Hello,
I’m planning to migrate a DHCP server from OpenSuse to Windows Server 2008.
Is there any procedures for that ,Or should i configure my Windows server 2008 DHCP service again.
Thank you
I guess it would determine what you want to migrate.
Ordinarily, DHCP is based on the idea that DHCP clients can be issued “any” IP address, only those with reserved leases may need to be preserved.
And, although any special DHCP options may need to be re-implemented those are often easily set manually.
Oftentimes, a “seamless” migration is accomplished by setting up the new DHCP with a different IP address range which is still supported by your subnet. Then, simply terminate the leases on the old server (and deny new leases). Or, just shut down the old DHCP and let the clients discover and obtain leases from the new DHCP server.
If you are running DHCP (and DNS) integrated with your network security (eg LDAP or AD), then you have additional steps to register your new DHCP in your Domain.
HTH,
TSU
… Why?
in fact, the company wants to migrate all their systems on Windows.
There’s no automated way to do it - you’ll have to manually add the suitable ranges to the W2k8 DHCP services.
Unless you have a ludicrously complex network setup including hundreds or thousands of per-device-dhcp assignments, it shouldn’t take you more than 15 minute to just copy paste the necessarily information, most of the settings are pretty ready for “out of the box usage”.
They most likely have a W2k8 server and active domain running which causes headaches if you have non-Windows DHCP/DNS in use - it’s one of those lock-in systems that they like to implement in their server software. Usually it starts with “You need Office”, then you suddenly need Windows Server, Exchange for groupware oh and look you suddenly need MSSQL for development, .NET forces you to use VS+SQL… and so forth. Seen it happen in the past, too many times.
Hello,
Thank’s for your reply
I couldn’t find the export option on the suse system.I tried to change the extensien of the dhcpd.config file to dhcpd.txt , and import it on the dhcp’s windows server 2008 R2. But this does not work either.
Regards,
Amin
On 2014-09-09 10:46, kobbiamin wrote:
>
> Hello,
> Thank’s for your reply
> I couldn’t find the export option on the suse system.I tried to change
> the extensien of the dhcpd.config file to dhcpd.txt , and import it on
> the dhcp’s windows server 2008 R2. But this does not work either.
Heh. Ask on a Windows forum for support, because that is a Windows issue 
Ok, I happen to know the solution. You have to open the file with
wordpad, because Windows does not understand Linux text files, without
the cr-lf pair on line end. Notepad runs all the lines into one, but
wordpad can cope. What I do is associate the extension .ascii to
wordpad, then rename the file.txt to file.txt.ascii, then double click
on it. Then you can tell wordpad to “save as” text file on Windows.
Then, how to import that into the W8 dhcp server is up to you…
certainly you can not simply “import” the file. You will have to read
the settings (and I mean /you/, not the computer), and translate them to
whatever Windows uses, which normally means a ton of mouse clicking.
You need a human person doing the job, and that human needs knowing both
Windows and Linux. You will not find automatic “export” things.
Why should Linux want to export settings to Windows? >:-)
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
Well, Thank’s a lot 
Lost in all these comments is that there is no answer to the main question in my post.
Why?
Not why migrate to Windows (that’s always a matter of policy and taste) but why do you even want to migrate any data?
As I described in my post, except for a very few configurations, the underlying idea of DHCP is that the data should be completely disposable… It should not affect most systems to <migrate nothing> and simply allow DHCP to automatically re-build its mappings.
TSU
On 2014-09-10 18:26, tsu2 wrote:
>
> Lost in all these comments is that there is no answer to the main
> question in my post.
>
> Why?
> Not why migrate to Windows (that’s always a matter of policy and taste)
> but why do you even want to migrate any data?
>
> As I described in my post, except for a very few configurations, the
> underlying idea of DHCP is that the data should be completely
> disposable… It should not affect most systems to <migrate nothing> and
> simply allow DHCP to automatically re-build its mappings.
True, but there may be exceptions.
For instance, a site may be using dhcp in order to centralize the
handling out of “de facto” fixed addresses to machines.
It may also be coordinated with the DNS and perhaps with LDAP and
possible an AD type controller.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
Re: AD integration issues,
There is nothing that needs migrating. The Domain Controllers, DNS and DHCP are tightly integrated and nothing persistent is ordinarily is stored in DHCP… of the three, DHCP actually benefits more by data which is stored in the other places than vice versa.
I can think of only 2 things that might need migrating, and as I described previously, they are fixed leases and DHCP options, both which ordinarily shoudn’t take more than 15 minutes to export a list, then paste into the new Server.
Although there is probably a powershell way to do the import/export, I doubt that it would be worth the time to find or build the solution because doing it manually should be so quick.
TSU
On Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:43:07 GMT, “Carlos E. R.”
<robin_listas@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>On 2014-09-09 10:46, kobbiamin wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>> Thank’s for your reply
>> I couldn’t find the export option on the suse system.I tried to change
>> the extensien of the dhcpd.config file to dhcpd.txt , and import it on
>> the dhcp’s windows server 2008 R2. But this does not work either.
>
>Heh. Ask on a Windows forum for support, because that is a Windows issue:-P
>
>Ok, I happen to know the solution. You have to open the file with
>wordpad, because Windows does not understand Linux text files, without
>the cr-lf pair on line end. Notepad runs all the lines into one, but
>wordpad can cope. What I do is associate the extension .ascii to
>wordpad, then rename the file.txt to file.txt.ascii, then double click
>on it. Then you can tell wordpad to “save as” text file on Windows.
>
>
>Then, how to import that into the W8 dhcp server is up to you…
>certainly you can not simply “import” the file. You will have to read
>the settings (and I mean /you/, not the computer), and translate them to
>whatever Windows uses, which normally means a ton of mouse clicking.
>
>
>You need a human person doing the job, and that human needs knowing both
>Windows and Linux. You will not find automatic “export” things.
>
>Why should Linux want to export settings to Windows? >:-)
There are *nix to DOS text file converters. Try one of them before
fighting the tools.
?-)