DHCP4 failover pair hanging after startup

[Evan Hunt]

> We have a large dhcpd.conf which contains every host we wish to allow 
> allocations for, with almost every pool configured with 'deny unknown 
> clients'. Due to this, we have to regularly (by means of a script) 
> reload the dhcpd in order to apply changes to dhcpd.conf (i.e. add new 
> hosts to the config file).

As I understand it (though I have to confess, the failover protocol is a
maze of twisty little passages to me), every time you bring the a server
down and back up, it has to wait for the maximum client lead time (which is
be configured with the "mclt" option in your conf file) before giving out
any leases.  It does this to make sure both servers are on the same page
about what leases are active and which server has responsibility for them.

Instead of restarting your server multiple times a day, try using
omshell to add hosts.

--
Evan Hunt -- evan_hunt at isc.org
Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.