Documentation forSolarWinds

DHCP Scope Monitor tool

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Scope Monitor tool is part of ETS for the Desktop. This tool polls DHCP servers to extract IP address scopes and highlight scopes that have few addresses remaining. The number of dynamically-assigned and unassigned IP Addresses for each scope is displayed. You can use DHCP Scope Monitor to show which scopes within your environment are running out of IP addresses.

Open the DHCP Scope Monitor tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the DHCP Scope Monitor tool and click Launch.

  • You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

  • To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

    1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

    2. Right-click DHCP Scope Monitor, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Add DHCP Scope to the list of monitored scopes

  1. Click Scope > Add DHCP Scope.

  2. On the Add DHCP Scope window, specify the IP address or host name and the SNMP community string, and then click OK.

    You can add numerous DHCP servers to the tool, simultaneously monitoring numerous scopes.

This tool supports DHCP scopes only on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003 servers and monitors scopes using SNMP. SNMP must be installed on the DHCP server.

Modify polling intervals, alert levels, and community strings

  1. On the toolbar, click Settings.

  2. Click the Polling tab, and then adjust the polling interval.

  3. Click the Alerts tab, and then adjust the IP address scope at which to consider IP address scope critically low.

  4. Click the Community Strings tab, and then select the DHCP servers to monitor.

  5. Click OK.

Interpret DHCP Scope Monitor results

DHCP Scope Monitor displays several details about each DHCP Scope:

  • DHCP Scope provides the subnet address of the scope.

  • Scope Name provides an editable field, allowing you to specify a name for each scope. In the Scope Name field, double-click the cell to edit, and then enter the name for each scope.

  • Size displays the total number of IP addresses defined for each scope.

  • Leased provides the total number of used IP addresses.

  • Available provides the total number of unused IP addresses.

  • Server provides the server name.

  • Status provides the date and time of the last poll and any error messages.

Rescan DHCP Scopes

You can refresh the DHCP scopes of a specific DHCP server or all monitored DHCP servers.

To rescan the entire range of DHCP scopes, click Scope > Poll All DHCP Scopes Now.

To refresh a single DHCP scope, select the scope, and then click Scope > Poll Selected DHCP Scope.

Export and copy DHCP Scope results

After discovering scopes, you can transfer the information to other tools through exporting.

To export calculations, click File > Export, and then select the type of export.

To copy calculations, click Edit, and then select results to copy.

Discover used IP addresses

The DHCP Scope Monitor displays the number of addresses used and available. Use the Ping Sweep tool to scan the subnet and show the addresses in use.