Can't change lease times

Question

Can't change lease times

I have a fresh install of Mac OS X Server 10.5.2 on my Xserve G5 Dual 2.3ghz. I set up DHCP and initially there was a subnet there that was seemingly preconfigured by the installation procedure. I modified the settings to suit our network and tested. Everything worked fine but the DHCP lease lease acquired would not be for more than an hour. After a few restarts and starting and stopping the DHCP service, I finally deleted the subnet and created a new one. This one's lease seems to be valid for 24 hours. This is better than an hour, but I want it set for a WEEK. And no matter what I do, I cannot seem to get 24 hours to change to a week. Server Admin SHOWS a week, but when I get a new lease or renew an old lease with a computer, the "Clients" section shows only 24 hours for those leases. I cannot seem to get it to go to a week.

I've also repaired permissions on the startup drive of the server and that didn't seem to help.

Anyone have any ideas as to why my lease times won't change to a week?

Thank you.

Alex

Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Feb 16, 2008 11:47 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 16, 2008 4:20 PM in response to Alex Bottinelli

Take a look at the contents of /etc/bootpd.plist. This is where DCHP configuration information is stored in Leopard. You want the key lease timesecs. If you have it at 24 hours, the value should be (60 secs * 60 min * # of hours) or 86400. If the value is not being defined through Server Admin, manually edit the value in the file. (As always, make a backup copy before editing).

Also, you might want to check the contents of the dhcp_leases file. I memory serves, this is in /var/db/. You might want to clear out the previous client records and then start fresh.

How are you determining when the clients are renewing the leases? Are you monitoring system.log?

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Answer 2

Feb 17, 2008 12:43 AM in response to Strontium90

In the bootpd.plist file there are settings for max and min lease time. My practice shows that whatever the lease time setting is, the lease is always handed out for the duration of the min lease time. Also, I see the clients renew licenses 30 minutes before the configured lease end period.

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2008 1:13 AM in response to andrussuitsu

Oops, actuallt the parameters in bootpd.plist are leasetimesecs and lease_max. I have set them manually both to 28800 secs (8 hours).

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Answer 4

Jul 12, 2008 6:54 PM in response to Alex Bottinelli

10.5.3 server solved this problem.

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