You know the stack.
Scopes in MMC. A spreadsheet of “used” IPs that is almost right. A lease that exists on one server and not in the sheet. Helpdesk asks what IP this MAC has. Someone greps, exports, or opens a packet capture that should not have been step one.
Windows DHCP plus a spreadsheet of used addresses stops scaling. The usual alternative is an appliance and a quote (Company).
This is the why-switch: not a feature dump — the operator case for one catalog. The product compare stays on Replace Windows DHCP. The dump playbook is How to dump Windows DHCP scopes. Lattice does not ingest Microsoft XML or live leases.
Two systems, one Tuesday
Today you run two systems that pretend to be one.
Plan: spreadsheet, maybe a wiki table, maybe phpIPAM comments that never become leases. DHCP: MMC scopes, partner servers, split scopes, lease files you only open when something is already broken.
Keep them in sync yourself. That is the job nobody scheduled.
Lattice is software-only DDI: IPAM + DHCP + DNS adapters. Prefixes, subnets, pools, reservations, and leases are one catalog. dhcpd serves those rows (Home, What DDI is).
Windows and ISC keep a plan in one place and leases in another. Lattice has one catalog (Home).
The reservation you save is the next Offer
In the spreadsheet world, a “reserved” cell is a note. In phpIPAM, a reservation is often a comment until something syncs it (phpIPAM vs Lattice).
In Lattice, the reservation you save is the next Offer — dhcpd will hand that IP to the client (Home, IPAM).
Helpdesk pastes a MAC and lands on the lease. Discover on one node and Ack on another is the same pool (Home, DHCP).
Same pool on every node. Not Microsoft DHCP failover. Not a hashed pair. Three Ubuntu VMs, one Postgres, one VIP when you run HA — no partner server, no split scope (HA, Replace Windows DHCP).
Keep the DNS you already trust
Names follow the grant into the DNS you already run (Home).
Ack never waits on DNS. A worker writes A/PTR after the grant. Option 6 stays on the resolver laptops already use unless you move it (DNS).
Keep AD / BIND / PowerDNS. Or run hidden-primary / published lattice-dns when you want Lattice-owned zones. Recursion stays off. Lattice is not your AD forest, not recursive public DNS, not DNSSEC theater (Admin). Windows admins who do not live in Linux start at Windows / AD.
DNS is an adapter. One catalog for IPAM and DHCP (Home).
Intended vs on the wire
Operators argue SoT vs drift for a reason: prefixes and reservations in Git is not the same thing as leases on the wire.
Lattice never auto-reclaims. Work names the queue — Why NAK, Relays, stale reservations, Wrong MAC — not a log dump you mine after the outage (Home, Replace Windows DHCP).
Occupancy History: every remaining lease row, as-of a day, CSV. Not Audit. Not a ping scan (Console, Who had this IP last Tuesday?).
Who had this IP last Tuesday should not require a capture.
Software-only. Ubuntu tarball. No appliance.
Deploy: Ubuntu Server 22.04 or 24.04; extract the tarball; lattice-install (Deploy).
Tarball, no phone-home. Air-gap works. Local entitlement verify (Security).
Lattice is not an Infoblox appliance, a Grid, or a hardware SKU. Infoblox Grid does replicate; do not read Lattice as a cheaper Grid. Not 24×7 (Infoblox alternative).
Meter is managed IPs: leased + reserved + quarantined + assigned. Prefix size is not the meter. A /16 with 200 live addresses is 200 (Home, IPAM).
One product. The license file sets the cap. Same tarball for Community and Starter (Home). Community on the replace Windows page and the pricing table is 1,000 managed IPs, one node. That is the free SKU — not the beta grant.
Beta: lifetime Starter, paid not for sale yet
Beta is open for download. Paid checkout is not open yet. The pricing table is the published list — not a live cart (Pricing).
Join the beta: lifetime perpetual Starter — 5,000 managed IPs, three-node HA. Same binaries as paid Starter. No SLA. Not a sale (Home, Signup). The account is for the tarball and a signed entitlement. It is not the operator console.
Cluster builds are still pre-GA — not general availability (Releases).
If you outgrow 5,000 IPs later, upgrade and pay only the annual delta versus Starter list when purchase opens (Home).
When not to switch
Stay on Windows DHCP + sheet if the estate is tiny and the sheet is honest.
Buy Infoblox (or stay) if you need Grid, DNS security/RPZ, and a quote you already budgeted for.
Do not expect Lattice to import live Windows/ISC lease files dump-and-run, parse dhcpd.conf, or replace your recursive DNS (Admin, Dump Windows DHCP scopes).
Switch when the spreadsheet is the source of truth for “used,” the lease file is the source of truth for “leased,” and helpdesk still cannot paste a MAC and land on the row.
What to do next
- Open Replace Windows DHCP and read the one-catalog compare.
- Pull the Ubuntu tarball (Deploy). Point relays. Save one reservation. Confirm the next Offer is that row. Cutover sequence is Migrate — dump, map, POST. No XML ingest.
- Join the beta for lifetime Starter (5,000 managed IPs, three-node HA, no SLA) when you want HA on the same install you will keep (Signup).
Also replacing: ISC dhcpd, Kea.
Replace Windows DHCP and the spreadsheet.