network installation ( dhcp problem)

[Ray Van Dolson]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2007 at 04:49:05PM +0530, Alok Pandey wrote:
> 
> HI Ray,
> 
> 
> I get your point but unfortunately  i have  no idea about how to 
> configure switch and also it's not under my control.
> Can you put some point in step , how to check this switches. also
> 

Do you at least know what type of switch you're connecting to?  See if you
can find out and ask whoever manages them if Spanning Tree and/or Port Fast is
enabled on the port you are using for your server.

> >Anaconda still uses 'pump', which I definitely believe has some bugs.  
> >There are situations where dhclient works fine, but pump fails on our
> >network.
> >  
> Are you saying that during installation  time the dhcp request is made 
> by PUMP and after when the machine get installed , it 's by dhclient . ??
> Is their any way to customize the anaconda installer , so that it can 
> use  dhclient instead of using pump.?

Correct.  anaconda uses pump, and once the system setup is done, ISC's
dhclient is used.  I wish dhclient was used by anaconda. :)

> >You can either, disable Spanning Tree, turn on Port Fast mode or try using
> >the "nicdelay=XX" boot parameter where XX is a value in seconds that will 
> >"pause" hopefully giving you extra seconds to wait while Spanning Tree
> >calcuations are being done.
> >
> >  
> What be the max value of XX.

I'm not sure.  Probably very high.  You probably wouldn't need to set it more
than 60 seconds.. but I have gone higher when testing.

> What if its not be a switch problem.?? :-(
> Then were do i look around for fault.? O:-)

If it's not a switch problem, hopefully someone else can give you some
assistance then. :)  Easy to eliminate the switch as an issue though (by
sticking a dumb hub or something between your server and your switch), so may
as well try it.

Ray