Problems importing a DHCP database backup from a Windows Server 2008 R2

Problem

You’ve successfully completed a backup of an existing DHCP server’s DHCP database with the following command:

netsh dhcp server export c:\dhcp.txt all

However, when you attempt to import the backed up DHCP database onto the target server, you receive the following error:

netsh dhcp server import C:\dhcp.txt all

Error while importing option “15.”

This option conflicts with the existing option “” An internal error occurred.

Solution

One of the reasons why you may experience this issue is because the target DHCP server already has a option 015 DNS Domain Name configured:

In this situation, the easy way to fix the issue is to remove the defined option on the new DHCP server and try re-importing again.