upgrading dhcpd from 3.0.5 to 3.1.x

[Glenn Satchell]

>Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:07:03 -0600
>From: Joe in MPLS <joe at gracenpeace.net>
>To: dhcp-users at lists.isc.org
>Subject: upgrading dhcpd from 3.0.5 to 3.1.x
>X-BeenThere: dhcp-users at lists.isc.org
>
>I am running a failover pair of dhcp servers. One server is FreeBSD 6.3 
>STABLE with dhcpd V3.0.5RC2, and the other is FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE running 
>dhcpd V3.0.5.
>
>I want to upgrade these servers to dhcpd V3.1.1.1 (the latest in the 
>FreeBSD ports collection). How do I determine if my existing config 
>files and lease files are fully compatible with the new version? README 
>and RELNOTES are silent on this.
>
>"RELNOTES" says the failover mechanism is "significantly enhanced". Is 
>it compatible with the older version? I'd like to avoid the risk 
>involved in upgrading both servers simultaneously.
>
>             TIA   ...jgm

See the dhcpd man page, there are options for dhcpd to verify the
dhcpd.conf and dhcpd.leases.

This is from the dhcpd man page:

     The DHCP server reads two files on startup: a  configuration
     file,  and  a lease database.   If the -t flag is specified,
     the server will  simply  test  the  configuration  file  for
     correct  syntax, but will not attempt to perform any network
     operations.   This can be used to test the a new  configura-
     tion file automatically before installing it.

     The -T flag can be used to test the lease database file in a
     similar way.

So, you need to install the new dhcpd binary somewhere, then run it
using -t and -T, eg:

dhcpd -t

dhcpd -T

Each should say something like this:

% dhcpd -t
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Server V3.1.1
Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

% echo $?
0

Any errors wil be printed to stderr.

regards,
-glenn