Advice for moving DHCP/DNS to a new server

[Ned Hart]

Hello everyone, I posted this in the DNS group but have not received
any replies.


It's time to replace two of my aging DHCP/DNS servers with new ones.
My environment is Windows 2000 AD with 1,000 nodes, mostly Windows
2000 with some Windows 98. The aging servers run as standalone
Windows 2000 servers and are responsible for providing both DHCP and
DNS service to nodes spread out accross 8 seperate buildings connected
via ATM. Each building has a single lightly used server which also
acts as a DC. I would appreciate advice on the best way to remove
both servers and install two new servers with the same DHCP/DNS
configuration as the old servers while avoiding dhcp and dns issues
for workstations and servers. Ideally, I'd also like to improve on my
current configuration, perhaps with AD-Integrated DNS, and anything
else that might come to mind.

Thanks in advance
NH

 

[Tim Rains [MSFT]]

Hi Ned.

Thank-you for your post.

For migrating DHCP servers I recommend using the DHCPExIm.exe tool. This
article discuss the tool and has a lot of good information on moving DHCP:
130642 How to Move a DHCP Database to Another Windows Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=130642

As for DNS, the easiest way to setup another DNS server and migrate zones
is to install DNS on a new Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003.
Then create standard secondary zones on the new server for all the zones on
the old DNS server. The old DNS server is the master for all of these
secondary zones. Once the new DNS server has fully updated its secondary
copies of the zones via zone transfers, you can convert the secondary zones
to standard primary zones. Then update the DHCP server's scope(s) to point
to the clients to new DNS server and update any systems with static IP
configurations to use the new DNS server. Once you are confident that all
systems are using the new DNS server, its safe to retire the old DNS
server. Then if you add more Windows 2000/2003 DNS servers you can start
using Active Directory integrated zones.

There are many articles that can help:

301192 HOW TO: Migrate an Existing Domain Name System Infrastructure from a
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=301192

298448 Windows 2000 DNS and Active Directory Information and Technical
Resources
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=298448

280061 HOW TO: Move Windows 2000 DNS Zones to Another Windows 2000-based
Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=280061

255913 Integrating Windows 2000 DNS into an Existing BIND or Windows NT
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=255913

I hope that helps.

Tim Rains
Product Support Services
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Ned Hart]

Hi Tim

Thank you for responding to my post. The information you provided is
exactly what I was looking for.