A superscope is an administrative grouping of scopes that can support multiple logical IP subnets on the same physical subnet. Superscopes contain a list of member scopes that can be activated together. You cannot configure scope-level properties on superscopes; you must configure these on the member scopes. A superscope allows a DHCP server to provide leases from more than one scope to clients on a single physical network.
You can use superscopes to resolve DHCP service issues for the following situations:
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DHCP clients are located on a single physical network segment that includes multiple logical IP subnets.
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Multiple DHCP servers manage separate logical subnets on the same physical subnet.
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The available address pool for an active scope is nearly depleted and more computers must be added to the physical network segment.
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Clients are migrating to a new scope.
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You need to support DHCP clients on a network that has multiple logical subnets in one physical subnet on the other side of a BOOTP/DHCP relay agent.
Before you create a superscope, you must use the DHCP MMC snap-in to define at least one scope to be included in the superscope. Scopes added to a superscope are called member scopes. You can add additional member scopes either from the superscope menu, or from the individual scope menus.
To create a new superscope
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In the DHCP snap-in, create at least one scope to be included in the superscope. For information about creating scopes, see "Creating Scopes" earlier in this chapter.
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Select and right-click the DHCP server, and then select New Superscope. This opens the New Superscope Wizard.
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On the Superscope Name page of the New Superscope Wizard, type a name for the superscope.
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On the Select Scopes page of the New Superscope Wizard, inthe Available Scopes list, select one or more scopes to include in the superscope.
To add scopes to an existing superscope
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In the DHCP snap-in, select and right-click the superscope, and then select New Scope. This opens the New Scope Wizard.
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Complete the New Scope Wizard. For information about creating scopes, see "Creating Scopes" earlier in this chapter.
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Create a new scope, right-click the new scope, and then select Add to Superscope.
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In the Add Scope name to a Superscope dialog box, in the Available superscopes list, select the superscope.
Note
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Deleting the superscope does not delete the member scopes.