Changing IP range on a network

Lee H

Hi

We are changing our IP range on my school network, the only equipment that use a static IP are the servers, the switches, the WAP's and the print servers. If we change the IP of our main server and then the switches etc is that all we have to do or is there other complications. Just wondering is it as simple as just re issuing static IP's.

Lee H

agustinchernitsky

I would do this:

1.- Change the DC IP
2.- Change any DHCP server scope
3.- Change the rest...

Remember to leave a PC with the old IP range so you can change WAPs and Switches.

And, I recommend a reboot on each server... that wouldn't hurt!

Oh! Important thing! Make sure each server registers its new IP address with the DNS server. Specially for the print server (if you use dns FQDM).

Good luck!

sprkymrk

As with all such questions, the answer is..... it depends.

Not knowing your particular environment, I'll just list a few things to watch for:
1. How are names resolved in your LAN? Hopefully not by host/lmhosts files. WINS and DHCP should not be affected, but DNS might if you have any static entries. For that matter, make sure you don't have any static entries on your WINS server too.
2. How do applications find servers? Does anything point to an IP address rather than a hostname of netbios name? Examples could be ODBC connections, drive mappings, or even an internal SUS/WSUS server might be known by IP rather than host name.
3. Are any printers using IP addresses? Jetdirect cards? How do users print to them? How does your print server manage them? In many cases it will be a local TCP/IP port on the print server. Will you have to rebuild your print queues?

If I think of anything else to watch for I'll post again. Changing IP schemes can go smooth, but you should expect some blips too. If you do your homework all should be well. Good luck.

SWM

Look out for any applications that are administered by a web interface. Some off these use the IP address in their link rather than a FQDN.

Good luck

Please post your problems as I plan to change my IP address scheme in the future

Danman32

DCs have a lot of registration to do on their support DNS server (which is usually themselves). Earlier SP versions of W2K had issues in netlogon properly updating its database with IP changes, but that has been fixed. A reboot should get the DC to properly register itself, but run Netdiag /fix just in case (you need support tools installed to have this).

WS of course need to renew their IPs before getting on the new IP scheme. You can reboot, ipconfig /renew, or wait for the lease to automatically renew (which could be a really long time). They also should reregister themselves with DNS, but failure there is only a problem if the WS have resources (for example shares) that others need.

Switches have IP mainly for management, so that can be changed last.