strange DHCPDECLINE behaviour on fixed/static address

[Bruce Hudson]

> What is the client supposed to do if the server deny's the  
> DHCPDECLINE message?

    The server cannot "deny" the DHCPDECLINE message. It is a status back
from the client telling the server that it did not accept the address. The
normal reason for this to happen is that the client is seeing that the
address is already in use on the network.
 
    If you are using fixed addresses, there is no pool to remove the address
from. The server offers the same address again since you've configured it so
that is the only offer it can make.

    If you've configured the address into a pool as well as assigning it as a
fixed address, that is a configuration error you should correct. The server
does not try to out-think the administators to protect them from them-selves.

    If you want to eliminate the looping requests, determine who else is 
using the address and stop them. If you have given out the address through
DHCP and have a short enough leave, changing the configuration and waiting
may be enough. Otherwise you may need to shut down the DHCP server and the
offending client, edit the lease file to remove the bad lease, restart the
server, and reboot the client.
--
Bruce A. Hudson				| Bruce.Hudson at Dal.CA
UCIS, Networks and Systems		|
Dalhousie University			|
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada		| (902) 494-3405