Converting to a New Data Store

Solaris DHCP provides a utility to convert the DHCP configuration data from one data store to another. You may need to convert to a new data store if, for example, your number of DHCP clients increases to the point that you need higher performance or higher capacity from the DHCP service, or if you want to share the DHCP server duties among multiple servers. See Choosing the Data Store for a comparison of the relative benefits and drawbacks of each type of data store.

If you upgraded from a Solaris release older than the Solaris 8 7/01 release on the DHCP server system, the first time you run any Solaris DHCP management tool after Solaris installation, you are prompted to convert your DHCP data tables to the new data store. The conversion is required because the format of the data stored in both files and NIS+ changed in the Solaris 8 7/01 release. If you do not convert to the new data store, the DHCP server continues to read the old data tables to extend leases for existing clients. You cannot register new DHCP clients or use management tools with the old data tables.

The conversion utility is also useful for sites converting from a Sun-provided data store to a third-party data store. The conversion utility looks up entries in the existing data store and adds new entries that contain the same data to the new data store. Data store access is implemented in separate modules for each data store, which enables the conversion utility to convert DHCP data from any data store format to any other data store format, provided each data store has a module. See Solaris DHCP Service Developer's Guide for more information about how to write a module to support a third-party data store.

The data store conversion can be accomplished with DHCP Manager through the Data Store Conversion wizard, or with the dhcpconfig -C command.

The initial dialog box of the Data Store Conversion wizard is shown in the following figure.

Figure 10–19 Data Store Conversion Wizard Dialog Box

Before the conversion begins, you must specify whether to save the old data store's tables (dhcptab and network tables) . The conversion utility then stops the DHCP server, converts the data store, and restarts the server when the conversion has completed successfully. If you did not specify to save the old tables, the utility deletes them after it determines the conversion is successful. The process of converting can be time-consuming, so the conversion runs in the background with a meter to inform you of its progress.

How to Convert the DHCP Data Store (DHCP Manager)

1. Choose Convert Data Store from the Service menu.

   The Data Store Conversion wizard opens.

2. Answer the wizard's prompts.

   If you have trouble providing the requested information, click Help to view detailed information about each dialog box.

How to Convert the DHCP Data Store (dhcpconfig -C)

1. Become superuser or a user assigned to the DHCP Management profile.

2. Type a command of the following format:

   # /usr/sbin/dhcpconfig -C -r resource -p path

   where resource is the data store (such as SUNWbinfiles) and path is the path to the data (such as /var/dhcp).

   Note that if you want to keep the original data (in the old data store) after the conversion, specify the -k option.