A method for monitoring and optimizing performance and availability of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service provided by one or a plurality of DHCP servers in an Internet Protocol (IP) network comprising one or a plurality of IP subnetworks, said method comprising in a DHCP server the steps of:
- defining one or a plurality of groups of subnetworks, each group of subnetworks comprising one or a plurality of subnetworks;
- retrieving information related to resources, in particular IP addresses, allocated within said DHCP server to each group of subnetworks;
- and
- transferring said information to a DHCP service monitoring system, said DHCP service monitoring system comprising means for retrieving said information from the one or the plurality of DHCP servers and means for aggregating said information for each group of subnetworks,
- wherein the performance and availability of the DHCP service is monitored and optimized based on information aggregated for each group of subnetworks.