1

Hello all,

I apologize if this is a noob question. I think I understand how it works but just wanted to get some confirmation.

Currently working on migrating users from one subnet to another as one of the remote offices is going to close down.

We have the subnet configured for the users at another office location that they can remote in to. Stood up a new domain controller for them to replace the one currently as well.

Users are currently getting DHCP leases from 10.10.10.0/24. Once we cut everything over, the users will need to get a the DHCP leases from 10.10.11.0/24.

From my understanding, the PCs will just pick up their new reservation (once their current lease expires) from the new DC and scope provisioned there. Is there anything else I need to configure/check before we disable the old DHCP scope?

If there is any articles/docs that I can read, I will be happy to.

Thank you in advance for any input.

3 Spice ups
2

Well they may not depending on the setup. How are you changing the subnet exactly? Just tearing down the old domain controller and replacing with a new one with a DHCP scope? Or are there VLANs involved?

If it’s the first case, you need to shorted the DHCP lease time to something very short on the old dhcp server. Think like 1 hour. Computers are not going to try and renew their lease until halfway through the current lease cycle. If your lease was 10 days, then day 6 is when they would reach out for a new one unless you manually release and renew or reboot.

What about static devices? Those have to be manually changed. What about your firewall? The internal network there will need to change. VPN? Things might need to change there as well.

Not a noob question at all and it’s great that you asked first rather than getting into trouble and scrambling.

3

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for the reply.

They are not renewing their lease at one of the remote offices and we are getting them set up at the HQ network just on a different subnet.

The remote office was very small so they only have 1 DC, that we are replacing with a new one located at the DC on the new subnet.

Thankfully, I don’t have any static IPs as the DC was the only server and all users are remote.

No VLANs or any other specific setup for this office. Just a simple scope that leases out 100 to 230 range in IPs.

The firewall side should be all set as well since we have subnet assigned to one of the interfaces.

As you mentioned, we are completely replacing the old DC with a new one we already have in place to cut over to once we demote the old one.

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You’re moving computers to a new location, right? Just setup the DHCP scope and move the machines to the new location and plug them in.

5

If the users are going to HQ, why are you putting up a new DC? They can use the other one(s) you presumably already have.

6

Ok so to rephrase, you are just adding a second DC at the main site, and then moving the computers to the main site?

If that’s the case, they will pick up DHCP from the main site and you should be good to go.

I get the feeling that’s not quite it however and there is more to this?

1 Spice up
7

More information is needed.

It sounds like users and computers currently remote into a server in a remote location with their own DC, and you want those same users to remote into your HQ instead. You mentioned standing up another DC for them, but is it a separate domain, or just a second DC in the existing domain?

Is the goal to integrate the users into the main headquarters environment, or is the goal to maintain them as a separate unit, just hosted in the HQ?

You mentioned everyone works remotely, but not how. Are you using a remote desktop gateway? Cloud services? VDI?

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Hey all,

Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to visit this post over the weekend.

So the remote site will be gone completely.

They originally purchased a server for that site but got it set up now at HQ and users will be connecting to that server remotely.

I believe as long as the users are connecting to the HQ office via their new VPN connection, they should be getting their lease from the new DC.

As mentioned, yes, they can technically use the HQ DC for DHCP lease but since they already bought the server, they wanted to use it as a separate DC/File Share/etc for the remote office but have it set up at the HQ, just under a different subnet.