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Switching DHCP from domain controller to the Router.

This is our current network topology, don't ask me why its been setup this way,as I am new here and this setup has been there from past 7-8 years.

- SERVER1 (windows 2000 server, AD,exchange mail server)
-SERVER2  (windows 2000 server,DHCP server,DNS server)
-SERVER3  (windows 2000 server,DNS,WINS)
- RV042 linksys router - as our gateway for internet

The reason why server2 & server3 were setup was to be able to work as a backup domain controller.  I don't think its working 100% , everything is kind of breaking so we have planned to move to this new network topology:

- SBS2008 ( AD,DNS,Exchange Mail server, Fileserver )
- RV042 linksys router/firewall   ( DHCP server & gateway to internet)
- Current Server1,2 & 3 would be retiring.


Before getting our SBS 2008 server into our network, we wanted to move the DHCP from SERVER2 to the Linksys RV042 router/firewall. The reason why we wanted to do this
is ease of managing any IP's & forwarding rules. We could get the DHCP running on the SBS2008 server as well but we wanted to have it running on the Linksys RV042.


-Most of the end user computers have Static IP address defined on there NIC cards(192.168.1.1-254)
- There are around 35 computers
- 192.168.1.1  (gateway IP of  RV042)

To do the switch over of DHCP from SERVER2 to Linksys RV042, can someone put in steps and give me in detail as what needs to be done.  
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Brian Pierce
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Nebel

Remember that if you decide to change dhcp-server, the new dhcp-server will probably start handing out addresses that are alredy i use...

Some dhcp-servers have a feature where the server pings address first to see if it is available before offering it to a new requesting client, trereby avoiding conflicts.
On windows-servers this is called "conflict detection" or something like that, and it is enabled globally on the server for all the scopes. Right click on the server in the DHCP-window and look for the option there. It is a good thing to have, especially when moving between servers... :-)

Your linksys router probably does not have this feature.
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@KCTS:

 The reason why we wanted the DHCP on the router is for ease of management
 while setting up the firewall rules and other things.

Other reason is if the domain server goes down which has the DHCP server running
does client computers communicate with each other still.

We are getting an SBS 2008 server(which has DC+Exchange mail server prebuilt) and they
have to be running on one server. Ours is a small company with 35 users.
I completely agree with KCTS, DHCP is only a small service so it doesnt really make sense to put it on your router. I would also add as has been hinted at, it would be better to have more than one DC.

If you really want to move your DHCP service, as you cannot migrate the database you will need to gradually move the scope over to the router. Set up the server and scope options first. Then reduce the lease time on your existing server to an hour or two tops. Then shrink the scope to 80% of what it is now, creating the scope on the router with the remaining 20% of addresses. Over time, reduce the  size of the scope on the server, and add those addresses to the scope on the router until you finally have the entire scope moved across. At this point, stop the services on the server and remove the DHCP role.
OCUBE, if you 2008 server goes down your computers will still be able to communicate with each other, you simply set the DHCP lease time to be say 2 days.

In my experience you are far more likely to loose the cheapy linksys router than a server, so I'd be betting on the server, plus if you setup a decent backup your dhcp settings will also be backed up etc.
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OK, I agree with most of them who are recommending to have the DHCP server to run
on the SBS 2008 box instead of the Linksys RV042 router.

Just to let you know that I am still a rookie in the networking stuff.

Now can experts tell me as how this can be achieved:

- I have the DHCP currently running on the Win2K server(which will retire once SBS2008 is
  fully up)
- The new SBS 2008 is not configured or installed yet
- I wanted to get the SBS 2008 in the same network and configure it to run as AD,DC,DNS,DHCP,mail server.....


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ASKER

thanks