Migrating existing services and server roles is an important part of the Server 2012 upgrade process. We have already demonstrated how to upgrade Active Directory Domain Services to Windows Server 2012, and how to add an additional Server 2012 domain controller.

In this step-by-step Screencast we demonstrate how to move your existing DHCP configuration and leases to DHCP 2012 Server. There are several ways you can perform this migration:
– using netsh utility (doesn’t export complex configurations – ex. multicast scopes)
– using Powershell Export/Import cmdlets in Server 2012 (same limitations as above, does not work with 2003 DHCP servers)
– using Server 2012 migration tools (requires extra admin efforts – installing server migration tools)

In our Screencast, we demonstrate the last approach – using Server 2012 migration tools (smigdeploy.exe). Although it requires some extra steps, it is the safest approach, working with all kinds of configurations and source servers. In our demo, we are moving the DHCP server role from a legacy 2003 R2 server to Windows Server 2012.
For your convenience, we have published the text file with the commands we are using in the Screencast here .

Step 1 We start by adding the Server Migration Tools feature in the destination DHCP 2012 server, and creating the migration package.

Step 2 In this step, we register smigdeploy.exe in the source DHCP server and export DHCP configuration and leases to srvmig.mig file. Then, we import the generated migration file to our destination 2012 DHCP server.

Step 3 In the last step, we perform post migration tasks.