DCE Issue with DCHP and Devices not seeing the server

[John_K81]

Hi,

We have a DCE server running on an old firmware built around 2013. No Plans to upgrade the firmware at this time. 4 years ago the server seemed to die. Couldnt login through web or client. In the last 2 weeks i have started to fiddle with this again and by renaming the server domain i was able to launch it again and login. All the configuations where still there but the connected devices where not finding IP's address and when i run an add device scan it also not seeing the devices. 

I then went through device by device manually setting IP's and i got about 80% of the devices to reconnect. I still cant add new devices as there not being seen by the server. I have updated the DDF files and also started to update device firmware. Mainly have AP8886 PDU's and some IRC's connected to it. 

Yesterday i was trying out messing with some of the sever network setting and click on the reset all devices tab under the DCHP page. This rebooted and then crashed the server again. My only way to recover it was by changing the domain name again and have logged back in.

Anybody got any suggestion or had similar issue with the DCHP not giving out IP's? I have tried anything i can find on these treads but nothing has worked so far. Setting all seem correct and default on both server and devices. SNMP is enabled and correct ports set on both also. Some of the devices cant see the default gateway even on manual settings but i can ping the devices from the server.

I had a service partner who installed this for us look at it a few years ago but they couldnt recover the server thus why it sat powered off for a number of years. We where quoted for a new server but our company wouldnt pay for it.  It's personal curiousty that has me looking at it again. DCE version is old 7.3.1

[Cory_McDonald]

Hello @John_K81,

I would recommend upgrading your server to at least a more recent version.  There was an issue in the past where a partition of the server would fill, which could cause the issue that you are seeing.  This was solved in a prior release of DCE, but likely a more recent version than you are running.

I have seen no other issues that would affect DHCP communication to devices similar to this.

As an FYI, in order to receive updates for DCE, you must have an active complete contract or an active subscription.  If you are running a hardware DCE server, you may also want to check to ensure that your server hardware is compatible with the newest versions of DCE: https://community.se.com/t5/Data-Center-Expert-release-notes/Data-Center-Expert-7-9-x-and-newer-serv...

Kind Regards,

Cory

[John_K81]

Thanks so much Cory,

Yes i agree that upgrading it would be best but i dont think my company will have any interest in doing that at this time. I have managed to get most of it back working for now which is good and have figured out getting most of the devices back connected but i still have to give them all manual static IP's which i can live with. 

Just wanted to make sure i wasnt missing something that i havent tried. 

Kind Regards

John