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  Cisco Network Registrar: Controlling the Network Circus June 14, 1999
I tested a beta version of one of these toolsets--Cisco Systems Network Registrar 3.0--in our University of Wisconsin Real-World Labs®, and I think it deserves serious consideration. This version's new features include redundant DHCP servers, SNMP support and Web-based reporting. I also valued Network Registrar's extension points, which give you low-level control over your DHCP server. And with a base price less than $10,000, Network Registrar 3.0 is in line with the cost of its rivals.
Under the Big Top While this may sound simple, it's not always a seamless process. For redundant DHCP services, you have to overcome the hurdle of having no translation from MAC (Media Access Control) address to IP address. One way to do this is by segmenting your IP address range into normal and emergency subpools. The emergency subpool of IP addresses consists of addresses that the backup server can safely distribute if it is unable to communicate with the primary server. In the lab, my primary server was responsible for distributing the DHCP addresses. The backup server also tracked network activity; in the event of a service disruption from the primary server, it could renew any necessary DHCP leases and assign new addresses out of its emergency subpool. I was impressed to see how well Network Registrar's graphical interface kept me informed about events status. Thanks to Network Registrar 3.0's new SNMP support, you can effortlessly add the software into your network environment. With SNMP traps, I was quickly alerted after I had intentionally caused my servers to fail. This functionality is especially important with redundant servers, since the backup server will continue to work even if the primary server is no longer available. This makes notification more important, as your emergency pool of addresses can be used up if a network failure is not discovered quickly.
Further Extensions The latest version of Network Registrar also includes an improved graphical user interface. During my testing, I noticed the simplified controls that let me add and remove DHCP options, as well as the improved monitoring of redundant servers. Overall, the user interface was not what I'd call excellent, but it gets the job done. Finally, Cisco also added Web-based reporting to this version of Network Registrar. I created detailed reports about server statuses, IP address usage, lease statuses and redundant server connections. The Web-based reporting was relatively easy to implement on my Windows NT test server. Although the vendor might want to consider adding more reports to the next version, Network Registrar 3.0's reports provided a sufficiently high-level overview of the state of the servers. Jeff Ballard works as a systems programmer for the University of Wisconsin. Send your comments on this article to him at jballard@ nwc.com.
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