Unconfiguring DHCP Servers and BOOTP Relay Agents

When you unconfigure a DHCP server or BOOTP relay agent, DHCP Manager takes the following actions:

• Stops the DHCP daemon (in.dhpcd) process

• Removes the links that enable automatic starting when the system boots

• Removes the /etc/default/dhcp file, which records information about daemon startup and the data store location

The following figure shows the screen that is displayed when you choose to unconfigure a DHCP server.

Figure 10-4 Unconfigure Service Dialog Box

When you unconfigure a DHCP server you must decide what to do with the DHCP data files: dhcptab and the DHCP network tables. If the data is shared among servers, you should not remove the dhcptab and DHCP network tables because this could render DHCP unusable across your network. Data can be shared through NIS+ or on exported local file systems. The file /etc/default/dhcp records the data store used and its location.

You can unconfigure a DHCP server while leaving the data intact by not selecting any of the options to remove data. Unconfiguring while leaving the data intact in effect disables the DHCP server.

If you are certain that you want to remove the data, you can select an option to remove the dhcptab and network tables. If you had generated client names for the DHCP addresses, you can also elect to remove those entries from /etc/inet/hosts or the NIS+ hosts table.

Before you unconfigure a BOOTP relay agent, be sure that no clients rely on this agent to forward requests to a DHCP server.