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Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (70-291) Tutorials

Implementing/Managing/Maintaining IP Addressing Cont'd / DHCP Audit Log Files

Subtitles of the Movie

Two other troubleshooting aids you need to be familiar with are the DHCP audit log files and the event viewer. The audit log files are turned on by default. It is a daily log file that's generated and you can set the log file parameters or at least the path, through the DHCP console. So the first order of business is to configure the log files. This is done from the properties of the server itself and then from the advanced tab is where you set the audit log file path. and you can browse to different location but the DHCP location is probably going to do just fine. Click on OK. Once you know about the location of the audit log files, the next order of business is to analyze the log files if the need should arise and underneath this, in this bullet I've showed you the syntax of a log file. It's a comma delimited file that shows you the ID, when it happened, the time, IP address, host name, MAC address applicable and you'll find these log files in the directory that you just saw. So under the system root directory, Windows and then under System32 in the DHCP folder, here are the log files generated by DHCP daily files. Double click to open one and here is the service activity log. Now again this is more of an advanced troubleshooting skill, this is not something you'll typically have to look at as DHCP is one of the more low maintenance services on your network. But again I recommend that you know about this, know how to open up a log file and just generally be able to be resourceful enough to go in here and look at some events. It's pretty self-explanatory, the log was started, the log was stopped, there the log was started, informational messages can be gathered from here. Here we go, stop, started, what's a code 25 for example, 25 IP address clean-up statistics. So this is the during the reconciliation process that we looked at a little bit earlier in a previous module. So these are the DHCP service logs that are generated, again they are generated by default in the backup location that you specify. The other troubleshooting tool that you have of course is the event viewer and most of you should be familiar with use of the event viewer by now. But it's under programs, administrative tools and event viewer. Information about your DHCP service will be stored in the system log file. Simply look through the source, you can sort the informational messages here, and the warning messages here, with the column headings here, but we are looking for DHCP server service, here's an informational message, and like other events that are captured, it identifies the time, the date, the computer, the user if applicable and then the description. Sometimes descriptions can be very helpful, sometimes not very helpful at all. You can get data and again sometimes this is more helpful than other times. But here's the event here, the DHCP server checked and it's indeed authorized to start, so it's servicing clients. That's the informational message that is tracked in event viewer. Again if I sort things by the source then I gather up all my DHCP server messages in a single location. So these are the 2 tools that again will help you troubleshoot. They're designed to provide information, whether or not you can act on that information will be determined by how well you know DHCP and the behavior of DHCP clients in your network.

Tutorial Information

Course: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (70-291)
Author: Brian Culp
SKU: 33478
ISBN: 193207273X
Release Date: 2004-02-26
Duration: 8 hrs / 99 lessons
Captions: For Online University members only
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

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