Migration to DHCP

Migration process of your equipments in the different subnets

Steps to migrate to the new network organisation at School of Engineering

  1. Do an inventory of your IT equipments and the network node to which they are connected
  2. Contact the DIT-TI to arrange for a convenient date and time for the migration by type of equipment i.e. Network printers, Servers and workstations
  3. Implement the change for each type of equipment

Note that if you are in recently allocated office space, your network nodes are already configured for the different types of equipment.

1. Inventory of the IT equipments

There are different ways of doing that:

  • You can use the web service of the DIT-TI to list the equipments you have in your office.
    Note that your equipment can have a different name than the one you find in the DIT-TI inventory.
    The inventory of the DIT-IT will give you the DNS name, the IP address, the reference of the network node to which your equipment is connected)
  • The map application with Point of Interest > Infrastructure > Network Plugs

2. Arrange for a convenient date and time per equipment

This is an important step in the migration process. You need to coordinate with the DIT-TI to ensure that as soon as the change is implemented on their side, you can do it simultaneously on your equipments.

3. Implement the change for each type of equipment

Keep the DNS names for your network printers and Servers.

With the new infrastructure, it is still possible to keep the same DNS names and minimize interruption of services as long as the steps below are properly planned and implemented.

  • Arrange for a convenient date and time for the migration of the network nodes and change of IP address.
  • The TTL (Time To Live) parameter of the DNS server needs to be modified for the changes to be applied as soon as possible.  Note that this process is done at the DIT-TI.  It ensures that your DNS name is resolved to the new IP address.  For e.g., if the TTL is set to 15 minutes, the DNS name of your equipment will be resolved to the new IP address in the delay set by the TTL.
  • change of the subnet of the network node (by the DIT-TI; no delay.  You need to email them the DNS name, IP address and network node number in advance)
  • change of the IP address of the equipement.(IP addresse & router)

Note that for nework printers using a file and print server, you may have to delete the printer queue and reinstall it (especially if you have used the IP address for the port name rather than the DNS name)
Keep the actual name of your PC when you migrate them to DHCP

When you migrate your network node to DHCP, please release the fixed IP address.  To do that, open the link below and enter the fixed IP address you want to release:

http://network.epfl.ch/cgi-bin/tequila/sre.pl/cnlip

When you configure your workstation in DHCP mode, there is no need for you to change whatever name you gave to your PC

Use the name of the computer as it is defined in the Active Directory Scheme;

Before with fixed IP you used
stpc25.epfl.ch

After with DHCP enabled, use
stpc25.intranet.epfl.ch

Remote Access your PC in DHCP mode

To access your PC from outside with DHCP activated, you need to:

  • First establish a VPN connection to the EPFL network,  then connect to your computer using your Remote Desktop client
  • Two possibilities :
    1. Your computer use Active Directory
      • Enter the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) of your computer; for e.g for a computer in the AD of the STI, stpc25, use the name stpc25.intranet.epfl.ch for your remote desktop connection.
    2. Your computer don’t use Active Directory
      • To know this DNS address, you need to go to this web page (directly from the computer connected to a DHCP wired connection).
        https://network.epfl.ch/epnet/dyndns.pl

        The host name of the device provides by the service will be
        Mxxxxxxxxxxxx.dyn.epfl.ch
        where the x sequence represents the MAC address written without any semicolons or other separators.

        You can directly use this address to access to a computer.
        For example, assuming that the MAC address is
        00-50-56-84-7D-EF
        the computer name to use would be
        M005056847DEF.dyn.epfl.ch