Case Study: Alesund kommune eliminates DHCP-related downtime and simplifies network management with BlueCat Networks

Alesund kommune Simplifies Network Management and Eliminates DHCPRelated Downtime with BlueCat

Alesund kommune, a Norwegian municipality serving about 42,982 residents across seven islands, struggled with a fragmented DNS/DHCP setup (Windows 2000, Linux and BIND) that couldn’t provide DHCP redundancy. With roughly 3,000 nodes across ~200 subnets—many Windows and PXE thin clients used by employees and students—the administration needed a more robust, easy-to-manage solution to eliminate DHCP-related downtime and reduce operational costs.

Alesund deployed BlueCat DNS/DHCP Server to consolidate DNS, DHCP and NTP in a high-availability appliance. After a successful 50-node pilot, the rollout was quick and stable; DHCP/NTP were easy to install and DNS followed with vendor support. The result is a significantly more stable, user-friendly and cost-effective network with eliminated DHCP downtime, simplified management, and plans to expand BlueCat for external views and DHCP reservations.

Alesund kommune

Øystein Gasdal

Network Administrator