Automating DHCP reservations at a U.S. government agency
BlueCat worked with a large U.S. government agency to bring automation to a task they perform over and over, all day long: DHCP reservations.
Key takeawaysThis key takeaway was generated through LLMs crawling the page and coming up with an overview of the content.The article describes how DNS automation can produce large operational time savings through small, tactical workflow changes, using a BlueCat engagement with a large U.S. government agency as an example. The agency’s repetitive manual DHCP reservation process — originally 26 steps including converting leases, deleting old reservations, and adding new ones — was automated by BlueCat via a Python workflow deployed in DNS Gateway, reducing the workflow to six steps. The automation not only cuts network administrator time spent on DNS service tickets but also enables a self-service portal so stakeholders can create DHCP reservations without contacting IT, multiplying the efficiency gains across the enterprise.
What specific manual sub-tasks made the agency’s original DHCP reservation process take 26 steps?
The article states the agency’s manual DHCP reservation process consisted of three repeat sub-tasks that, when executed through menus and UI interactions, totaled twenty-six individual steps: converting an existing DHCP lease into a DHCP reservation, deleting the old DHCP reservation, and adding the new DHCP reservation. Those repeated conversions and add/delete actions across the administrative interface produced the cumulative 26-step workflow that network administrators were executing repeatedly throughout the day.
How did BlueCat implement the automation to reduce the DHCP reservation process from 26 steps to six?
BlueCat worked with the agency to map the current and desired process flows and then developed a custom automation workflow in Python. That workflow was tested and deployed through the agency’s DNS Gateway instance. By encapsulating the manual conversions, deletions, and additions into a single automated workflow within DNS Gateway, the sequence of interactions required was reduced to six steps, streamlining the process for the network team.
What operational benefits did the agency gain after deploying the automated DHCP reservation workflow?
After deployment, the agency reduced the manual DHCP reservation process from twenty-six steps to six, yielding significant time savings for network administrators who previously spent much of their day on DNS-related tickets. Additionally, because the workflow was implemented within DNS Gateway, the agency could expose the process via a self-service portal so stakeholders across the enterprise can create DHCP reservations themselves without contacting IT or filing help desk tickets, further offloading routine work from the network team and increasing overall operational efficiency.
DNS automation isn’t about monumental changes. It’s about incremental, tactical, small-scale tweaks that over time add up to significant time savings. Survey results show that one-third of network administrator time is spent tending to DNS-related service tickets. By automating those manual processes, network administrators can open up their schedules, spending way more time on the initiatives they really care about.
Automating DHCP reservations
BlueCat recently worked with a large U.S. government agency to simplify a task they perform over and over, all day long – DHCP reservations.
The manual process for DHCP reservations used by the agency can be categorized as three sub-tasks:
- Convert a DHCP lease to a DHCP reservation
- Delete the old DHCP reservation
- Add the new DHCP reservation
If you add up all the clicks involved with going through the menus and actually performing these tasks, it adds up to twenty-six steps. That’s twenty-six steps that the network admins were repeating, day after day. As any network admin will tell you, all of that time can add up very quickly. Effective DHCP management is crucial for automating repetitive tasks like DHCP reservations, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual workload.
Implementing automation
The agency asked BlueCat to write a custom automation workflow in DNS Gateway to speed up the process. After mapping out the current and desired process flows, BlueCat’s DNS experts wrote a workflow in Python, tested it, and then rolled it out through the agency’s DNS Gateway instance.
Operational impact
With the new workflow, a twenty-six step process is now only six steps. Over time, that’s going to add up to massive time savings for the network team.
It gets better. With the new DHCP reservation process sitting in Gateway, the network team can roll it out through a self-service portal to stakeholders throughout the enterprise. Now the network team isn’t even doing those six steps. It’s allowing stakeholders across the agency to make their own DHCP reservations without even contacting IT or filing a help desk ticket.
Learn more about how to implement DNS automation with BlueCat.
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