dhcp bad_address

I have windows 2000 advanced servers running dhcp for all my clients. Recently, I am getting numerous error in dhcp lease (5 at a time). THe computer name shows bad_address. My windows 98 clients are getting pop up messages of a conflict in ip address. I delete the bad_address in dhcp and do a winipcfg release on the windows 98 clients. It fixes the problem for that client and then it moves onto a different client.

I have Windows 95, 98, XP, and 2000 clients on the network.

I could sure use some help on this one.

 

Do you have more than 1 DHCP server on your network?

 

I have 1 dhcp server and a second server serves as a backup for dhcp.

 

I should say that dhcp in not installed. It just replicates active directory.

 

Let me make sure I'm clear here.

You have one DHCP server with an assigned address pool.

You have the address pool set to either not overlap any static addresses (servers, printers, routers, etc.) or to exclude those from the pool.

Also, you said "I delete the bad_address in dhcp ... " and I have to wonder if that meant you go to the DHCP server and remove those addresses from to pool or that you simply do a /release and /renew at the client PC.

What specific errors are you seeing in the event logs on the DHCP server and maybe your DC(s)?

 

On the dhcp server, in leasing, I delete the bad_address. On the client, I release the dhcp address and reboot them. This allows this to get back to work. and then the error moves onto someone else.

In event viewer, the only thing I cannot trace in event id's 1037 1038 1039. I can't seem to find anything on these.

I have a pool of address reserved and all of my static server ip's are excluded from this reserve.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

How long is the lease period?

What address pool?

What subnet mask?

What else are you setting up via DHCP? Gateway, WINS, what?

Routed network or flat? If routed, is any other segment trying to use the same address/netmask list? And does a routing table point anywhere it maybe shouldn't?

The 3 event IDs you listed - (at least I assume they are Event ID: xxxx) - source & description? Or if that is too much detail to type, open and click to send an example to the clipboard and then post it. All three would be nice.

 

My lease is 7 days. address pool is 10.10.0.1 - 10.10.254.24
255.255.0.0
We don't set up anything via dhcp
flat network

If event ids were just informational. When I get a bad_address, nothing shows up in event viewer.

 

This is getting more and more strange.

If you have multiple NICs in the DHCP server and they are connected to the same physical network or if you have a device(s) set to provide BootP service, there may be a locatable cause. Otherwise ????

Several suggestions though.

- you are using an address range with over 64,000 addresses. Unless you have the largest flat network in the world, you probably don't need nearly that many and are making your DHCP database much larger (and more likely to become corrupted) than necessary.

I'd reduce the scope to provide a few more addresses than I had PCs/Printers/Other devices needing an IP address and getting it from DHCP. Maybe 10.10.0.1 to 10.10.1.254 if you only have 3 or 4 hundred machines. Or to 10.10.2.254 if you like to have lots of spare addresses. And make sure the x.x.x.255 and x.x.x.0 addresses aren't being assigned.

I'd set the lease period to as long as possible since you have more addresses than devices. I think "forever" may be an option but don't remember right off.

- you may well have a corrupt DHCP.mdb but in that case there are some specific errors you should be seeing.

Still - if you do the scope reduction you might as well start clean and blow away the existing setup and start with a new one. Your NT PCs should be fine but you will probably have to do a release/renew one time on any 9X PCs since they don't update scope changes real well otherwise.

- you said you are deleting the IP address from the DHCP server. I have no idea how that could be done. I know you could exclude a specific address if it was assigned as a duplicate but that is sorta asking for trouble.

- you didn't say what SP the DHCP server is running but SP3 would be a good idea since it contained quite a few networking bug fixes.

- I would use DHCP to assign DNS or WINS servers to all the clients as well. And if you are only using DNS, you can set the DHCP server to disable NBT (NetBT / NetBios over TCP/IP) since you won't need it.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Sue - it ain't "help" unless it either gives you a fix or leads you to one.

And I hope it does.

Please post back when you get some results - good or bad.

 

I set my lease to unlimited, reduced my scope range. I excluded the ip addresses that kept appearing as bad_address. It has been about 18 hours and everything looks good, SO FAR. This weekend I will install sp3.

Thanks for your help!

 

Now I will agree it was help.

And I am very glad it helped.

My best guess at this point is that your 9X systems just got confused with the size of it all. That happens.