Step-By-Step: Enabling Automatic DHCP Server Backup

  • Article

Like any database, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server also at times may require actions such as backup and restore in the event of hardware failure, software failure, migration or in fault configuration change. Microsoft eases this process by providing tools to automatically backup said DHCP database and configuration. This Step-By-Step will detail how default parameters can be adjusted to automate this backup process.

This demo will use a Windows Server 2012 R2 in a domain enabled with the DHCP server role.

  1. To start the process log in to server as Domain admin or Enterprise admin
     
  2. Then Server Manager > DHCP
     
    dhcpbk1
     
  3. Once mmc load, right click on the server node and click properties
     
    dhcpbk2
     
  4. In the new window you can see it shows backup path as C:\Windows\system32\dhcp\backup. This is the default path. But we can change it to local folder or network share. Click on brows to select the new path. In my demo it is set to C:\DHCPBackup. Once path set click on ok
     
    dhcpbk3
     
    dhcpbk4
     
  5. System automatically backs up the configuration every 60 minutes. This can be changed as per our requirement.
    To do that we need to do some registry key edit. To open the registry mmc, go to Run > regedit
     
    dhcpbk5
     
  6. Then go to path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters
    In there you will be able to see a key called BackupInterval
     
    dhcpbk6
     
  7. To edit the value double click on it, and then once open select, decimal value option
     
    dhcpbk7
     
  8. As you can see default value is 60, to change it type the value you needs (the value represent the number of minutes) and press ok. In my demo I am going to set for 10 minutes
     
  9. Once done we can check the folder path we set to confirm the backup it’s made
     
    dhcpbk8