Using superscopes

A superscope is an administrative feature of DHCP servers running Windows Server 2003 that you can create and manage through the DHCP console. Using a superscope, you can group multiple scopes as a single administrative entity. With this feature, a DHCP server can:

•	Support DHCP clients on a single physical network segment (such as a single Ethernet LAN segment) where multiple logical IP networks are used. When more than one logical IP network is used on each physical subnet or network, such configurations are often called multinets.
•	Support remote DHCP clients located on the far side of DHCP and BOOTP relay agents (where the network on the far side of the relay agent uses multinets).

In multinet configurations, you can use DHCP superscopes to group and activate individual scope ranges of IP addresses used on your network. In this way, the DHCP server computer can activate and provide leases from more than one scope to clients on a single physical network.

Superscopes can resolve certain types of DHCP deployment issues for multinets, including situations in which:

•	The available address pool for a currently active scope is nearly depleted, and more computers need to be added to the network. The original scope includes the full addressable range for a single IP network of a specified address class. You need to use another IP network range of addresses to extend the address space for the same physical network segment.
•	Clients must be migrated over time to a new scope (such as to renumber the current IP network from an address range used in an existing active scope to a new scope that contains another IP network range of addresses).
•	You want to use two DHCP servers on the same physical network segment to manage separate logical IP networks.