CCNA Foundations: DHCP on IOS — Pools, Exclusions & Leases

Today's daily lab

Turn a branch router into a DHCP server for a user LAN. You'll design a clean pool with exclusions, set the default gateway and DNS server, and verify a host lease and end-to-end reachability across a small routed core.

Learning objectives

• Configure an IOS router as a DHCP server with a properly scoped address pool
• Reserve infrastructure IPs with ip dhcp excluded-address
• Provide default-router and dns-server options to clients
• Verify DHCP bindings and troubleshoot leases from the router
• Validate end-to-end connectivity from a DHCP client to a remote server via static routing

Troubleshooting focus

• Client does not receive an IP: check LAN interface is up/up and in the correct subnet; confirm a DHCP pool exists and matches the interface network/mask
• Pool exhausted or all addresses excluded: ensure the excluded-address range leaves free addresses for clients
• Client receives an IP but no DNS: verify the pool offers the intended dns-server and the address is reachable
• Client receives an IP but cannot reach remote server: verify static routes on both routers and ARP/ICMP from each hop