Windows 2000 DHCP

[Zulfikar Fanuswala]

I have a windows 2000 AD network. Most of my client gets DHCP addresses. One
thing I need to do is to replace the old DHCP server. My question is that
can I configure another server as a dhcp server and shut down my first
server and expect the client to get there dhcp addresses from the new DHCP
server directly and easily ?



Do the client get repointed to the new " and the only" DHCP server on the
network? I am going to try to make this work and experiment with this a
little before I ever try to get this done. But any help from you guys would
be appreciated.



-Zjay

 

[Marc Reynolds [MSFT]]

You can move the DHCP database from the "old" DHCP server to the "new" one.
See:

130642 How to Move a DHCP Database to Another Windows Server
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=130642

--

Thanks,
Marc Reynolds
Microsoft Technical Support

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

 

[Zulfikar Fanuswala]

Do I really "NEED" to do that? Cant I just let DHCP build its database
again.
If I shut down the DHPCP service on one computer and switch it onto another
server wont my server start giving out IP addresses ??

I think the client will ask for the same IP address it orignally had and the
server will give it to the client.This will avoid any conflicts also I
beleive. let me know if I am wrong.

-Z

 

[no one]

I would think you could simply shut down the old one and
authorize the new one in the domain. besides, who cares
if a client picks up a new address instead of the old one?

 

[Keith Langmead]

If memory serves, since the clients make DHCP requests using Broadcast, as
soon as the new DHCP server is on-line it will start responding to requests,
so you shouldn't need to worry about your client machines being able to see
it. Secondly, I believe the DHCP tries where possible to allocate the same
IP address as it did previously, therefore since it will be a new server it
won't have that information and will just have to start from scratch
instead.

Keith (I'd be interested to know from anyone who knows better if I'm
right... still working towards my networking MCP!)

 

[Chris Knapp]

You don't really NEED to do it, but Marc's suggestion is the most headache
free option for large networks. Sure DHCP will eventually sort itself out,
but you will receive many errors as the server attempts to resolve IP
address conflicts. I did it your way on a small network (about 60 PC's) and
eventually spent 3 hours running around to each PC doing IPCONFIG /release
and IPCONFIG /renew because I received so many "Duplicate IP Address
detected, protocol disabled" messages.

If you are so against moving the database to the new server, then you can
follow the Meathead Method: Set your DHCP lease time to a matter of hours,
wait enough time so that each PC gets a renewed lease with the new
expiration time, shutdown each PC, switch the DHCP server, and reboot each
PC. Been told it works, but causes extra traffic as ip leases get renewed
hourly.

 

[Vinod Gupta]

A small trick can be used...

decrease the lease time for 15 minutes and keep it till one day and afterwards remove this server and make new DHCP server UP and
running. In this case, all IPs will renew automatically after sometime. But you have to take care for network utilization and
server resources. We used this trick on 100 mbps network with Dell poweredge server and around 600 workstations. Everything was
smooth.

vinod