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Networks, VLANs, DHCP, and IPAM

Rackpad's Networks workspace is the shortest path for documenting common homelab network layouts. It can create a VLAN, subnet, gateway/DNS records, DHCP pool, and IP zones together, or it can document an untagged subnet without forcing a VLAN record.

Subnet integrity

Rackpad stores IPv4 CIDRs in canonical network form and rejects equivalent or overlapping subnets inside the same lab. Legacy overlaps are preserved, marked read-only, and shown in the administrator data-integrity panel. An administrator must move a conflicted subnet to a non-overlapping CIDR or explicitly delete it; Rackpad never merges or deletes legacy IPAM data automatically.

Simple tagged VLAN network

Use this when a subnet lives on a tagged VLAN, such as VLAN 20 for IoT or VLAN 100 for servers.

  1. Open Networks.
  2. Choose Add network.
  3. Select VLAN tagged.
  4. Enter the VLAN ID, name, subnet CIDR, gateway, and DNS servers.
  5. Enable DHCP only if that subnet hands out dynamic leases.
  6. Add static or reserved zones if you want Rackpad to keep those address ranges visually separate.
  7. Save the network.

The created row shows the VLAN, subnet, gateway/DNS, DHCP scopes, zones, and assignments together so you do not need to jump between separate VLAN and IPAM screens for normal review.

Simple untagged network

Use this for a default LAN, management subnet, or any subnet that should not carry a VLAN tag in Rackpad.

  1. Open Networks.
  2. Choose Add network.
  3. Select No VLAN tag.
  4. Enter the subnet CIDR, name, gateway, and DNS servers.
  5. Add DHCP and zones if needed.
  6. Save the network.

Rackpad creates the subnet and IPAM data without creating a VLAN record.

DHCP scopes, zones, and reservations

A DHCP scope documents the dynamic lease pool for a subnet. A DHCP reservation is still an IP assignment, but it must reference a DHCP scope so Rackpad knows which pool owns the reservation.

Good default pattern:

  • Gateway and DNS: document on the subnet so they are protected as technical addresses.
  • DHCP scope: document only the dynamic pool, for example 10.0.20.100-10.0.20.199.
  • Static zone: document server, switch, firewall, and appliance ranges that are manually assigned.
  • Reserved zone: document addresses you do not want Rackpad to allocate.

If every client address is managed through DHCP reservations, create the DHCP scope first, then create device assignments as DHCP reservation. Rackpad will keep the assignment tied to the scope and reject host assignments inside a DHCP pool when they are marked as plain static addresses.

VLAN ranges

VLAN ranges are optional planning labels. They help group or reserve blocks of VLAN IDs, but they do not create networks, subnets, DHCP scopes, or IP zones by themselves.

Use VLAN ranges when you want:

  • a planned block such as 10-49 for infrastructure or 100-199 for tenants
  • a visual reservation for VLAN IDs that should not be reused
  • a quick way to see which tags are already documented

Skip VLAN ranges when you only need a few one-off homelab VLANs. The Add network flow can create single VLAN networks directly.

Things intentionally not modeled yet

Rackpad does not yet model VRFs/routing domains or shared switch fabric capacity. Subnet overlap is therefore forbidden within a lab, and report capacity remains based on documented port links rather than chassis backplane throughput.