The host population:
When planning a DHCP Server solution for your network, you must first consider the following questions about the host
population:
What operating systems will be in use?
What is the hardware configuration of these hosts?
Will some of the hosts not have their own local hard disks, and therefore require the use of the BOOTP protocol?
What machines will not even use DHCP?
WINS and DNS Servers must be assigned static IP addresses; will you do this via manual configuration or will you assign static IP addresses by creating client reservations?
The number of subnets: The number of subnets is important because DHCP is a broadcast-based protocol. If you have a number of subnets, you will have to consider whether you will place a DHCP Server on every subnet or use alternatives, such as configuring a DHCP Relay Agent on each subnet or configuring your routers to perform BOOTP Forwarding. If you choose the latter, you will have to configure the appropriate hop count for the broadcasts on the DHCP Server.
The network configuration: The network configuration is important because of the broadcast nature of DHCP. Even if you have a DHCP Server on every subnet, how many hosts will be on each subnet? How often will DHCP Clients be connected to and disconnected from the subnet? This will
be important in determining what your lease duration will be, which in turn will affect the amount of DHCP message broadcast traffic on the
segment. How will you handle the broadcast traffic, and how you will assess the impact of this traffic?
