Starting and Stopping the DHCP Service

The starting and stopping of the DHCP service encompasses several degrees of action you can take to affect the operation of the DHCP daemon. You must understand what it means to start/stop, enable/disable, and configure/unconfigure the DHCP service in order to select the correct procedure to obtain the result you want. The terms are explained below.

• Start, stop, and restart commands affect the daemon only at the current session. For example, if you stop the DHCP service, the daemon terminates but restarts when you reboot the system. DHCP data tables are not affected when you stop the service.

• Enable and disable commands affect the daemon for current and future sessions. If you disable the DHCP service, the currently running daemon terminates and does not start when you reboot the server. You must enable the DHCP daemon for the automatic start at system boot to occur. DHCP data tables are not affected. You can disable and enable the DHCP service only from DHCP Manager.

• Unconfigure command shuts down the daemon, prevents the daemon from starting on system reboot, and enables you to remove the DHCP data tables. Unconfiguration is described in Chapter 9, Configuring DHCP Service (Task).

If a server has multiple network interfaces and you do not want to provide DHCP services on all the networks, see Specifying Network Interfaces to Monitor for DHCP Service.

This section provides the procedures to help you start and stop the DHCP service, and enable and disable it.

How to Start and Stop the DHCP Service (DHCP Manager)

1. Become superuser on the DHCP server system.

2. Start DHCP Manager.

   See How to Start and Stop DHCP Manager for the procedure.

3. Select one of the following operations:

   1. Choose Start from the Service menu to start the DHCP service.

   2. Choose Stop from the Service menu to stop the DHCP service.

      The DHCP daemon stops until it is manually started again, or the system reboots.

   3. Choose Restart from the Service menu to stop the DHCP service and immediately restart it.

How to Start and Stop the DHCP Service (Command Line)

1. Become superuser on the server system.

2. Choose one of the following operations:

   1. To start the DHCP service, type the following command:

      # /etc/init.d/dhcp start

      The DHCP daemon starts, using the configuration parameters set in /etc/inet/dhcpsvc.conf.

   2. To stop the DHCP service, type the following command:

      # /etc/init.d/dhcp stop

      The DHCP daemon stops until it is manually started again, or the system reboots.

How to Enable and Disable the DHCP Service (DHCP Manager)

1. Start DHCP Manager.

2. Choose one of the following operations:

   1. Choose Enable from the Service menu to start the DHCP service immediately and configure it for automatic startup when the system boots.

   2. Choose Disable from the Service menu to stop the DHCP service immediately and prevent it from starting automatically when the system boots.