recover-wait period question

[Darren]

I wonder if anyone can summarize for me the reason for the recover-wait 
period.

For example:

Lets say that we have a primary and secondary DHCP server with 
failover.  The secondary server's lease table becomes corrupt for some 
reason.  We delete said lease table and restart DHCP so that it can grab 
a copy from the primary.  It does so, but then enters a recover-wait 
period that lasts the length of MCLT.  During this time, the secondary 
server will not handle any DHCP requests or discovers.  It will, 
however, respond to inform.  The primary will not hand out addresses 
that should be handed out by the secondary while the secondary is in 
recover-wait mode.  This means it is possible to run out of addresses 
until MCLT expires.  I have gotten around this by temporarily changing 
MCLT to a short time and then restarting the secondary dhcp server.  
After it exits the recover-wait period, I then return the MCLT to the 
default and restart DHCP.

What is the purpose of this recover-wait period?