Men&Mice Suite Version 7.2 Released

Flying High with Kea DHCP and Windows RRL

Men&Mice celebrates the arrival of the long, arctic summer nights with the release of Version 7.2 of the Men&Mice Suite.

This blog post offers a quick round-up of what’s new in Version 7.2.

Versatile simplicity, as always, forms our bottom line. Version 7.2 is no exception. This time around, support for the new ISC Kea DHCP server and a dedicated UI for Windows 2016 Response Rate Limiting (RRL) should warm the hearts of network administrators far and wide. At least, that’s what it’s been doing for us here in the North!

Let’s run through what major highlights Version 7.2 contains.

Taking flight with the new ISC Kea DHCP server

Men&Mice introduces support for the brand new ISC Kea DHCP server, the natural successor to the ISC DHCP server.

Like its namesake, the uniquely strong and intelligent New Zealand kea parrot, the brand new ISC Kea DHCP server is a powerful beast that reaches more than 1000 leases/second, allowing for clean and fast implementation of both DHCPv4 and DHCPv6.

Kea DHCP also boasts PXE Boot Support, DHCPv6 prefix delegation, dynamic reconfiguration and dynamic DNS updates.

As with other servers supported by the Men&Mice Suite, the Kea DHCP server functionality is fully controlled through the Men&Mice Management Console. This includes the effortless migration of IP subnets (scopes), including options, from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP.

In the spirit of open source, Kea DHCP is released under the widely used Mozilla Public License 2.0, paving the way for collaborative improvements to the source code for many years to come.

A taste of the Kea DHCP and how it integrates with the Men&Mice Suite, can be enjoyed in this recent webinar presented by Mr Carsten Strotmann.

For those interested in plunging into the Kea DHCP full force, Men&Mice, in cooperation with ISC, is offering intensive two-day hands-on training courses in Europe and the USA in the fall of 2016. The courses are aimed at small groups, so don’t forget to sign up in time!

Scaling up with Windows Server 2016 support

The Men&Mice Suite’s architecture as an overlay solution exhibits a singular synergy with Windows Servers, making it the logical solution for any Microsoft-based network. Consequently, the Men&Mice Team is developing and releasing support for specific new Windows 2016 features as and when they are made available by Microsoft.

From Version 7.2, the Men&Mice Suite supports all of the primary Windows DNS and DHCP Server 2016 features.

Support for other new Microsoft Server 2016 features, such as DNS Zone Scopes and DNS policies, is scheduled for the Men&Mice Suite Version 7.3 release later this year.

Reinforcing DNS Security with Windows 2016 RRL

Security only works if you work it, and the more tools you have to work your security, the better. Adding to your menu of security options, the Men&Mice Suite Version 7.2 introduces a dedicated UI for the Windows 2016 Response Rate Limiting (RRL) feature.

Response Rate Limiting can make all the difference in the event of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on DNS servers. During a DoS attack, the IP number of a victim computer is used to send high volumes of forged DNS queries to multiple DNS servers. DNS servers tricked into sending replies to these queries can push the number of DNS requests and replies over a manageable threshold and disable targeted networks. Restricting DNS servers’ response rate with Response Rate Limiting helps to control a suspicious volume of malicious enquiries and minimize the impact on the affected servers.

Microsoft sheds more light on Response Rate Limiting and how it works on their TechNet blog.

Men&Mice Suite Console Enhanced

Spring cleaning at the Men&Mice headquarters has resulted in a Management Console with a cleaner, and ultimately more manageable, look. From Version 7.2, windows in the Management Console are dockable, making it both simpler to manage and easier to navigate for the user.

The Men&Mice Suite Release Notes provide more detail on other minor improvements and fixes that form part of the Version 7.2 Release.

That wraps it up for a quick round-up of what Men&Mice Suite Version 7.2 has to offer. In the next months, Men&Mice will publish further blogs and webinars on installing and managing Kea DHCP, Windows 2016, Docker containers and Yeti. Watch this space! Or better yet, just watch Men&Mice.