Hello,

We have a slow DHCP server in our LAN and the IP assignment scheme for machine is static. Due to this, boot process takes a lot of time after message determining IP information. However, to retain my hostname, I have to use DHCP in place of static configuration.

I wanted to know if it is possible to configure dhcp client to try and validate the existing lease first at the time of reboot and only if it is invalid, go for negotiation with the server. That would save a lot of time for booting and still would update any (theoretical) change in IP in future.
TIA

there are no "standard" packages I know that do this.
however your argument seems specious .. what do you mean by a "slow lan" ..\
if it's lan it's going to work at some performance level and I find it highly improbable that its' so slow that it slows your boot..

sounds like a joke .. my lan is so slow ..........
then fix the darn thing because a slow lan is not a LAN ..
it's not worth having . .it's an abomination . it's a failure in our ability to control machines .
a threat to liberty and free speech,

you should NEVER post from a slow lan .. it's against the spirit of the times ..

Not sure about the previous comments, but going back to the original question, you could adjust the expiration time on your DHCP leases. This way, you're still automatically assigning addresses to new machines, but machines already assigned an address simply keep it until the lease expires. What distro are you running and is it a mixed Windows/Linux environment, or purely one or the other?

First of all, thanks for the replies.

I am using FC4. The Corporate LAN uses M$ servers for everything and by "slow DHCP Server"(not slow LAN), I mean that I am not getting a lease in reasonable time, or the network startup just keeps waiting for nothing. I have tried setting the timeout to 5 and 10 secs, but it fails in getting a lease. I have also tried changing timeout, select-timeout and reboot settings in dhclient.conf file. For short timeout, it fails to start network. Otherwise, it waits for 30 secs or more and then gets a new lease. As it is failing for small timeouts, I assume that it is not getting a lease from server during that time.

I have no clue how I can control the lifetime of lease.

TIA

All of the linux DHCP clients I have seen do actually try to use their old IP address first. The first request they send out is something that says, "hey DHCP server, I had this IP last time, can I use it again?" and a resposive DHCP server does a quick check and replies with an OK.