What’s happening
The University IP Register DHCP Service is getting an additional DHCP-only update schedule that will run 6 times an hour. You will see your changes go live within 10 minutes, instead of having to wait up to an hour.
The extra DHCP-only updates will run every 10 minutes, at 00, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes past the hour. We expect these to take around 20 seconds to complete. DHCP updates will still be included in the hourly DNS update, too.
When it’s happening
The extra DHCP-only updates will begin at 08:00 on Thursday, 31 October 2024.
Things to note afterwards
- There will be a period where a new registration may get an address via DHCP but not have a DNS registration, or the registration may be out of date.
- The "last DNS update" shown at the top of the IP Register web interface will be for the hourly DNS update. It won’t reflect the latest DHCP-only update.
Background information
The University IP Register DHCP Service is driven from the IP Register database. It updates registrations for hosts with fixed IP addresses (based on the MAC address) once an hour, at 53 minutes past the hour. It takes 2-3 minutes to process, and the changes go live around 55 minutes past the hour. It can therefore take up to an hour for your DHCP changes to take effect.
Adding the DHCP-only update is an interim enhancement to improve the legacy service. The DNS and DHCP service replacement project is continuing and the frequency of DHCP updates on the new service will be subject to the capabilities of the new system.
Contact
If you have any questions or feedback, please email ip-register@uis.cam.ac.uk.