Articles
The following article is from the
October 1999 issue of Network Computing:
Seagrams Mixes DNS/DHCP for IP Addressing
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Network Computing
October 4, 1999
Even the maker of Absolut Vodka--The Seagram Co.'s Seagram--can tell you that nothing is absolute in the realm of IP addresses. Change is always afoot, and with a network as big as Seagram's, IP addressing can get complicated. But Seagram (also known for its Universal Studios and record labels) has taken a major leap toward streamlining the process: The company is putting the final touches on a distributed DNS/DHCP infrastructure for its global network, which includes thousands of nodes at more than 200 sites.
Prior to the new infrastructure, each of the company's geographic regions had its own spreadsheets of "made-up" IP addresses, and anytime a user moved, a network technician would have to manually assign that person a new IP address. "IT folks like us would get on a box and 'ping' away until we found an address that someone had left or wasn't using," says
Jeffrey Cohen, a consultant for Montreal-based Seagram who designed and helped build the DNS/DHCP infrastructure.
Seagram added IP address management software to its network a year and a half ago when it moved the bulk of its servers from White Plains, N.Y., to a new data center in Delray Beach, Fla., so it wouldn't have to manually update IP addresses on its thousands of workstations worldwide after the move. Seagram initially deployed just the DNS piece of Check Point Software Technologies' Meta IP package, followed by the DHCP portion earlier this year. "With DNS, you don't have to make all these changes to host tables on the workstations," says Cohen, also a consultant with USWeb/CKS, Santa Clara, Calif. Today, both the DNS and DHCP software run on Seagram's domain servers, and a user logging onto the network automatically gets a DHCP-assigned IP address.
Meta IP's LDAP service, meanwhile, handles IP address and DNS name updates among Seagram's DNS/DHCP servers. Seagram is just starting to dabble in LDAP replication, in which information about the DNS/DHCP servers--such as which zones and lease pools they encompass--is sent among the servers.
The LDAP function exhibits some quirks, too, like mysteriously knocking out the trademark red and green alerts on the server consoles. Once, when Seagram first started implementing LDAP's replication function, a Meta IP server was turned off and all the London-based Meta IP servers in the GUI went gray. It took Seagram technicians an entire day to remedy it.
DNS and DHCP services theoretically can span different IP address management products, but Seagram and other companies say it's simpler to standardize on one brand of IP address management software. "You could have multiple DNS/DHCP products, but it would create headaches, such as different front ends, configuration and management services," says Dean Newman, global network manager for Seagram.
The IP management consoles at Seagram may be uniform, but the company has yet to harmonize its DNS and DHCP deployments. Seagram for now isn't using Dynamic DNS, which would facilitate automatic updates in the DNS database whenever DHCP assigns an
address. The company instead runs Microsoft Corp.'s WINS (Windows Internet Name Service), which registers the NetBIOS names of servers and workstations. Meta IP's DNS function then uses WINS to locate a host, for instance.
"By the end of this year, when all the workstations are set up for the new IP address infrastructure, we can start to look at deploying Dynamic DNS," Cohen says.
Seagrams Mixes DNS/DHCP for IP Addressing
By Kelly Jackson Higgins
Network Computing
October 4, 1999
Even the maker of Absolut Vodka--The Seagram Co.'s Seagram--can tell you that nothing is absolute in the realm of IP addresses. Change is always afoot, and with a network as big as Seagram's, IP addressing can get complicated. But Seagram (also known for its Universal Studios and record labels) has taken a major leap toward streamlining the process: The company is putting the final touches on a distributed DNS/DHCP infrastructure for its global network, which includes thousands of nodes at more than 200 sites.
Prior to the new infrastructure, each of the company's geographic regions had its own spreadsheets of "made-up" IP addresses, and anytime a user moved, a network technician would have to manually assign that person a new IP address. "IT folks like us would get on a box and 'ping' away until we found an address that someone had left or wasn't using," says
Jeffrey Cohen, a consultant for Montreal-based Seagram who designed and helped build the DNS/DHCP infrastructure.
Seagram added IP address management software to its network a year and a half ago when it moved the bulk of its servers from White Plains, N.Y., to a new data center in Delray Beach, Fla., so it wouldn't have to manually update IP addresses on its thousands of workstations worldwide after the move. Seagram initially deployed just the DNS piece of Check Point Software Technologies' Meta IP package, followed by the DHCP portion earlier this year. "With DNS, you don't have to make all these changes to host tables on the workstations," says Cohen, also a consultant with USWeb/CKS, Santa Clara, Calif. Today, both the DNS and DHCP software run on Seagram's domain servers, and a user logging onto the network automatically gets a DHCP-assigned IP address.
Meta IP's LDAP service, meanwhile, handles IP address and DNS name updates among Seagram's DNS/DHCP servers. Seagram is just starting to dabble in LDAP replication, in which information about the DNS/DHCP servers--such as which zones and lease pools they encompass--is sent among the servers.
The LDAP function exhibits some quirks, too, like mysteriously knocking out the trademark red and green alerts on the server consoles. Once, when Seagram first started implementing LDAP's replication function, a Meta IP server was turned off and all the London-based Meta IP servers in the GUI went gray. It took Seagram technicians an entire day to remedy it.
DNS and DHCP services theoretically can span different IP address management products, but Seagram and other companies say it's simpler to standardize on one brand of IP address management software. "You could have multiple DNS/DHCP products, but it would create headaches, such as different front ends, configuration and management services," says Dean Newman, global network manager for Seagram.
The IP management consoles at Seagram may be uniform, but the company has yet to harmonize its DNS and DHCP deployments. Seagram for now isn't using Dynamic DNS, which would facilitate automatic updates in the DNS database whenever DHCP assigns an
address. The company instead runs Microsoft Corp.'s WINS (Windows Internet Name Service), which registers the NetBIOS names of servers and workstations. Meta IP's DNS function then uses WINS to locate a host, for instance.
"By the end of this year, when all the workstations are set up for the new IP address infrastructure, we can start to look at deploying Dynamic DNS," Cohen says.
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