DHCP Response not traversing stacked switches

Alright, that is good! Thanks for clarifying.

I think we will focus on one direction for now (not the music band :smileylol:). Since your Windows server will be the DHCP server in the end, we can use that one and leave the Linux one turned off/disconnected for now.

I am not sure where the Windows server is connected, but let's just assume that it is connected to A1 in the stack and your client is connected to switch B. Connection flow is like this then:
DHCP server --> A1-stack --> A2-stack --> Switch B --> DHCP client.

You have already done some good troubleshooting with Wireshark. From my understanding, you have port mirrored and Wiresharked the link between A2-stack and switch B?

- You see the DHCP discover send from the client?
- You also see the DHCP offer from the server?
- Hereafter, you see nothing further?

Just to clarify how DHCP works:
1. Client sends a DHCP discover
2. Server sends a DHCP offer, offering an IP address to the client
3. Client checks that the offered address is not in use by anyone else (gratuitous ARP)
  a. If the offered address is in use by someone else, the client won't use the offered address and sends a DHCP decline message to the server. Hereafter the client starts the DHCP discover process all over again.

  b. If the offered address is not use then the client will accept the address, by sending a DHCP request to the server. A request to obtain the offered address.

4. The server will acknowledge to the client, with a DHCP ACK package, and then the server will register the DHCP entry in its DHCP binding table.

 

So, we gotta find out exactly where this does wrong. That will be important.

 

Let's try this:

- Port mirror the uplink between A2-stack and switch B, as you have done already. Run Wireshark to capture the traffic on that uplink.

- Packet capture the server as well, at the same time.

- Packet capture the client as well, at the same time.

So, we have 3 packet captures running now.

 

- Now, connect the DHCP client to switch B and see what happens. Filter the Wireshark captures by: bootp. This is so that you only see DHCP traffic.

 

What happens exactly?

The client sends the discover. The discover reaches the server?

The server replies with and offer? If so, does the offer reach the client?

etc.

 

As you have 3 Wiresharks running, you can see exactly where the problem lies. For example:

If the server sees the DHCP discover and sends the offer and the client sees the offer but never sends a request --> then we need to look into why the client didn't send the request.

or

If the server sees the DHCP discover and sends the offer, and you see the offer being forwarded on the link between A2-stack and switch B, but the client never sees the offer --> then we have to investigate why the offer was not forwarded to the client, by switch B.

 

etc.

 

I hope that makes sense? It is a bit of work, but this will give you a much better picture, because until we have the full picture we can only make educated guesses :)

 

Any questions, give me a shout!

 

 

Cheers