Use Win2K cluster to ensure WINS and DHCP services

The stability of the Windows Network depends largely on the normal operation of WINS service note 1 and DHCP service note 2. Senior Network Management will never disagree with this. However, network administrators often do not pay enough attention and effort to maintain the long and stable operation of these key services. The Windows Cluster service can easily ensure the high availability and high availability of the above services. However, it is indeed a pity that the network management team neglected this work due to insufficient attention.
After the hardware device of the Cluster Server is installed, it should be used for WINS and DHCP services in the network. In Windows 2000, both services have "cluster-aware" cluster support detection. In other words, these services can be run based on cluster servers, when the server goes down, the task can be immediately switched to other servers in the cluster for execution to prevent data loss and service interruption.
Microsoft's DNS service in Win2K currently does not support "cluster-aware" clusters support detection). This is probably because Microsoft believes that most Win2K users will basically enable the Active Directory Service, the Active Directory in Win2K provides the integrated Zone integrated zones, which is a specific domain name record in the DNS service. For example, the Zone record of zdnet.com is located in zdnet. the Fault Tolerance function of the service. You can use common cluster service resources to support DNS clusters, depending on your choice.
Cluster-based WINS service
Most people underestimate the importance of running the WINS service on the network. I often hear people say, "We do not use NetBIOS IN THE NT4 domain, because we only use DNS services ". In the Windows 2000 Active Directory domain, it is possible to reduce the dependency on the WINS service, or even cancel the service. However, if you are in the NT 4 domain or have any applications dependent on NetBIOS, the WINS service is very important. Because Windows uses WINS to locate network services.
For example, it is usually used to locate domain controllers, Domain Member relationships, browser services, and display services that share resources in Windows networks) and users. A user-defined NetBIOS name is represented by a hexadecimal character prefix. Therefore, if the WINS service is no longer reliable, your network service will no longer be reliable.
Multiple WINS servers are configured in many networks to provide system fault tolerance and reduce the communication volume and shorten the response time. However, the WINS service is not optimized to a distributed database. Although careful configuration is made for WINS replication, there may still be data out of date or service faults.
A single WINS server can provide excellent services for users lower than 10 thousand, especially when the Burst mode is used during peak hours. If you want to reduce downtime, you can set up a small number of WINS servers. Remote sites through narrow band, site refers to the high-speed interconnected Windows Network, Windows systems can integrate high-speed interconnected networks into a single site) WINS service, you must set up an extra WINS server. Note that WINS, which can provide Fault Tolerance services, must be built in cluster mode.
After the WINS cluster is set up, the two servers are designed to run the WINS service, but only one is providing the accessible WINS service). If the running server fails, the other server will take over the WINS service immediately. The two servers will share the disk storage space, that is, they all use the same WINS database. Therefore, the above mechanism ensures the integrity of WINS data. Similar to other cluster services, the WINS cluster cannot guarantee data storage because the cluster service first assumes that the provided data is intact ), therefore, you must add hardware RAID and backup power to ensure the external shared storage devices of the WINS service.
Configure cluster services for WINS
If you have learned how to configure file sharing and cluster printing, it is quite easy to configure the cluster for the WINS service. The following conditions are required for setting the WINS service: physical disk, IP address, and network name. You need to specify two parameters: the location of the WINS database path and the location of the backup path. Like any other cluster service, you also need to specify an external storage device and determine the access path. The backup path will be named wins_bak ). Note that the end must be ended with A backslash. See figure.
　
Note 1: Windows Internet Name Service WINS)
WINS provides a distributed database that registers and queries the ing between IP addresses and NetBIOS names in the routing network environment. It is a suitable method for converting NetBIOS names and IP addresses, especially for complicated networks such as the Internet.
NOTE 2: DHCP is short for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol" Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. DHCP is mainly used to provide indispensable network IP addresses of client hosts through servers.
DHCP Cluster
In the current network, DHCP Dynamic Host Allocation Protocol) is very important, especially when it needs to be used with Win2K Domain Name Service. However, unlike WINS and DNS, DHCP lacks the ability to share or replace databases. Each DHCP server provides services independently. Therefore, the use of Multiple DHCP servers may result in resource occupation or overlap. When a DHCP server goes down, the backup DHCP server may provide two IP addresses for a single client computer.
The network administrator configures Multiple DHCP servers to work with multiple WINS servers-for fault tolerance and faster access. But just like running multiple WINS servers will increase risks and management difficulty, using Multiple DHCP servers will have the same effect.
The traditional way to process two DHCP servers simultaneously is to use 80/20, one provides 80% IP addresses with mask settings, and the other provides 20% IP addresses, which do not overlap with each other, in this way, after the first server goes down, the second server can provide IP Address Allocation services.
Compared with the above 80/20 method, it is a true and correct solution to fault tolerance for DHCP databases as clusters. Through the cluster, all valid addresses can be configured in a single database. Therefore, once a server goes down, the other server immediately takes over the DHCP service. Of course, users can still retain the traditional 80/20 method to improve fault tolerance.
DHCP cluster configuration
The process of configuring a DHCP cluster is similar to that of configuring a WINS service cluster. DHCP service resources require the following conditions: physical disk, IP address, and network name.
When configuring the WINS service resource, you will be prompted to determine the database path and backup directory path. When configuring the DHCP cluster, the user is prompted to determine the path where the DHCP audit file is stored. The network administrator can find this setting item in the Advanced tab of the DHCP service. This file stores event records in CSV format. The recorded events include IP release, false DHCP server detection, and IP resource depletion. Figure B shows the DHCP service parameter settings.

Summary
The content in this article is two important Windows network services-WINS and DHCP. Although there are other methods to ensure the fault tolerance and high effectiveness of the two services, in most cases, building a Windwos service cluster is still the best and most convenient method.