When managing network devices that require persistent IP addressing, administrators typically face two primary approaches:

• DHCP Reservation: The router permanently assigns a specific IP to a device's MAC address
• Manual Static IP: The device itself is configured with a fixed IP address in its network settings

Here's how these methods differ in practical implementation:

// Example of DHCP reservation in a router config (pseudo-code)
dhcp_reservation {
  mac: "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E",
  ip: "192.168.1.100",
  lease_time: "infinite"
}

// Windows static IP configuration (PowerShell)
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" 
  -IPAddress "192.168.1.100" 
  -PrefixLength 24 
  -DefaultGateway "192.168.1.1"

DHCP Reservation is preferable when:

• Managing numerous devices centrally
• Network topology might change
• You want to avoid IP conflicts
• Devices need to occasionally switch networks

Manual Static IP makes sense when:

• Devices are critical infrastructure (servers, printers)
• You need to guarantee IP persistence even if DHCP fails
• Devices must be reachable during network bootstrapping

For enterprise environments, consider this strategy:

# Linux example: Configure static IP but still register with DHCP
# /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.1.50
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 192.168.1.1
    dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1
    post-up dhclient -r eth0; dhclient eth0

Problem: IP conflicts after switching methods
Solution: Always clear existing DHCP leases when changing to static IPs

Problem: Devices becoming unreachable after network changes
Solution: Use DHCP reservations for all non-critical devices to maintain flexibility

When architecting networks for development environments, we face two primary IP assignment approaches:

• Static IP (Device-Level Configuration): Hard-coded on the network adapter
• DHCP Reservation (Router-Level Configuration): MAC-to-IP binding in the DHCP server

Windows PowerShell Static IP Configuration:

New-NetIPAddress -IPAddress 192.168.1.100 -PrefixLength 24 -InterfaceIndex 15 -DefaultGateway 192.168.1.1
Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceIndex 15 -ServerAddresses ("8.8.8.8","8.8.4.4")

Linux Network Manager (Ubuntu):

sudo nmcli con mod "Wired Connection" ipv4.addresses 192.168.1.100/24
sudo nmcli con mod "Wired Connection" ipv4.gateway 192.168.1.1
sudo nmcli con mod "Wired Connection" ipv4.dns "8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
sudo nmcli con mod "Wired Connection" ipv4.method manual
sudo nmcli con up "Wired Connection"

DHCP Reservation is preferable when:

• Managing multiple devices in development labs
• Need centralized IP management without touching individual machines
• Running containerized environments with dynamic scaling

Static IP makes sense for:

• Critical infrastructure servers requiring guaranteed connectivity
• Development machines needing consistent IPs for testing
• Devices that must boot without DHCP availability

Example Docker Compose Network Configuration:

version: '3'
services:
  app:
    networks:
      app_net:
        ipv4_address: 172.16.238.10

networks:
  app_net:
    driver: bridge
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 172.16.238.0/24

Automating DHCP Reservations via API (Python Example):

import requests

def create_dhcp_reservation(router_ip, mac, ip):
    url = f"http://{router_ip}/api/dhcp/reservation"
    payload = {
        "mac": mac,
        "ip": ip,
        "description": "Dev Server"
    }
    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer API_KEY"}
    response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)
    return response.status_code == 201

Check current IP configuration:

# Windows
ipconfig /all

# Linux
ip a
nmcli device show

# macOS
ifconfig
networksetup -listallhardwareports