Executive Summary

A wide range of business-critical applications – e-mail, web services, ERP, MRP, CRM and VoIP telephony – rely on IP networks and the core network services DNS and DHCP. DHCP’s primary function is the consistent, timely delivery of IP addresses to growing numbers of networked-attached devices. Once an IP-enabled device obtains an address, it must connect to a myriad of other network entities. DNS facilitates these connections by translating network destinations in the form of www.example.com into usable, numeric IP address. Clearly, reliable DNS and DHCP services are essential to dependable network operations. These services must be continuously available to ensure business applications remain on line. A simple e-mail generates many transactions to ensure that an e-mail is sent and received.

Disruption to DNS/DHCP can result from hardware failures, software flaws, natural disasters and human error. BlueCat Networks’ Adonis DNS/DHCP appliances provide a number a failsafe technologies to ensure service availability:

• Redundant hardware components
• Crossover High Availability (XHA) for system redundancy with failover.
• DHCP Failover for topologies in which XHA isn’t a good fit.
• Separation of Services to ensure a failure of one appliance or service does not directly sabotage another.
• Proteus is BlueCat’s advanced IP Address Management (IPAM) platform. It provides additional integrated measures that prevent outages caused by system failures, configuration errors, and flawed data.
• Proteus Clustering with Replication allows two physically separate Proteus appliances to maintain identical copies of IPAM data. Data replication ensures one unit can failover to the other without loss of service.
• Proteus automates remote database backups. Restore Utilities allow blank-slate appliances to be loaded with the most current backup in minutes.
• Several mechanisms ensure the integrity of the data pushed out to DNS and DHCP servers. Data Checker routinely checks IPAM data, and DNS and DHCP configuration information for inconsistencies and faulty logic. Data Entry Validation automatically verifies data entry to significantly reduce syntax and logical errors within the system.
• Proteus Workflow allows administrators to build and stage IP address configurations and DNS / DHCP information in a ‘sandbox’, and analyze them thoroughly prior to deployment.