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dhcping(8)		     General Commands Manual		      dhcping(8)

NAME
     dhcping - send a DHCP request to DHCP server to see if it's up and running

SYNOPSIS
     dhcping  [-v]  [-q]  [-i]	[-r]  -t maxwait -c client-IP-address -s server-
     IP-address -h client-hardware-address [-g gateway-IP-address]

DESCRIPTION
     This command allows the system administrator to  check  if  a  remote  DHCP
     server is still functioning.

     Options are:

     -v   Verbose, print some information.

     -i   Use DHCPINFORM packets.

     -r   Use DHCPREQUEST packets (default behaviour).

     -q   Quiet, print nothing on the screen.

     -t maxwait
	  Maximum  time  to  wait for an answer from the server in seconds.  De-
	  fault is 3 seconds.

     -c client-IP-address
	  Request this IP address. Note that this is also the IP address the an-
	  swer will be sent to.

     -s server-IP-address
	  Send the DHCP packet to this IP address.

     -h client-hardware-address
	  Use this hardware-address in the DHCP request. It can be up to sixteen
	  octets seperated by colons (i.e. 01:02:03:04)

     -g gateway-IP-address
	  Use this IP address for the gateway IP address  in  the  DHCP  packet.
	  This option is currently broken.

RETURN VALUES
     If  everything  goes  okay, it returns 0. If there went something wrong, it
     returns 1.

SETUP
     This program should be installed setuid root or ran by root only.	See  SE-
     CURITY for more information.

     On your DHCP server, add these lines to the dhcpd.conf:

       host <your monitoring host FQDN> {
	  hardware ethernet <your monitor host mac address>;
	  fixed-address     <your monitoring host IP address>;
       }

     Then try it:

     $ dhcping -c your monitoring host IP address \
	       -s your DHCP server IP address \
	       -h your monitor host mac address

     It  will  either  respond	with  "no answer" or "Got answer from: your DHCP
     server IP address"

     The DHCP server logfile will give:
      DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.1.1 from 00:20:18:56:29:8f via ed0
      DHCPACK on 192.168.1.1 to 00:20:18:56:29:8f via ed0
      DHCPRELEASE of 192.168.1.1 from 00:20:18:56:29:8f via ed0 (found)

     Running in DHCPINFORM mode with -i:

     If you see "DHCPINFORM from 192.168.1.1 via xl0: not authoritative for sub-
     net 192.168.1.0", you should add the authoritative statement to the subnet,
     See dhcpd.conf(5) for details.

     When running in very verbose mode, dhcping tries to dump all  data  of  the
     send  and	received DHCP packets. It will first dump the packet in hex-for-
     mat, then decodes the header and finally the options.

HOW IT WORKS
     The client either sends a DHCPREQUEST or DHCPINFORM packet  to  the  server
     and  waits  for  an answer. Then, if a DHCPREQUEST was send, it will send a
     DHCPRELEASE back to the server.

SECURITY
     This program is installed setuid root as it requires the privileges to bind
     itself to port 68 (bootpc). Root privileges are dropped as soon as the pro-
     gram has bound itself to that port.

BUGS
     Currently (this may, or may not, change in the future) the ISC DHCP  daemon
     does not write leases with a fixed IP address in the dhcpd.leases file.

     DHCPINFORM  packets  can  only  be  used  on subnets the server is authori-
     tative for. If the monitoring script runs on a subnet the server isn't  au-
     thoritative  for, it should use the DHCPREQUEST packets. I also experienced
     some problems with ISC DHCPD v2 servers, but that is also in the README  of
     it.

     The  -V option is still working, but shouldn't be used for debugging of the
     packets. Better use dhcpdump(8) for that, which is available on my website.
     I wanted to remove it, but decided only to do it  from  the  documentation,
     not from the code. Maybe I'll need it one day for debugging.

AUTHOR
     Edwin Groothuis, edwin@mavetju.org (http://www.mavetju.org)

SEE ALSO
     dhcpd(8), dhclient(8), dhcpd.conf(5), dhcpdump(8)

3rd Berkeley Distribution	Januari 27, 2002		      dhcping(8)

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