is decreased because clients do not have to attempt to renew their lease as often.

• If the number of IP addresses is limited and/or there are many remote users, the lease duration should be decreased. With a decreased lease duration, IP addresses are reclaimed at a faster rate.

Viewing Client Leases

To view a client’s lease, follow these steps:

1. In the DHCP Console, expand the scope that contains the client lease. Click on Address Leases.

2. In the Details pane, find the client lease to view. View the information contained in the pane. ...