Hello
On a DHCP server, inactive IP addresses are typically those that have been assigned but are not being used by clients. In order to release these inactive IP addresses, you can follow these steps:
- First, you need to check the lease database on the DHCP server to confirm which IP addresses are unused or expired.
- Open DHCP Manager. - Navigate to your DHCP scope. - Right-click the scope and select Active Leases. - Here you can see all currently assigned IP leases and their status.
- The DHCP service will automatically clean up expired leases. However, if you wish to force a cleanup manually, do the following:
- Right-click your scope in DHCP Manager and select "Clean Up Expired Registrations in DNS" to sync and clear invalid entries in DNS (if dynamic DNS updates are configured). - To immediately reclaim inactive leases, you can try restarting the DHCP service or run the
net stop dhcpserver && net start dhcpserver
command to stop and restart the DHCP service. This will force DHCP to purge IP addresses occupied by clients that no longer request renewal.
Note that in a real-world environment, a DHCP server usually manages a pool of IP addresses very well and automatically reclaims IP addresses when the lease expires. If you find that the IP address pool is exhausted, but there are not actually that many active devices, you may need to further troubleshoot your network environment for IP address conflicts or other issues.
Best regards
Zunhui