Who really wants to manually type in all their DHCP reservations into a new server? Not me, especially when you might have 30-40 reservations in multiple scopes. Thankfully Microsoft have a tool so you can backup your current DHCP Server configuration and its really simple to use too:
Source Server:
- Ensure you log onto the DHCP server by using an account that is a member of the local administrator’s group;
- Open command prompt and type the following command, netsh dhcp server export c:\dhcpbackup.txt all;
- When exported, you need to ensure you stop and disable the DHCP Server service;
- Copy the dhcpbackup.txt to the destination server.
Destination Server:
- Log on to the Windows 2008 Server R2 as domain administrator;
- Ensure the DHCP Service is installed, started and the startup type is automatic;
- Open command prompt (Run as Administrator), type the following, netsh dhcp server show scope (This will show you if any scopes exist on the server);
- If any scopes exist you will need to delete them, you can do this by typing, netsh dhcp server delete scope DHCPSCOPE dhcpfullforce (replace DHCPSCOPE with the Scope address);
- Now we need to import the DHCP settings, you can do this by typing, netsh dhcp server import c:\dhcpbackup.txt all;
- The final set is to authorise the Scope, you can do this in the DHCP MMC, right click the scope and select Authorize.