The most common DHCP client problem is a failure to obtain an IP address or other configuration parameters from the DHCP server during startup. The most common DHCP server problems are the inability to start the server on the network in a Windows 2000 or Active Directory domain environment and the failure of clients to obtain configuration from a working server. In this lesson, you will learn how to troubleshoot DHCP clients and DHCP servers.
After this lesson, you will be able to
Estimated lesson time: 35 minutes
Many DHCP problems involve incorrect or missing configuration details. To help prevent the most common types of problems, you should do the following:
Most DHCP-related problems start as failed IP configuration at a client, so it is a good practice when troubleshooting to start there. After you have determined that a DHCP-related problem does not originate at the client, check the system event log and DHCP server audit logs for possible clues. When the DHCP service does not start, these logs generally explain the source of the service failure or shutdown. Furthermore, you can use the Ipconfig TCP/IP utility at the command prompt to get information about the configured TCP/IP parameters on local or remote computers on the network.
The following sections describe common symptoms for DHCP client problems. When a client fails to obtain configuration, you can use this information to quickly identify the source of the problem.
If a DHCP client does not have an IP address configured or has an IP address configured as 168.254.x.x, that means that the client was not able to contact a DHCP server and obtain an IP address lease. This is either because of a network hardware failure or because the DHCP server is unavailable. If this occurs, you should verify that the client computer has a valid, functioning network connection. First, check that related client hardware devices (cables and network adapters) are working properly at the client.
If a DHCP client has an autoconfigured IP address that is incorrect for its current network, this means that the Windows 2000 or Windows 98 DHCP client could not find a DHCP server and has used the APIPA feature to configure its IP address. In some larger networks, disabling this feature is desirable for network administration. APIPA generates an IP address in the form of 169.254.x.y (where x.y is a unique identifier on the network that the client generates) and a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. Note that Microsoft has reserved IP addresses from 169.254.0.1 through 169.254.255.254 and uses this range to support APIPA.
Follow these steps to fix an invalid autoconfigured IP address for your network:
If a DHCP client is missing configuration details, the client might be missing DHCP options in its leased configuration, either because the DHCP server is not configured to distribute them or the client does not support the options distributed by the server. If this occurs on Microsoft DHCP clients, verify that the most commonly used and supported options have been configured at either the server, scope, client, or class level of option assignment. Check the DHCP option settings.
Sometimes a client has the full and correct set of DHCP options assigned but its network configuration does not appear to be working correctly. If the DHCP server is configured with an incorrect DHCP router option (Option Code 3) for the Windows 98 or earlier client's default gateway address, you can do the following:
In rare instances, you might have to configure the DHCP client to use a specialized list of routers different from other scope clients. In such cases, you can add a reservation and configure the router option list specifically for the reserved client.
Clients running Windows NT 4.0 Server or Windows 2000 do not use the incorrect address because they support the dead gateway detection feature. This feature of the Windows 2000 TCP/IP protocol changes the default gateway to the next default gateway in the list of configured default gateways when a specific number of connections retransmits segments.
If DHCP clients are unable to get IP addresses from the server, one of the following situations can cause this problem:
When a server fails to provide leases to its clients, the failure most often is discovered by clients when they experience one of three symptoms:
The first troubleshooting task is to make sure that the DHCP services are running. This can be verified by opening the DHCP service console to view service status, or by opening Services And Applications under Computer Manager. If the appropriate service is not started, start the service. In rare circumstances, a DHCP server cannot start, or a Stop error might occur.
Follow these steps to restart a DHCP server that is stopped:
NOTE
Use Event Viewer in Administrative Tools to find the possible source of problems with DHCP services.
The DHCP Relay Agent service is running on the same computer as the DHCP service. Because both services listen for and respond to BOOTP and DHCP messages sent using UDP ports 67 and 68, neither service works reliably if both are installed on the same computer. To solve this problem, install the DHCP service and the DHCP Relay Agent component on separate computers.
When the DHCP console displays the lease expiration time for reserved clients for a scope, it indicates one of the following:
The lease term of a DHCP reserved client is determined by the lease assigned to the reservation. To create reserved clients with unlimited lease durations, create a scope with an unlimited lease duration and add reservations to that scope.
The DHCP server uses broadcast to respond to all client configuration request messages, regardless of how each DHCP client has set the broadcast bit flag. DHCP clients can set the broadcast flag (the first bit in the 16-bit flags field in the DHCP message header) when sending DHCPDISCOVER messages to indicate to the DHCP server that broadcast to the limited broadcast address (255.255.255.255) should be used when replying to the client with a DHCPOFFER response.
By default, the DHCP server in Windows NT Server 3.51 and earlier versions ignored the broadcast flag in DHCPDISCOVER messages and broadcasted only DHCPOFFER replies. This behavior is implemented on the server to avoid problems that can result from clients not being able to receive or process a unicast response prior to being configured for TCP/IP.
Starting with Windows NT Server 4.0, the DHCP service still attempts to send all DHCP responses as IP broadcasts to the limited broadcast address, unless support for unicast responses is enabled by setting the value of the IgnoreBroadcastFlag registry entry to 1. The entry is located in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters\IgnoreBroadcastFlag. When set to 1, the broadcast flag in client requests is ignored, and all DHCPOFFER responses are broadcast from the server. When it is set to 0, the server transmission behavior (whether to broadcast or not) is determined by the setting of the broadcast bit flag in the client DHCPDISCOVER request. If this flag is set in the request, the server broadcasts its response to the limited local broadcast address. If this flag is not set in the request, the server unicasts its response directly to the client.
You might find that a new scope has been added at the DHCP server for the purpose of renumbering the existing network but DHCP clients do not obtain leases from the newly defined scope. This situation is most common when you are attempting to renumber an existing IP network. For example, you might have obtained a registered class of IP addresses for your network, or you might be changing the address class to accommodate more computers or networks. In these situations, you want clients to obtain leases in the new scope instead of using the old scope to obtain or renew their leases. Once all clients are actively obtaining leases in the new scope, you intend to remove the existing scope.
When superscopes are not available or used, only a single DHCP scope can be active on the network at a given time. If more than one scope is defined and activated on the DHCP server, only one scope is used to provide leases to clients. The active scope used for distributing leases is determined by whether the scope range of addresses contains the first IP address that is bound and assigned to the DHCP server's network adapter hardware. When additional secondary IP addresses are configured on a server using the Advanced TCP/IP Properties tab, these addresses have no effect on the DHCP server in determining scope selection or responding to configuration requests from DHCP clients on the network.
This problem can be solved in the following ways:
For Windows NT Server 3.51, support for superscopes is not available. In this case, you must change the first IP address configured for the DHCP server's network adapter to an address in the new scope range of addresses. If necessary, you can still maintain the prior address that was first assigned as an active IP address for the server computer by moving it to the list of multiple IP addresses maintained in the Advanced TCP/IP Properties tab.
Because DHCP servers are of critical importance in most environments, monitoring the performance of servers can help in troubleshooting cases where server performance degradation occurs. For Windows 2000 Server, the DHCP service includes a set of performance counters that can be used to monitor various types of server activity. By default, these counters are available after the DHCP service is installed. To access these counters, you must use System Monitor (formerly Performance Monitor). The DHCP server counters can monitor the following:
You may need to move a DHCP database to another computer.
Follow these steps to move a DHCP database:
Make sure the new directory is under exactly the same drive letter and path as on the old computer. If you must copy the files to a different directory, copy DHCP.MDB, but do not copy the .log or .chk files.
When you check DHCP Manager, the scope still exists because the registry holds the information on the address range of the scope, including a bitmap of the addresses in use. You need to reconcile the DHCP database to add database entries for the existing leases in the address bitmask. As clients renew, they are matched with these leases, and eventually the database is again complete.
Follow these steps to reconcile the DHCP database:
Although it is not required, you can force DHCP clients to renew their leases in order to update the DHCP database as quickly as possible. To do so, type ipconfig /renew at the command prompt.
The most common DHCP client problem is a failure to obtain an IP address or other configuration parameters from the DHCP server during startup. The most common DHCP server problem is the inability to start the server on the network in a Windows 2000 or Active Directory domain environment. Most DHCP-related problems start as failed IP configuration at a client, so it is a good practice when troubleshooting to start there.