pump told us: No DHCP reply received

[Klaus Steden]

Hello everyone,

I am having a similar issue that is becoming quite confusing, and I am hoping
that by throwing the topic out there, I might gain some insight from the rest
of the community. So here goes ...

I'm trying to kickstart a node in my render farm. It is connected into an
Alcatel 6600 series L2+ switch, connected via LACP aggregate to main switch
closet. Everything is on the same VLAN and subnet.

If I start the bootstrap install procedure, if I have my machine connected to
the 6600 switch, I get no link. Nada. Nothing. Zip. No DHCP broadcast is seen
by the server (on the same subnet as the affected machine). I've even tried
connecting the DHCP server physically to the same switch, and again, it
doesn't even see a request from Kickstart.

What makes it weird is that there are 14 other machines on this switch also
using DHCP (although not from Kickstart), and they have no problems getting
leases and communicating with the DHCP server.

If I connect the affected machine to the main switch and try again, it will
get an IP properly, but installation always crashes without fail while trying
to install one of the OpenOffice RPMs. The RPM itself is fine, mind you, but
Kickstart doesn't like it, and fails consistently at the same byte each and
every time.

If I get the machine to grab a lease by connecting it to the main switch, and
then swap it back on to the Alcatel, it continues to communicate without
trouble, but again, crashes out during installation of the OpenOffice RPM
mentioned previously.

I've tried a second NIC, with the same result. I've tried a different HDD with
the same result.

Even when connected to the Alcatel 6600 switch during the DHCP negotiation
phase, I can see the NIC light up, I see it actually activate, and then it
gets shut down again immediately after.

This is extremely confusing. I have never seen a situation like this before,
and I am running out of possible explanations.

Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this before?

cheers,
Klaus