Managing Clusters, Overlapping IP Spaces, Distributed Branch Network Sites, and their Global Configurations in DDI Central

Managing distributed IT environments is no easy task. As networks grow increasingly complex and interconnected, centralizing the control while retaining the unique configurations and autonomy required at each location becomes a daunting challenge. This challenge only amplifies as operations scale, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and operational silos that hinder productivity.

Imagine a solution that consolidates control into a single management console, enabling you to efficiently oversee all interconnected remote network sites. That’s exactly what ManageEngine DDI Central provides: a centralized platform built with multi-branch modular architecture at its core, for managing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM configurations across modern distributed networks, without sacrificing the autonomy of individual sites.

With DDI Central, enterprises gain the flexibility to configure and manage multiple branch sites—whether they’re branch offices, regional hubs, or distinct strategic business units—under a single, centralized interface. Each site’s DNS, DHCP, and IPAM configurations can be tailored to meet specific requirements while maintaining seamless coordination across the organization.

Understanding multi-branch architecture in DDI Central

Much like managing all the ships within a single grid in the Battleship game, a network administrator at the headquarters of a bank or enterprise commands a bird’s-eye view of the entire distributed network. This centralized perspective enables them to monitor, control, and optimize operations across all connected sites, ensuring every network site functions seamlessly within the enterprise's main WAN backbone.

How are branches organized in DDI Central?

Managing distributed networks across multiple facilities or sites requires structure and scalability. In DDI Central, remote branch network sites are strategically organized into Clusters for efficient scaling, management and administrative control. These clusters serve as modular units of efficiency—enabling administrators to seamlessly create new clusters as network facilities expand or new branches open and effortlessly onboard relevant DNS servers, DHCP servers, or both for each network facility. This structured approach ensures that sites operate independently while maintaining seamless integration with the Central Management UI Console.

What are clusters in DDI Central and why do you need them?

Clusters in DDI Central are logical groupings of servers designed for identification and administrative purposes. They enable efficient organization and management of servers by isolating the operations of different branch network sites. Each cluster functions independently of others, making it easier to manage complex distributed network environments without interference or overlap.

Here’s why clusters are essential:

Isolation and independence

Clusters operate independently, reducing the risk of cross-network site interferences. This way, issues at one site won’t cascade to others, safeguarding your overall distributed network.

Strategic scalability

As your network grows, so does DDI Central’s ability to manage additional sites. Clusters can be strategically deployed and scaled, ensuring robust core network services delivery across all sites. A single cluster can accommodate unlimited DNS and DHCP servers, allowing for easy expansion. Each cluster is fully customizable and independently managed, tailoring the core network services to meet the unique needs of each remote network site without disrupting the overall architecture.

Administrative clarity

Each cluster is associated with its own DNS Manager, DHCP Manager, and IP Address Manager, enabling precise control over network services.

Granular access with precision

One of the standout benefits of DDI Central's multi-site architecture is its RBAC, which enables granular permission settings tailored to user roles. While Administrators are granted unrestricted privileges across all clusters and configurations, Operator users can be assigned specific, controlled access based on their responsibilities.

• Cluster-based permissions: Operators can be restricted to specific clusters, ensuring they only access the relevant network environments they are responsible for.
• Service-specific access: Permissions can be limited to DNS-only, DHCP-only, or both (DDI), depending on the operator’s role in managing the network.
• Zone-level permissions: For finer control, access can be granted to specific DNS zones within a cluster, enabling operators to work within the required scope without overstepping boundaries.

By providing this flexibility in permission assignments, DDI Central ensures that Operators have just the right level of access to perform their tasks effectively, while maintaining security and minimizing the risk of unauthorized changes.

Simplified troubleshooting

Centralized control doesn’t just make management easier; it also speeds up troubleshooting. Issues at individual sites can be identified and addressed without affecting the broader network.

How do clusters maintain connectivity with the DDI Central console?

Clusters connect seamlessly with DDI Central’s Management UI Console (DDI Console) through secure communication channels, enabling administrators to maintain uninterrupted oversight of distributed networks. This connectivity provides:

1. Holistic View:

   Administrators can access a unified view of all remote sites and clusters from a single management console.

2. Real-Time Monitoring:

   Continuous visibility ensures real-time updates on server activities, streamlining network operations and enhancing operational efficiency.

   Connectivity Requirements

   1. Secure network connections

   DDI Central can easily manage DNS-DHCP clusters of interconnected remote sites via a variety of secure methods to ensure robust communication. It supports clusters connected through various secure methods, including:

   • VPNs
   • Point-to-Point (P2P)Connections
   • IP/MPLS Core augmented via VPN
   • SD-WANs

   This robust network connectivity enables DDI Central to effectively manage both internal and remote site DNS-DHCP server clusters.

   2. OS-specific connectivity

   Each network facility or remote site operates as a dedicated cluster, customized to its operating system—Windows or Linux—with tailored connectivity methods. This capability empowers administrators to manage distributed networks efficiently, maintaining visibility and control across all remote sites.

   For Windows:

   Connectivity is established using a WinRM setup (Windows Remote Management).

   This enables agentless communication, ensuring continuous visibility into events and changes happening in all the managed DNS and DHCP servers without requiring additional software agents.

   
   

   

   The image above illustrates a typical distributed Linux network infrastructure managed through DDI Central. There are three remote branch office DNS-DHCP clusters communicate with the central Management UI Console.

   What’s particularly notable about the Linux-based setup is that administrators gain centralized visibility and control over both Linux- and Windows-based clusters through a unified interface.

   While the Windows-based DDI setup communicates using the WinRM protocol, it offers consistent and centralized visibility into remote servers across the Microsoft ecosystem. To enable seamless communication between clusters in a distributed Microsoft environment, a proper WinRM setup is required.

   In the case of Linux-based DDI clusters, DDI Central’s Management UI Console leverages lightweight software agents installed on each onboarded server. These agents ensure continuous visibility and effortless synchronization with the central console.

   With such unified control in place, administrators can apply global configurations across all servers within a specific branch office, site, or facility—eliminating the need for server-by-server manual management.

   For Linux:

   A lightweight agent called Discovery Node Agent is installed on each managed DNS/DHCP server.

   This facilitates real-time updates and seamless integration with the DDI Console.

   All the servers within a cluster should maintain connectivity with DDI Central's main app console called DDI Console, also known as Management UI Console, through secure connections, ensuring uninterrupted oversight of distributed networks.

   This connectivity enables:

   Holistic view: Administrators gain a unified view of all remote sites via a single management console.

   Continuous visibility for real-time monitoring: Real-time updates provide insights into activities within each server and site, streamlining network operations.

   What are the clusters in DDI Central comprised of?

   

   Each cluster in DDI Central is a self-contained unit with its own internalized:

   1. IP Address Manager (IPAM)
   2. DNS Manager
   3. DHCP Manager
   4. Dual-stack (IPv6/IPv4) IP address inventory
   5. Consolidated standalone configurations called Global or Top-Level aka configurations
   
   

   These clusters facilitate independent management of network sites while ensuring seamless integration with the Central Management Console. By simply adding DNS and DHCP servers to a cluster, administrators can discover and manage configurations across all network sites from a single, unified window.

   Global configurations within clusters

   Each DNS/DHCP server maintains its own standalone configurations called Global or Top-level configurations initially, but when onboarded into a DDI Central cluster alongside other DNS/DHCP servers, DDI Central consolidates its Global configurations. The cluster adopts unified global DNS and DHCP configurations by merging, prioritizing, and reconciling overlapping settings from all onboarded servers, ensuring consistency and streamlined management across the entire cluster. These configurations enable seamless network management and reduce the need for repetitive manual configuration for a cluster of DNS and DHCP servers set to provisioning a specific network site.

   How does DDI Central manage global configurations for a cluster?

   Let's explore how DDI Central manages unified global cluster configurations,

   Centralized control with flexibility

   When servers are onboarded to a cluster, DDI Central aggregates the global configurations within each server using predefined rules:

   Reconciles conflicting entries for single-valued variables under each configuration such as RRL Settings, RRL Exception List, and Forwarders List and more.Generates an aggregated list of global configurations collected from each server onboarded within a cluster.

   Unified push across servers

   Once global configurations are finalized, they are pushed to all servers within the cluster. This ensures all servers operate with consistent DNS and DHCP settings.

   Conflict resolution

   For certain like settings like response rate limiting (RRL), RRL Exception List, Recursion settings, DHCP options, and Custom Options—each configuration can hold only singular values at any given time—DDI Central resolves conflicts arising from servers within the same cluster. When conflicting values emerge, DDI Central applies resolution rules, such as retaining the value from the most recently onboarded server, ensuring consistency and streamlined management.

   To ensure seamless management, global configurations for the cluster are determined by specific rules. Here’s how it works:

   

   Why these rules matter

   Consistency across servers

   By combining or prioritizing configurations logically, DDI Central ensures that clusters operate smoothly with no redundant or conflicting values.

   Centralized management

   Administrators can manage configurations for the entire cluster without needing to manually reconcile settings between individual servers.

   Rapid scalability

   The rules allow seamless integration of new servers into the cluster, automatically updating global configurations as needed.

   Example of rule application

   Let’s assume the following scenario:

   • Server A was onboarded first and contains few ACLs, a custom DHCP option, along with a set of standard DHCP options.
   • Server B is onboarded next and introduces a new set of ACLs.
   • Server C is onboarded last, introducing new set of ACLs and brings in the same set of Standard DHCP options as Server A.

   Global configuration for the cluster

   • ACLs: Merges ACLs from all Servers A, B, and C.
   • DHCP Options and Custom Options: Combines all list of Custom and standard DHCP options, for the overlapping options of Server A and Server C, DDI Central resolves the conflicts retaining the latest onboarded Server C’s values.

   Strategic tips for managing multi-branch deployment or overlapping IP address spaces in DDI Central

   Effective multi-branch deployment in DDI Central requires thoughtful planning, modular design, and continuous monitoring. By carefully organizing clusters and leveraging DDI Central's robust toolset for compliance and performance tracking, enterprises can optimize efficiency and ensure seamless, scalable network operations.

   When servers are added to a cluster in DDI Central, all servers within that cluster are automatically updated with unified global configurations, as defined by the cluster-level rules. While this ensures consistency and simplifies centralized management, it’s important to consider the following strategic practices:

   1. Plan clusters thoughtfully

   When grouping servers into a cluster, careful planning is essential. You must determine whether all servers can operate under shared configurations or if certain servers require individualized settings.
   • Same Site, Overlapping IP address Spaces

     In some cases, even servers at the same physical site may require different configurations. To support this, DDI Central enables you to create multiple clusters within the same site. Each cluster is treated independently, with its own internalized IP Address Management (IPAM), DNS Manager, DHCP Manager, and dedicated dual-stack IPv4+IPv6 address spaces.

     This modular approach makes it easy to manage overlapping IP spaces. For instance, if you have three DHCP servers at a single site each for a specific segment of users—for passenger services, internal IT, and airline partners—you can onboard each DHCP server to a separate cluster. Since each cluster encapsulates its own IP space, you avoid address conflicts while maximizing the utilization of IP resources.

     What the industry typically refers to as “IP conflicts” is effectively neutralized within DDI Central. These are no longer actual conflicts but logically isolated configurations, each managed independently within its own cluster.

     To implement this, simply add the DNS and DHCP servers of each location to their respective clusters, discover their existing configurations, and manage them from DDI Central’s unified interface. You can select any cluster and monitor the real-time health and performance of its core services.

     This is how DDI Central enables your organization to scale effortlessly—with clarity, control, and zero compromise on IP space management—across distributed airport facilities or any multi-branch network.

   • Scenarios requiring unique global configurations

     In some cases, unified global configuration across a cluster may not be suitable. For example, if specific locations within a single site require different DNS or DHCP settings—perhaps due to regulatory requirements, customer segmentation, or specialized services—a single cluster's unified configuration will not suffice.

     In such scenarios, it's recommended to assign those servers to a separate cluster. For instance, if Location A has DHCP Server1, Server2, and Server3, and only Server3 requires unique global configurations, it can be moved to a new cluster. This new cluster will have its own global or standalone configurations tailored to that server’s specific operational needs, while the original cluster remains unchanged.

     This flexible clustering approach ensures that DDI Central accommodates both standardized deployments and specialized configurations, empowering network administrators to balance consistency with customization as required.

   2. Monitor, review, and optimize regularly

   Keep a close eye on the health and performance of servers within each cluster or remote site. Leverage exclusive DNS and DHCP audit logs for each cluster captured within DDI Central console to ensure compliance and detect any anomalies early. Use the Management UI Console as well as the scheduled DNS and DHCP reports to analyze performance metrics and identify opportunities for optimization.

   A single pane of glass for managing your growing distributed networks

   With its intuitive, unified UI, DDI Central empowers network administrators to gain a bird’s-eye view of their geographically distributed on-premises network sites while seamlessly managing the three core network services DNS, DHCP, and IPAM.

   DDI Central is built to efficiently manage networks of any scale, from a few sites to a globally distributed on-premises infrastructure. With its powerful tools and strategic approach, centralized visibility, continuous monitoring, seamless scalability, and unmatched control, it’s your ultimate solution to simplify network management, reduce complexity, and ensure your enterprise stays ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.