Article ID: 2005980 - Last Review: February 25, 2010 - Revision: 4.0

You cannot add a DHCP reservation which is outside of the scope distribution range in Windows Server 2008 R2

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Symptoms

On Windows Server 2008 R2, you cannot add a reservation using the DHCP MMC or netsh commands if the reservation is outside of the distribution range of the DHCP scope, even if it falls in the subnet defined by the subnet mask of the scope.

Example:

Scope: 10.10.0.0

Distribution Range: 10.10.1.21-10.10.1.230

Subnet Mask: 255.255.254.0

Reservation: 10.10.0.164

Adding the IP address 10.10.0.164 will fail. The message that will be displayed is: The specified DHCP client is not a reserved client

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Cause

When adding a new reservation, the DHCP server checks if the IP address is within the defined distribution range of the scope.

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Resolution

This is by design. If the DHCP scope range does not cover the whole subnet defined by the subnet mask, you cannot add a reservation outside of the configured range. You can, however, extend the distribution range so that the whole subnet is covered, and specify the reservation after this step. If you do not want to distribute addresses from the whole subnet, you can also define an exclusion range. A reservation which falls into an exclusion range will still work.

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Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500) for other considerations.

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