DHCP failover won't start

[Glenn Satchell]

>X-Originating-Email: [r_no at hotmail.com]
>From: "Arno _" <r_no at hotmail.com>
>To: dhcp-users at isc.org
>Subject: DHCP failover won't start
>Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:04:46 +0200
>
>Hello,
>I have installed the DHCP 3.1.0 on my solaris box, but the failover won't 
>start, it always show me:
>failover peer "dhcp-failover" state {
>my state recover at 2 2007/09/04 10:52:51;
>partner state unkown-state at 2 2007/09/04 10:52:51;
>}
>
>same thing on the secondary. and won't change in it's state.
>I try to setup the lease-file with something like:
>failover peer "dhcp-failover" state {
>my state partner-down;
>partner state unkown-state at 2 2007/09/04 10:52:51;
>}
>
>like it was explain in the man of the dhcpd.conf, but that won't change 
>anything.
>
>What can I do ?
>
>I know the config is good because I have on other dhcp server, and also I 
>know I have to setup the lease-file in a certzain way for the first start, 
>but can't find a clear way to do it
>
>thanks for your help.

Please post your dhcp configuration, especially the bit where "failover
peer" is defined for both servers (as it should be different). Post the
startup messages that get wrtten out to the terminal when dhcpd starts
on each server. The mailing list software does not accept attachemnts
so paste it in the body of the email.

The rest here is a guess, but things to check:

The time on the two servers is pretty close. Best bet i sto use NTP to
synchronise the clocks accurately.

That you can ping the other server. If there is a firewall in between
check that communication is allowed on the ports specified in the
failover peer definition.

You do not need to put anything special in dhcpd.leases. In fact for a
new server this should be a zero length file. dhcpd will write the
status information once it connects to its peer.

regards,
-glenn