Master Your Addresses: The 10 Best DHCP Monitoring Tools

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) servers are crucial pieces of any network infrastructure, responsible for automatically assigning IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to devices connected to a TCP/IP network.

• FAQ’s on DHCP monitoring tools
  • What are DHCP monitoring tools?
  • Reasons to invest in it
  • How to choose one
  • How DHCP Monitoring works
  • Conclusion
• The best DHCP monitoring tools available

Besides the assignment of IP addresses, those servers are also responsible for network configuration (providing to clients parameters such as subnet mask, default gateway, DNS server addresses, and more) and address management. Since IP addresses are not an infinite resource, DHCP servers keep tabs on which addresses on the “pool” are in use, which are available, and which ones can be reused after a device disconnects from the network.

DHCP servers greatly simplify network administration, since they eliminate the need for manual IP address assignments (something which would be almost impossible in modern networks, which can have thousands of connected devices) and reduce the potential for configuration or human errors.

In this article, we will discuss the role and importance of DHCP monitoring, the benefits these tools bring to your network, what to look for when choosing a tool and discuss what are, in our opinion, the 10 best DHCP monitoring tools for business of all sizes, and budgets.

Frequently Asked Questions About DHCP Monitoring

What Are DHCP Monitoring Tools?

DHCP monitoring tools are those designed for monitoring the status and performance of DHCP servers. Those tools can vary from simple status checks to tell if the server is running (“up”) or not (“down”), to more sophisticated software capable of monitoring internal server metrics like the total number of addresses available, how many have been allocated, how many are reserved, lease times, etc.

DHCP monitoring capabilities are often a subset of a broader category called IPAM (IP Address Management) Tools, which are designed to plan, track, and manage the IP address space used within a network.

IPAM tools, in turn, also often integrate with DNS monitoring software, forming an even broader category called DDI (DNS, DHCP and IPAM) tools, providing a centralized platform for managing all aspects of IP addressing, including the automatic updating of DNS records when IP addresses change.

In this article, we will cover the whole spectrum of monitoring tools, from specialized DHCP solutions to the more complex and expensive IPAM packages.

Why Should You Invest in DHCP Monitoring Tools?

There are many reasons to invest in DHCP monitoring tools. Here are five of them, in no particular order.

1. Performance optimization: continuous monitoring can help you pinpoint issues and identify opportunities for optimization that will improve the performance of your DHCP infrastructure, sometimes without the need for upgrades.

2. Security: monitoring allows you to spot early signs of uncommon behavior or usage patterns indicative of an intrusion attempt or ongoing attack. This will give you time to react and deploy countermeasures before a data breach occurs.

3. Resource allocation: find out where resources are being underutilized or overutilized, allowing you to redistribute them according to real needs to ensure the most effective usage of your systems.

4. Proactive maintenance: monitoring allows you to detect and fix potential issues before they become critical and result in outages that may affect the performance of your applications or even the profitability of your business.

5. Regulatory compliance: businesses that handle sensitive information, like financial or healthcare data, need to meet strict regulatory standards that specify how this information is stored and handled. Using monitoring tools to track IP address usage over time and monitoring changes will help implement and enforce access controls that ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

What to look for when choosing DHCP Monitoring Tools?

Broadly speaking, there are 5 main features you need to look out for when choosing DHCP monitoring tools. Keep in mind that this may vary according to your specific needs.

• The capability to monitor many aspects of your DHCP servers at once.
• A centralized display of information from many sensors for better observability.
• Customizable alerts and automated notifications when alerts are triggered.
• Native and automated reporting features, so you can keep co-workers and management “in the loop”.
• A free trial period, so you can attest to how the tool works with your network infrastructure.

How to Do DHCP Monitoring?

There are many DHCP monitoring tools, from as many different vendors, which may focus solely on a single aspect of the task or offer this capability as a subset of a broader range of features. We present a few of them below, in no particular order.

The 10 Best DHCP Monitoring Tools

Paessler PRTG

Paessler PRTG is a powerful and versatile tool based on monitoring elements called “sensors”. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, e.g. the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, the free space of a disk drive, and so on.

PRTG includes more than 250 built-in sensors for various tasks, device types, and use cases. Among these is a dedicated DHCP sensor, which can monitor aspects such as downtime, lease time, response time, etc. However, you are not limited to that. PRTG sensors can be combined as needed, which opens monitoring possibilities. You can even create custom sensors.

All this information is displayed on configurable dashboards, providing you with a “single pane of glass” overview of all the information you need. Robust alerting (with customized alarm thresholds, granular alerting rules and multiple notification channels) and flexible reporting features round up the package.

PRTG Network Monitor is available either with perpetual licenses (starting at US$ 1.899) or subscription licenses (starting at US$ 159 monthly), a flexible and affordable pricing scheme when compared with other tools. A 30-day free trial is available. There is also a free version for personal use that lets you monitor up to 100 sensors at no charge.

ManageEngine OpUtils

ManageEngine OpUtils is an IP Address and Switch Port Management tool that also provides comprehensive DHCP server monitoring and offers detailed insights, active monitoring, and integration with Active Directory for efficient management of DHCP scopes.

It supports commonly used DHCP servers including Microsoft, Palo Alto, Linux ISC, Cisco, and Fortinet, and offers visibility into IP addresses, associated MAC addresses, DNS, and reservations within the DHCP IP pool. Features include flexible DHCP server discovery, Active Directory integration, detailed server insights, real-time DHCP scope monitoring, automated granular reports, and instant alerts for effective troubleshooting.

There is also Rogue Device Detection: OpUtils periodically scans the network to detect any new systems or devices. Any new device (including desktops, laptops, mobile users, routers, switches, etc.) not previously marked as “trusted” is considered rogue, and the administrator is prompted to take an action, which can include allowing access as a “guest” (with an expiration date), marking as trusted or blocking the switch port through which the rogue system is accessing the network.

ManageEngine OpUtils is available in two editions, a free one with 11 tools (including a DHCP Scope Monitor) and Professional, with 27 tools. You can choose between subscriptions or perpetual licensing, with subscriptions starting at US$ 98, and perpetual licenses at US$ 245, both for one user. Keep in mind that ManageEngine offers lots of extras, like add-ons and training, that can quickly drive up the price.

SolarWinds IP Address Manager

SolarWinds IP Address Manager provides a comprehensive solution for DHCP management and monitoring, offering integrated multivendor DHCP and DNS administration along with IP address management, all on a centralized console, saving time and making management easier.

This tool supports Cisco, ASA, ISC, or Microsoft DHCP servers, and only a few clicks are needed to add, edit or remove a DHCP server to the DHCP & DNS Management page. Once it’s added, IPAM begins scanning IP address and scope lease activity.

The DHCP & DNS management view enables access not only to DHCP and DNS server details, but also to information about DHCP Scopes and DNS Zones. The layout is clean and user-friendly, offering dynamic filtering and all the information needed to easily navigate through the displayed data.

SolarWinds IPAM also features IP conflict alerts, relying on historical data on IP address usage and event recording to quickly determine which device had an IP address first if a conflict occurs. In such event, the remote shutdown option can be used to cut off connectivity to the second device, quickly ending the conflict.

SolarWinds IP Address Manager is deployed on-premises and available through subscription or perpetual licensing, with subscriptions starting at US$ 1.340 and perpetual licenses at US$ 2.651

GestióIP IPAM

GestióIP IPAM is an automated, web based IPv4/IPv6 address management (IPAM) software, with powerful network discovery and IP tracking functions, allowing administrators to find the information they frequently need easily and quickly.

Networks can be imported from spreadsheets or from the routing tables of SNMP ­enabled devices, with web­ based synchronization against DNS servers. Host entries can be automatically updated via ping, SNMP or DNS, or synchronized with DHCP lease information, ensuring that the data is always up-to-date.

The Network and Host List view feature customizable columns, so they can be adjusted for the specific needs of your organization. Search is available in every page in two modes, quick search, which allows the use of “search engine equivalent expressions”, and an advanced search that looks into specific database fields.

The core GestióIP software is free and Open Source, and intended to be installed on-premises. However, there are some commercial features like API access and the Network Configuration Backup and Management Module, alongside extra services like support, installation and training. A cloud-hosted version is also available. Prices for those commercial features or the cloud service are available by quote.

Men&Mice Micetro

Micetro by Men&Mice offers comprehensive DHCP management capabilities within a unified interface, enhancing network connectivity, reliability, and efficiency, offering improved network control, uptime, and performance while avoiding congestion.

Supporting integration with ISC DHCP, Windows DHCP, Cisco IOS DHCP, and Kea DHCP, this tool features scope monitoring to keep tabs on utilization, lease history to help you spot trends and identify problems, concurrent lease cleanup to keep the network healthy, failover support to mitigate outages, automatic data replication to prevent data loss, and a scope migration wizard, with scripted assignments for easy DHCP migration.

All server data, management and administration capabilities are consolidated into a single, unified interface, accessed via the Management Console or a web browser interface, with role-based access management for task delegation, allowing you to track when, where and by whom changes were made.

Real-time two-way Active Directory synchronization automatically replicates and reflects changes made locally on a DHCP server in Micetro. This tool also supports hybrid environments and integration with cloud platforms like Amazon Route 53, Azure DNS, and OpenStack.

Price for Micetro is only available by quote. A free trial is available.

phpIPAM

phpIPAM is an Open Source web-based IP address management application. It is designed to handle all the associated tasks from within a centralized and user-friendly interface. The application is built using PHP and uses a MySQL database to store data, making it a flexible and powerful solution for managing IP addresses.

This tool offers IPv4 and IPv6 support, subnet, IP address and DNS management features, and is capable of importing (and exporting) IP address data, facilitating data migration and backups. It also offers device management, including the ability to associate devices with specific IP addresses or subnets.

Visual subnet displays, including graphical representations of subnet usage, help in quickly understanding the allocation and usage of IP addresses. Multi-user support, with role access control, allows for granular permissions so that different users can have different levels of access and control over the IP address data.

phpIPAM is completely free to use, and designed to be installed on-premises on a Linux (CentOS 7 or Debian 6) server. However, tech support may be an issue, as the only form of support offered on the official website is community-based support. The development of custom features (such as custom modules, integrations or urgent bug fixes) is available as a commercial service.

BlueCat Integrity

BlueCat Networks offers Adaptive DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (DDI) solutions to simplify and optimize network management in complex, hybrid-cloud environments, providing centralized control of core DDI services and insight into the relationship between devices, users, and IP addresses.

Their core offering is BlueCat Integrity, comprised of BlueCat Address Manager (BAM), their IP address management application, and authoritative BlueCat DNS and DHCP servers. BAM offers an intuitive and modern user interface, with role-based access control and complete visibility, allowing users to manage DNS/DHCP servers and track IP address assignments, network allocation, and resource records from a central location.

BAM integrates with BlueCat Gateway, an enterprise automation platform that helps to reduce repetitive DNS, DHCP, and IPAM tasks and integrates with third-party tools, improving operational efficiency. If you wish to “roll your own” automation, SOAP or REST APIs allow you to automate configuration, reporting, monitoring, and alerts. Last, but not least, the optional BlueCat Adaptive Failover Package provides manual and automated control over Address Manager and DNS server failover and detection, and

Pricing and licensing information are not clearly available on BlueCat Networks’s website, something we take as a hint that this is not a solution for small companies or those on tight budgets.

Infoblox IPAM & DHCP

Infoblox offers integrated IPAM and DHCP solutions designed to handle complex network environments, including data centers and hybrid cloud setups, allowing you to streamline IP address provisioning and DHCP server management alongside DNS.

This tool features automated discovery, provisioning, and monitoring of IP assets across distributed networks, with near real-time detection of unmanaged devices and DHCP fingerprinting to aid in identifying device properties, enhancing audit efforts and helping you ensure that your network continuously complies with regulatory and corporate policies.

A consistent, centralized UI helps you to streamline management of DNS, DHCP, IPAM, DNS Traffic Control and DNS Security, with customizable templates to ease the configuration of new services, flexible metadata tagging bot better organization of resources and custom reporting and alerting for more versatile management.

Customizable dashboards, coupled with predictive analytics, a powerful search engine and granular DNS and DHCP data, allow you to gain crucial insights into real-time and historical client behavior to bolster security, with compliance reports to round up the package.

There is an offer for a trial of the Infoblox DDI on Infoblox’s website but, again, there is no clear pricing or licensing information available.

Tidal Lightmesh

Tidal LightMesh is an enterprise IP address management (IPAM) solution designed to simplify and automate the administration of IP networks. It offers scalable, secure, and self-controlled IP visibility and operation through a central feature-rich interface, thereby reducing complexity for users and enhancing efficiency, visibility and security.

Users can easily import IP address data using Excel and CSV spreadsheets, making the management of IP addresses, subnets, interfaces, devices, and more straightforward. It provides tools for subnet planning, instant cloud discovery, IP and network management, and a subnet builder to help users build visual plans for their subnets.

Lightmesh includes NAT features that allow for Source NAT, Destination NAT, and Static NAT configurations, and enhanced search capabilities that allow users to lookup and edit specific IP addresses and hostnames directly from the search interface. The platform supports major cloud providers like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure, and GCP (Google Cloud Platform).

Lightmesh is available in two editions, Free and Enterprise. The Free edition allows for unlimited users and subnets and the management of up to 1.000 IP addresses, which may be enough for many use cases. However, you should keep in mind that it is currently in a public beta state. 

Device42

Device42 offers a robust IP Address Management (IPAM) solution integrated with server room asset management, providing centralized visibility and control over IP addresses, including IPv4/IPv6 management, auto-discovery tools, overlapping IP range management, subnet organization, API integration, and visualizations of network connectivity.

The software allows for the creation of nested subnets with a single click and provides a subnet tree view for easy management. It also offers auto-assignment of IPs to devices and graphical visualizations of network connectivity, and DNS integration that enables automatic transfer of zones and zone records from DNS servers.

The Ping Sweep auto-discovery feature allows for easy network scanning and auto-assignment of IP type (between DHCP, Static, & Reserved) during discovery, which can be overridden post discovery by specifying range and editing. Automated IP tracking ensures centralized management and reconciliation with subnets, VLANs, devices, MAC addresses, and DNS.

Customizable recurring schedules for network discovery jobs facilitate automated inventory tracking, and Switch Impact Charts provide real-time network visualizations, including virtual devices and switches, along with tracking device and MAC address relationships. The software also offers the creation of custom reports with various filtering options and scheduling capabilities.

Device42 is SaaS (Software as a Service) offered on an annual subscription model, based on the number of devices. However, prices are only available by requesting a quote. A free trial is available.

Conclusion

Among all these, our favorite DHCP Monitoring Tool is Paessler PRTG, as it “ticks all the boxes” in our list of desired characteristics, and streamlines your workflow by enabling you to monitor all of your infrastructure with a single tool.

The built-in sensors cover many of the main use cases, without the need to purchase extras, so it can monitor your DHCP servers, but also your network, services, servers, IoT devices, cloud infrastructure, and much more.

And it is extensible, which means you can deploy third-party sensors, or even develop your own, to cover specific needs. So, the same tool that can be used as a straight-up, no fuss DHCP monitor can also evolve into something much more complex simply by combining sensors.

That means you can do away with having to rely on a mix of individualized solutions, which can carry potential risks such as conflict with your current workflow and even network security issues. Not to mention the costs and time savings on training, license management, upgrades, etc.