NiagaraAX and DHCP

DHCP is supported by the operating systems used by all NiagaraAX hosts, though static IP addresses provide the most reliable connectivity. To reliably use DHCP, it is better to reserve an IP address in the DHCP server for the MAC address of each NiagaraAX device. This ensures that the NiagaraAX device receives the same IP address whenever it requests one from the DHCP server.

Static IP addresses provide the most reliable connectivity between NiagaraAX hosts. Problems can develop, for example, if one station is assigned a new IP by the DHCP server and it has links to other stations. Those links stop working until those stations are restarted. The DHCP server should be configured to allocate the same IP address to the NiagaraAX host whenever it requests one. Note that this address is not really a static IP address, but rather is a dynamic one reserved by the DHCP server for the particular host.

For the DHCP administrator to set up the reserved IP address, you will need to provide the MAC address of the NiagaraAX host to the DHCP administrator.

You can set up DHCP on a JACE-4/5 or a JACE-2 using the TCP/IP Configuration view of the Workbench platform but you must use Windows networking tools to set up DHCP on any NiagaraAX host running the Windows OS.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP DHCP servers can be configured to update DNS servers on behalf of devices that do not support dynamic update. NiagaraAX does not support Dynamic DNS.