Managing distributed IT environments is no easy task. As networks grow increasingly complex and interconnected, centralizing their management becomes a daunting challenge. Traditional tools often fall short, struggling to balance centralized control with the unique configurations and autonomy required at each location. 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-tenant 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 tenants—whether they’re branch offices, regional hubs, or distinct strategic business units—under a single, centralized interface. Each tenant’s DNS, DHCP, and IPAM configurations can be tailored to meet specific requirements while maintaining seamless coordination across the organization.

 

What is multitenancy (multi-tenant 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 tenants organized in DDI Central’s multi-tenant environment?  

Managing distributed networks across multiple facilities or sites requires structure and scalability. In DDI Central, tenants or remote 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 tenants 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 resources by isolating the operations of different 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-tenant interference. 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-tenant 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 enables:

• Holistic view: Administrators gain a unified view of all remote sites and their clusters from 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.

Connectivity requirements  

1. Secure network connections  

DDI Central supports clusters connected through various secure methods, including:

• VPNs

• Point-to-Point Connections

• IP/MPLS Core augmented via VPN

• Dark fiber cables

• SD-WANs

This robust connectivity ensures DDI Central can manage both internal and external server clusters of remote sites effectively.

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:

• For Windows:

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

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

• For Linux:

• • A lightweight agent is installed on each managed server.

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

By leveraging secure connections and OS-specific communication methods, DDI Central ensures reliable, real-time connectivity with clusters. This capability empowers administrators to manage distributed networks efficiently, maintaining visibility and control across all remote sites.

For an example, the image above illustrates a typical distributed Windows network infrastructure managed through DDI Central. The two remote Branch Office DNS-DHCP clusters communicate with the Management UI Console via the WinRM protocol, ensuring centralized and consistent visibility. To enable seamless connection and communication of clusters in a distributed Microsoft environment, a WinRM setup is essential.

This setup leverages WinRM authentication, providing continuous visibility without the need for additional software agents, thereby minimizing complexity and overhead. With DDI Central, you can apply global configurations to collectively to all the servers of a specific branch office or network site or facility with just a few clicks, eliminating the hassle of managing configurations manually server by server.

What are the clusters in DDI Central comprised of? 

Each cluster in DDI Central is a self-contained unit with its own internalized IPAM, DNS Manager, DHCP Manager, dual-stack IP inventory, and unified global configurations. These clusters enable 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 server maintains its own global-level configurations initially, but when onboarded into a single cluster alongside other servers, its configurations are consolidated. 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 their existing configurations. Using predefined rules, it reconciles conflicting entries for single-valued configurations and creates an aggregate global configuration set for the 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  

1. Consistency across servers

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

2. Centralized management

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

3. 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 a custom DHCP option for a specific subnet.

• Server B is onboarded next and introduces a new blocklist.

• Server C is onboarded last, introducing new recursion settings and conflicting DHCP options.

Global configuration for the cluster

• Client Subnets: Combines subnets from Server A, B, and C.

• Blocklists: Merges blocklists from all servers.

• RRL and Recursion settings: Taken from Server C (latest onboarded server).

• DHCP Options and Custom Options: Includes all unique options, with conflicts resolved based on Server C’s values.
    

Strategic tips for multi-tenant deployment in DDI Central

Effective multi-tenant deployment in DDI Central requires thoughtful planning and continuous monitoring. By carefully organizing clusters and utilizing DDI Central’s robust tools for compliance and performance tracking, enterprises can maximize efficiency and ensure seamless network operations.  

When servers are added to a cluster in DDI Central, all servers within the cluster are automatically pushed with unified global configurations (as determined by the rules mentioned above). While this ensures consistency and simplifies management, it is essential to consider the following:

1. Plan clusters thoughtfully

When grouping servers into a cluster, it is crucial to plan carefully to determine whether all servers can share unified configurations or if certain servers require unique settings.

• • Same site, multiple clusters
    For the same network site, you might need to create multiple clusters to accommodate servers with unique configuration needs. This approach ensures flexibility while maintaining control over your network setup.
    
    If unique configurations are required, create a separate cluster to onboard the servers needing separate settings. By managing these servers independently, you can ensure optimal performance, and that any changes made in one cluster will not affect servers in another cluster.

  • Scenarios requiring unique global configurations  

If there is a need to retain different Global DNS and DHCP configurations for one or more servers, the unified configuration approach of a cluster will not suffice. Servers in the new cluster will have configurations tailored specifically to their requirements, while the original cluster remains unaffected.

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 

DDI Central brings the best of multi-tenant architecture to both Microsoft and Linux IT environments, providing centralized control without sacrificing the flexibility and independence each site requires. 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.

Ready to simplify your network management?