A process for configuring a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server so that a particular host on the network always leases the same IP address.
You can create a client reservation on a DHCP server if you want the server to always assign the same IP address to a specific machine on the network. You might do this to assign IP addresses to servers on the network because the IP addresses of servers should not change. (If they do, client machines might have difficulty connecting with them.)
An alternative and more common way to assign a client reservation to a server is to manually assign a static IP address to the server.
On Microsoft Windows 2000–based networks you can create DHCP client reservations using the DHCP console, while in Windows NT you use DHCP Manager.
Enter the MAC address as the client’s unique identifier. When the client with that address contacts the DHCP server to request an IP address, the server leases the reserved address to the client.