There are advantages to documenting the unmanaged nodes in the DHCP database. This is not critical for operations, but it helps avoid administrative errors. Most DHCP servers support the definition of pre-allocated static IP addresses. The unmanaged nodes can be documented by including entries for static IP addresses for the unmanaged nodes. These nodes will not be using the DHCP server initially, but having their entries in the DHCP database helps reduce errors and simplifies gradual transitions. The DHCP database can be used to document the manually assigned IP addresses in a way that avoids unintentional duplication.

The managed node must be documented in the DHCP database. The NTP and DNS server locations must be specified.

If this device is an association acceptor it probably should be assigned a fixed IP address. Many legacy devices cannot operate properly when communicating with devices that have dynamically assigned IP addresses. The legacy device does not utilize the DNS system, so the DDNS updates that maintain the changing IP address are not available. So most managed nodes that are association acceptors must be assigned a static IP address. The DHCP system still provides the IP address to the device during the boot process, but it is configured to always provide the same IP address every time. The legacy systems are configured to use that IP address.