DHCP Backup and Restore

Greetings,

We have two W2003 servers running DHCP in our test lab prior to
rolling them out to production. We are using a helper address on our
routers to direct traffic to the server. We bind the helper address
to the server running the DHCPServer service. The servers are similar
hardware and only exist to perform this function, of which only one of
them will perform the function at any one time.

We are backing up the database via netsh and restoring it to the other
server also via netsh to test recovery incase one of the servers fail.
What I am wondering is why can't we just move the files under the
system32\dhcp folder to the other server and start the service? It
works in our lab, but I can't find anyone doing anything other than
using the Netsh commands which leads me to believe that there is some
problem I would encounter in the real world that isn't happening in my
lab. For us, in the lab, both seem to be equally effective, except
that copying the database over seems to take less time than using
netsh.

Just curious.

Thanks,

JD

I would use netsh if that is what is reommended to make sure all registry,
configuration settings and such are imported properly. Just my two
ents. --- Steve



"JD Williams" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Greetings,
>
> We have two W2003 servers running DHCP in our test lab prior to
> rolling them out to production. We are using a helper address on our
> routers to direct traffic to the server. We bind the helper address
> to the server running the DHCPServer service. The servers are similar
> hardware and only exist to perform this function, of which only one of
> them will perform the function at any one time.
>
> We are backing up the database via netsh and restoring it to the other
> server also via netsh to test recovery incase one of the servers fail.
> What I am wondering is why can't we just move the files under the
> system32\dhcp folder to the other server and start the service? It
> works in our lab, but I can't find anyone doing anything other than
> using the Netsh commands which leads me to believe that there is some
> problem I would encounter in the real world that isn't happening in my
> lab. For us, in the lab, both seem to be equally effective, except
> that copying the database over seems to take less time than using
> netsh.
>
> Just curious.
>
> Thanks,
>
> JD