When two DHCP servers are set up for failover, all active leases and scope information are shared across the servers. This makes it possible for both DHCP servers to offer leases to the same subnet in order to balance traffic or provide redundancy. When you initially activate DHCP failover, scope settings are duplicated, and they can be repeated once more later if configuration modifications are made. To set up DHCP failover on Windows Server 2012 R2:

  1. Open Server Manager.
  2. In the left pane, click Add Roles and Features.
  3. In the Add Roles and Features dialog box, click Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).
  4. In the Role-Based Access Control dialog box, under Permissions for this role, click Add Role Services .
  5. In the Select Role Services dialog box, select DHCP Server .
  6. Click OK .
  7. On the General tab of the Failover Cluster Manager console, under Settings , click Enable DHCP Failover . To set up DHCP failover on Windows Server 2016: 1. Open Server Manager (or use PowerShell). 2. In the left pane, click Add Roles and Features 3. In the Add Roles and Features dialog box, click Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). 4a Under Permissions for this role ,click Add Role Service 5a Select DHCP Server 6a Click OK 7a On the General tab of Failover Cluster Manager console under Settings ,click Enable DHCP Failover ..

Steps to set up DHCP failover on Windows Server

Configure DHCP failover on your primary server by right-clicking on the scope that you want to configure and then clicking Configure Failover

Configure DHCP Failover for the network interface that you want to use as a failover network interface.

Type the host name or IP address of the partner server. You can also select from the registered/authorized DHCP Server in Active Directory Domain Services. ..

The DHCP Replication mode detail on the network card is used to specify how DHCP will be replicated between different devices on the network. This setting can be used to specify whether DHCP will be replicated automatically or if you need to manually specify a replica.

Configure DHCP Failover. The DHCP Failover wizard will guide you through the process of configuring your DHCP server to fail over in the event of a network failure. ..

In order to keep your network up and running, you need to set up DHCP failover. This process will ensure that your devices can connect to the network without issue.

Final Words

If you are looking to set up DHCP failover on a Windows Server, we suggest reading our article on how to do so. This article provides DHCP high availability by allowing two Microsoft DHCP servers to exchange service availability data. IP address leases and other parameters from one or more DHCP scopes are replicated from the primary DHCP server to the failover partner server during DHCP failover. ..