DHCP Failover - can this be hosted on a VM in Azure?

Gareth Morrallee 40 Reputation points
2024-03-18T16:30:14.9633333+00:00

We have a client that requires a DHCP failover service in case of outages with their on premise DHCP servers - previously we ran this in private cloud and then migrated it to Azure VM - however today they suffered an on prem DHCP server failure and the Azure hosted failover didn't kick in - all networking and config looks correct however addresses were not issued.

A quick search seems to reveal that DHCP failover hosting in Azure will not work - so just need to confirm this so we can go back with an answer to the RCA and then plan to rearchitect

Thanks

Azure Virtual Network
Azure Virtual Network
An Azure networking service that is used to provision private networks and optionally to connect to on-premises datacenters.
2,427 questions
Windows DHCP
Windows DHCP
Windows: A family of Microsoft operating systems that run across personal computers, tablets, laptops, phones, internet of things devices, self-contained mixed reality headsets, large collaboration screens, and other devices.DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). A communications protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network.
1,039 questions
{count} votes

Accepted answer
  1. KapilAnanth-MSFT 45,111 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2024-03-19T03:51:26.61+00:00

    @Gareth Morrallee ,

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform. Thank you for reaching out & I hope you are doing well.

    I understand that you would like to know if we can deploy a server(VM) in Azure to provide DHCP for OnPrem machines.

    This should be doable. See : Deploy a DHCP server in Azure on a virtual machine

    Provided that this server is used as a target for an on-premises DHCP relay agent to provide DHCP.

    This server is used as a target for an on-premises DHCP relay agent to provide dynamic IP address allocation to on-premises clients. Broadcast packets directly from clients to a DHCP Server don't work in an Azure Virtual Network by design.

    More details on what is supported and what is not is given in : Can I deploy a DHCP server in a virtual network?

    • The distinction is that you cannot run a DHCP in Azure to provide dynamic IP address allocation to Azure VMs
    • However, by using a Relay agent in OnPrem, you should be able to provide dynamic IP address allocation to OnPrem servers.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers,

    Kapil

    0 comments No comments

0 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful

Your answer

Answers can be marked as Accepted Answers by the question author, which helps users to know the answer solved the author's problem.