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DHCP Server Testing

26601 W. Agoura Rd.


Calabasas, CA 91302
(Toll Free US) 1.877.FOR.IXIA
(Int'l) +1.818.871.1800
(Fax) 818.871.1805
www.ixiacom.com

Test Plan

Copyright 2006 by Ixia


All rights reserved
Ixia
26601 West Agoura Road, Calabasas, CA 91302
(877) FOR-IXIA
This Test Plan contains a general outline for testing a particular technology.
Not all the capabilities of Ixia technology have been exposed in this document.
Please feel free to contact us if additional capabilities are required.

DHCP Server Test Plan


Contents
DHCP Server Test Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Performance Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Basic Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Advanced Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1. Test 1 Maximum Client Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Input Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2. Test 2 Maximum Transaction Rate
Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Input Parameters . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . 15
. . . . . . . . 15
. . . . . . . . 15
. . . . . . . . 16
. . . . . . . . 17
. . . . . . . . 18

3. Test 3 Optimal Client Response Time


Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Input Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4. Test 4 Server Resiliency
Objective . . . . . . . . .
Setup. . . . . . . . . . . .
Input Parameters . . . .
Methodology . . . . . .
Results . . . . . . . . . . .

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DHCP Server Test Plan


This test plan assists you in comprehensively testing
the scalability and performance of your DHCP
server(s)under normal and extreme load conditions.
Todays DHCP servers play a vital role in any
enterprise or carrier network and must be rigorously
tested to ensure that they:
Provide a scalable platform to service a large
number of subscribers
Provide a reliable and fail-safe platform to ensure
maximum network availability
Provide resiliency to bursty DHCP trafc after an
outage or during startup
Provide auto-conguration based on the type of host
requesting network information
Provide the capability to detect unauthorized host
systems and deny network information
The recommended testing methodology presented
here is also meant to be used as a guideline for
creating more case-specic testing scenarios to further
characterize the performance limits of the DHCP
infrastructure.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Background
Dynamic Host Conguration Protocol (DHCP) is an essential part
of any IP network. It is used to dynamically provide IP address
and network conguration parameters to host systems. In fact,
the dynamic conguration of host systems is one of the key
reasons for using DHCP. DHCP is used extensively by enterprises
and service providers for wired and wireless/roaming networks.
It can be used to provide hosts with IP address/mask and
gateway address information and DNS servers, among several
other congurable options.
As enterprises grow beyond the traditional ofce walls, it
has become critical that host systems be authorized and
authenticated before providing network access. DHCP makes
this possible without the introduction and overhead of new
technologies. Using DHCP, end hosts can be authenticated
before providing conguration information. Specic options in
DHCP can be used to identify a host system, as well as the user
requesting network conguration.
Wireless hot spots and remote access technologies such as VPNs
also use DHCP to provide conguration to hosts connecting
to their IP network remotely. DHCP servers must be able to
accommodate this growing user base to support real-time
changes with minimal service outages.
In addition, Service Providers use DHCP to congure customer
premise equipment, effectively testing DHCP to assure carriergrade deployment. In a Carrier network, DHCP is used to
provide the expected class of service to various devices.
Consider the deployment of a Triple Play services delivery
network. A subscriber with multiple customer premise equipment,
such as a remote-gateway, a voice-gateway, and one or more IP
set-top boxes, will require a different class of service to perform
optimally. DHCP is essential in making this sophisticated service
deployment possible.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

DHCP requests include device-specic information that allows the


Carrier network to provision the required class of service for the
various devices. Ensuring that DHCP servers are able to handle
complex scenarios without becoming a bottleneck for service
provisioning is essential to ensure a successful deployment of a
Triple Play network.
Network resiliency is a top priority for users and businesses.
Network resiliency refers to the ability of a system or network to
recover or adjust dynamically to failure conditions. DHCP servers
may use any of the following methods to maintain partial or full
failover state information to provide higher network resiliency:
Server clustering a mirrored conguration for one or more
servers with OS-level or hardware-based cluster management
for load balancing and failover.
Split scopes multiple servers share a reserved range for an
address scope.
DHCP failover multiple servers use a draft-rfc, and implement
a DHCP failover protocol for automatic load balancing and
failover.
Testing DHCP server resiliency under adverse and failure
conditions is extremely important in ensuring a successful DHCP
server deployment.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Performance Metrics
To determine the performance of a DHCP server, several
performance metrics will be used in this test plan. The following
terms are dened and used to provide objective performance
characteristics for the DHCP server, the device-under-test (DUT) in
this test plan.
Connection A single TCP connection between two end hosts,
using connection establishment (3-way handshake).
Transaction A single request for an object from a client to
server. A transaction is made within an established Connection.
Connections-per-second The rate at which new TCP connections
are initiated per second.
Transaction Response Time The amount of time elapsed
between the time a client sends a request and the time an
acceptable response to it is received.
Complete Transaction Response Time The amount of time
elapsed between the time a client sends the rst request and the
time the last acceptable response is received successfully from
subsequent requests.
Client Capacity Number of clients that a server can support.
The maximum client capacity of a server is the threshold beyond
which the server can no longer support any additional clients.
Success Rate The ratio of successful transactions calculated over
the total attempted transactions.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Basic Setup
The basic test conguration requires the DHCP server to host one
or more address scopes to lease to the DHCP clients. Specically,
a large pool of addresses must be congured to ensure sufcient
addresses are available for the test duration. One or more Ixia
test ports is required to send multiple DHCP requests to the server.
The test network will be a at network, and DHCP requests will be
broadcast on the local link to reach the DHCP server.
Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP
Server

Ixia Port

Figure 1. Basic DHCP Server test topology


The following DHCP client and server interaction provides a
basic understanding of how a DHCP client acquires network
conguration information from a DHCP server. A similar request/
response transaction is used for address renewal (RequestRenew), address rebind (Request-Rebind), or address release
(Release), among other DHCP commands.
DHCP Discover
(Broadcast)

DHCP Offer
(Broadcast)

DHCP Request
(Broadcast)

DHCP
Client

DHCP ACK
(Broadcast)

Figure 2. Typical DHCP request/response

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Advanced Setup
This advanced test conguration is appropriate when several
DHCP servers are responsible for hundreds of lease scopes. The
lease scopes may service users in different physical and logical
networks, using VLANs or routed networks.
To maintain high availability, the DHCP server is usually
congured for load balancing, and provides failover protection
using one of following methods (among others):
Server clustering a mirrored conguration for one or more
servers with an operating-system or hardware-based cluster
mechanism used to initiate failover.
Split scopes multiple servers share a reserved range for an
address scope.
DHCP failover multiple servers use a draft-rfc, and implement
a DHCP failover mechanism for automatic load balancing and
failover.
DHCP servers in a cluster are generally located in different
subnets than DHCP clients. In addition, because the servers
manage several scopes with thousands of IP addresses based
on physical and logical topologies of an enterprise or carrier
network, these DHCP servers are not directly reachable by the
DHCP clients using DHCP packets which are broadcast-based.
DHCP Relay Agents are helper services residing on client
networks that help facilitate communication between the DHCP
clients and servers over routed networks where broadcast trafc
is not possible.
For this test setup, one or more test ports is required to send
multiple DHCP requests to the server.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP RA

L3 Switch
DHCP Failover
Server Cluster

Ixia Port

Figure 3. Advanced DHCP Server test topology with Optional


DHCP Failover and Relay Agent
To use the DHCP Relay Agent (RA) functionality in such a
network, the DHCP protocol on the client side does not require
any changes. The RA on the clients local link network is
congured to forward any DHCP packets to a designated DHCP
server. This is congurable on a per-VLAN, per-interface, or per
subnet basis, i.e., on a L3 switch.
Note: Ixias L7 stateful trafc generation test tool IxLoad provides
DHCP Relay Agent (RA) emulation capability. When this test tool
is used, it is not required that an intermediary switch support
DHCP RA functionality.
When using either Ixias emulated RA and/or an upstream RA,
some considerations when using a DHCP RA include:
DHCP servers must support RA functionality. These DHCP
servers must be able to offer leases based on the identication
of RA found in the giaddr eld of a DHCP Discover packet as
forwarded by a RA.
A RA conguration on the test tool and/or the network switch
will be required.
A reachable DHCP server address must be congured on
a per-VLAN, per-interface or per-subnet as designed
Most L3 network switches require a trusted conguration
for a downstream RA if the test tool is congured as an RA
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DHCP Server Test Plan

The implications of using a RA must be factored into the


performance characterizations of the DHCP server. The
perceived performance metrics determined may differ if the RA
is not used. It is recommended that the testing be done on a
network that closely resembles the production/real-world setup.
The following DHCP client and server interaction provides a
basic understanding of how a DHCP client acquires network
conguration information from a DHCP server that is located in a
different network, either logically or physically. A similar request/
response method is used for address renewal (Request-Renew),
address rebind (Request-Rebind), or address release (Release)
among other DHCP commands.

DHCP
Client

DHCP Discover
(Broadcast)

DHCP Discover
(Unicast to Server)

DHCP Offer
(Broadcast)

DHCP Offer
(Unicast to RA)

DHCP Request
(Broadcast)

DHCP ACK
(Broadcast)

L3 Switch
with RA
Capability

DHCP Request
(Unicast to Server)

DHCP ACK
(Unicast to RA)

DHCP
Server

Figure 4. DHCP client/server response using Relay Agent (RA)

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DHCP Server Test Plan

1. Test 1 Maximum Client Capacity


Objective
To support the growing requirements of a DHCP server to handle
various load conditions, it is critical to characterize its peak
capabilities.
This test will help determine the maximum steady-state DHCP
requests/transactions handling capability of the server. The
maximum client capacity is reached when no additional clients
can be realized. At this operating limit, the server will sustain a
steady ow of DHCP requests, and then drop or not process any
additional packets, achieving a 100% success rate.
This metric is important in understanding how the DHCP server
can scale to support a large number of DHCP clients, as well as in
provisioning one or more servers as the DHCP client base grows.
Setup
The setup requires at least one Ixia test port to generate stateful
DHCP trafc. The conguration presented here is indicative of a
typical large-scale DHCP server deployment and may not reect
any specic use-case. Refer to Topology illustration below to be
sure to set up the test appropriately.
Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP RA

L3 Switch
DHCP Failover
Server Cluster

Ixia Port

Figure 5. Topology for Test 1 Maximum sustained client capacity

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Input Parameters
Parameter

Description

Client Conguration

100 or more [user] per test


port
Retransmission (initial timeout
timer) iterative determination
Number of retransmissions =
None (to determine rst failed
packets)

Client Network

One or more VLAN with


untagged and/or 802.1q
tagged packets per VLAN

Client Command-list

DISCOVER, Wait (iterative),


REQUEST, Wait (iterative),
RELEASE, Wait (iterative)

Test Ports

At least one (more ports can


be used to scale the test)

DHCP Server(s)

1 or more external DHCP


server

DHCP Server Conguration

Several lease scopes to allow


server test to scale to offer
100 or more IP addresses
Specic lease offer hold times
to optimize test conguration
requirements

Test Objective

Iterative method to determine


the maximum concurrent
connections
Requires iterative use of
users/second ramp-up rate to
determine maximum capacity
without packet loss

Table 1. Input Parameters for Test 1 Maximum Client Capacity

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Methodology
1. Congure the DHCP server with one or more lease scopes.
This conguration is contingent on the test network. If one
or more VLANs is used to classify different groups of DHCP
clients, several lease scopes must be set up to accommodate
the DHCP clients. Refer to the Input Parameters table.
2. Congure any network devices to forward DHCP broadcast
packets to an upstream DHCP server. This process may
include enabling helper services on a per-port or per-VLAN
basis. Additionally, if using the RA capability included with
the test tool, a trusted mode of operation may need to be
enabled on the switch to forward such packets.
3. Set up the emulated DHCP client network appropriately.
Congure the DHCP clients to use one or more VLAN tags
per test port. A trunk-port, for example, supports several
VLAN tags. This conguration must match the lease scope
and network switch conguration.
4. Congure the emulated DHCP client trafc. Refer to the Input
Parameters table.
5. Set up the test objective to determine the maximum number of
sustained users.
The following client-side parameters can be determined
iteratively to optimize the performance of the DHCP server:
retransmission of packets based on the initial packet timeout,
# of retransmissions, # of Mandatory and Optional options to
include in the DHCP Discover packets, and Wait/Think times
between commands to control the rate of trafc to the server.
Consider that the Objective of this test is to determine the
maximum number of sustained users supported by the server.
For this reason, the rate of arrival of packets at the server
does not necessarily need to be high. This will allow for more
sustained users at a lower transaction rate.
Adjust the parameters to determine the maximum client
capacity. This metric is the threshold reached when there are
no timeouts, no retransmissions, nor packets losses on the
server-side.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Results
The objective of this test was to determine the maximum client
handling capacity. To determine this, the test was run iteratively
to reach the operating limit of the server. At this limit, the server
was able to sustain a steady ow of DHCP requests without
packet loss.
The result of three test-runs is presented here to characterize the
performance of the DHCP server. The results illustrate the raw
performance of the server and more importantly provide insight
into the tradeoffs of achieving high client capacity.
Run 1 No errors
150 users (cycled through the command-list)
Users ramp-up rate: 3 users/second
Request timeout: 5 seconds, No retransmissions
Inter-command wait interval: 4 seconds

Figure 6. Test Case 1 Run 1 results

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Run 2 With Timeouts


250 users (cycled through the command-list)
Users ramp-up rate: 3 users/second
Request timeout: 5 seconds, No retransmissions
Inter-command wait interval: 4 seconds

Figure 7. Test Case 1 Run 2 results


Run 3 With Timeouts
250 users (cycled through the command-list)
Users ramp-up rate: 1 user/second
Request timeout: 5 seconds, No retransmissions
Inter-command wait interval: 4 seconds

Figure 8. Test Case 1 Run 3 results

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DHCP Server Test Plan

The following observations were made in verifying the maximum


client capacity of the DHCP server under test:
1. The maximum sustained client capacity was 150 users with
an average of 3 users/sec ramp-up.
2. When the number of users increased by 100 in Test Run 2,
2.6% (110/4217) of packets timed out on the client-side. The
increase in the number of users also resulted in higher (worse)
client response times.
3. In Test Run 3, the ramp-up rate was reduced to 1 user/
second. The results indicate a signicant improvement in
timeouts (0.31%) and also improved client response times.
Therefore, the maximum client capacity of a DHCP server is best
determined by understanding the tradeoff between required
and acceptable performance. If no errors or timeouts are
required, then 150 users with a reasonable ramp-up rate is the
maximum client capacity based on this servers performance
under test. With a reduced ramp-up rate, it can be expected that
more clients can be accommodated, as long as the increased
possibility of errors and timeouts is acceptable.
The following parameters can be used to optimize the client and
server performance:
Lease hold time on the Server can be manipulated to ensure
that pending lease offers are released in a timely manner
when running such a test.
The initial timeout for commands on the Client side can be set
to a reasonable value so that pending leases from the DHCP
can make it back to the client during this time.
The inter-command Wait time on the Client can be determined
iteratively, which provides a good balance of steady trafc to
the DHCP server.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

2. Test 2 Maximum Transaction Rate


Objective
This test will help determine the maximum transaction rate that
the DHCP can sustain without any errors or packet losses (100%
success rate). The maximum transaction rate will include all
transactions for a new DHCP client to request and obtain its
network conguration information from the DHCP server.
This metric is important in characterizing the DHCP servers
performance. The metric provides another dimension to the
servers capabilities, not in being able to maintain a steady-state
client capacity, but in being able to service more requests for
short durations (e.g., extreme conditions) possibly with minimal
and acceptable performance degradation.
Setup
The setup requires at least one Ixia test port to generate stateful
DHCP trafc. The conguration presented here is indicative of a
typical large-scale DHCP server deployment and may not reect
any specic use-case. Refer to the Topology illustration below to
be sure to set up the test appropriately.
Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP RA

L3 Switch
DHCP Failover
Server Cluster

Ixia Port

Figure 9. Topology for Test 2 Maximum Transaction Rate

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Input Parameters
Parameter

Description

Client Conguration

100 or more [user] per test


port
Retransmission (initial timeout
timer) iterative determination
Number of retransmissions =
None (to determine rst failed
packets)

Client Network

One or more VLAN with


untagged and/or 802.1q
tagged packets per VLAN

Client Command-list

DISCOVER, Wait (iterative),


REQUEST, Wait (iterative),
RELEASE, Wait (iterative)

Test Ports

At least one. More ports can


be used to scale the test

DHCP Server(s)

1 or more external DHCP


server

DHCP Server Conguration

Several lease scopes to allow


server test to scale to offer
100 or more IP addresses
Specic lease offer hold times
to optimize test conguration
requirements

Test Objective

Iterative method to determine


the maximum transactions per
second

Table 2. Input Parameters for Test 2 Maximum Transaction Rate

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Methodology
1. Congure the DHCP server with one or more lease scopes.
This conguration is contingent on the test network. If one
or more VLAN is used to classify different groups of DHCP
clients, the conguration will require several lease scopes
to be set up to accommodate the DHCP clients. Refer to the
Input Parameters table.
2. Congure any network device to forward DHCP broadcast
packets to an upstream DHCP server. This process may
include enabling helper services on a per-port or per-VLAN
basis. Additionally, if an RA capability is included with the
test tool, a trusted mode of operation may need to be
enabled on the switch to forward such packets.
3. Set up the emulated DHCP client network appropriately.
Congure the DHCP clients to use one or more VLAN tags
per test port. For example, a trunk-port supports several VLAN
tags. This conguration must match the lease scope and
network switch conguration.
4. Congure the emulated DHCP client trafc. Refer to the Input
Parameters table.
5. Set up the test objective to determine the maximum
transactions per second.
Consider that the Objective on this test is to determine the
maximum transaction rate. Therefore, it is not necessarily
important to achieve high client capacity. A typical number of
clients with a high rate of IP address assignment and renewal
may be sufcient to overwhelm the DHCP server.
Adjust the parameters to determine the maximum transactionsper-seconds without errors or packet loss.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Results
The objective of this test was to determine the maximum
transactions-per-second that the DHCP could handle. To
determine this, the overall user count was not deemed as relevant
as the steady-state arrival rate (transaction rate) being processed
successfully by the server.
The result of three test-runs is presented here to characterize the
performance of the DHCP server.
RUN 1

RUN 2

RUN 3

Number of Users

95

95

95

Ramp-up rate (users/sec)

10

40

10

Request timeout (sec)

# of Retransmissions

Inter-command Wait (sec)

The table below is a condensed report from all three test runs
that contains request rates and failures due to timeouts.
IxLoad Report

RUN 1

RUN 2

RUN 3

14.18

20.73

25.25

377.64

490.85

631.11

9.86

12.58

16.57

Avg Bytes Transmitted/s

4529.18

6657.42

8118.95

Avg Bytes Received/s

3191.20

4121.62

5399.71

Avg Throuhput/s

7720.39

10779

13518.46

DHCP DISCOVER

33.32

63.92

50.29

DHCP REQUEST

48.79

78.23

73.64

VALID IPs

525

588

892

DISCOVER Total Packets

565

848

1005

129

53

525

713

937

125

45

DHCP Requests Sent/s


DHCP Responsses Received/s
Average Transactions Completed/s

Command Level Statistics

DISCOVER Failures
REQUEST Total Packets
REQUEST Failures

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Run 1 produced the maximum transaction rate for the DHCP


server without any errors. The following observations were
made:
1. As the ramp-up rate was increased from 10 to 40 users/
second, and the inter-command Wait time was reduced from
4 to 1 second (to further accelerate the DHCP request rate),
there were signicant failures due to timeouts.
2. In the third run, the ramp-up rate was reduced to 10 users/
second. Errors were still seen due to timeouts, but the error
number was signicantly lower.
By running more extreme test cases in Run 2 and 3, it was found
that the DHCP server could still service bursty trafc; however,
there was a performance penalty to be paid. There were
increased packet loss (timeouts) and increased (worse) client
response times as the server was overwhelmed with processing
more requests.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

3. Test 3 Optimal Client Response Time


Objective
This test will help determine the optimal client response time
by verifying an acceptable level of performance for the
DHCP server. The maximum client capacity and the maximum
transaction rates will be used to help determine the upper limits
of the DHCP server.
To achieve the maximum client capacity, the rate of arrival of DHCP
requests at the server may be reduced to allow the server to service
more requests. Therefore, to highest client capacity may require a
reduced rate of arrival (transaction-rate) of DHCP requests.
On the other hand, to achieve the maximum number of
transactions-per-second, the number of users is not as important
as the rate of arrival. Consider that even a small pool of active
users can inundate a DHCP server with frequent requests to
acquire, release, or renew IP address information.
The motivation for determining the optimal client response time is
that most DHCP servers will not operate under either one of the
conditions (i.e., maximum number of transactions-per-second or
maximum number of users) at any length of time; therefore, it is
reasonable to assess the optimal performance of the server at a
point of equilibrium between the two.

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Setup
The set up will require at least one Ixia test port to generate
stateful DHCP trafc. The conguration presented here is
indicative of a typical large-scale DHCP server deployment
and may not reect any specic use-case. Refer to Topology
illustration below to set up the test appropriately.
Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP RA

L3 Switch
DHCP Failover
Server Cluster

Ixia Port

Figure 11. Topology for Test 3 Optimal Client Response Time

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Input Parameters
Parameter

Description

Client Conguration

100 or more [user] per test


port
Retransmission (initial timeout
timer) iterative determination
Number of retransmissions =
None (to determine rst failed
packets)

Client Network

One or more VLAN with


untagged and/or 802.1q
tagged packets per VLAN

Client Command-list

DISCOVER, Wait (iterative),


REQUEST, Wait (iterative),
RELEASE, Wait (iterative)

Test Ports

At least one. More ports can


be used to scale the test

DHCP Server(s)

1 or more external DHCP


server

DHCP Server Conguration

Several lease scopes to allow


server test to scale to offer
100 or more IP addresses
Specic lease offer hold times
to optimize test conguration
requirements

Test Objective

Iterative method to determine


the maximum transactions
per second in the context of
maintaining an acceptable
Client Response Time

Table 3. Input Parameters for Test 3 Optimal Client


Response Time

2006 by Ixia

p.22

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Methodology
1. Congure the DHCP server with one or more lease scopes.
This conguration is contingent on the test network. If one
or more VLAN is used to classify different groups of DHCP
clients, the server will require several lease scopes to be
setup to accommodate the DHCP clients. Refer to the Input
Parameters table.
2. Congure any network devices to forward DHCP broadcast
packets to an upstream DHCP server. This process may
include enabling helper services on a per-port or per-VLAN
basis. Additionally, if using the RA capability included with
the test tool, a trusted mode of operation may need to be
enabled on the switch to forward such packets.
3. Set up the emulated DHCP client network appropriately.
Congure the DHCP clients to use one or more VLAN tags
per test port. For example, a trunk-port supports several VLAN
tags. This conguration must match the lease scope and
network switch conguration.
4. Congure the emulated DHCP client trafc. Refer to the Input
Parameters table.
5. Set up the test objective to determine the maximum number of
sustained users.
Adjust the parameters to determine the optimal client
response time. The most effective method is to start the
iterative process that yields the maximum client capability
and work down to increase the transactions-per-second rate
so that there is a mutual compromise between the two, which
produces an acceptable level of client response time.

2006 by Ixia

p.23

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Results
This test was set up to determine the optimal client response time
with an acceptable level of performance.
The following test runs were considered to determine the optimal
client response time:
RUN 1

RUN 2

RUN 3

150

250

100

Ramp-up rate (users/sec)

Request timeout (sec)

# of Retransmissions

Inter-command Wait (sec)

Number of Users

The graph below shows the DHCP Discover response times for
three test runs:

Illustrated in the graph, the best response time was achieved in


RUN 3. This test run used a reasonably large number of clients
with an acceptable level of rate of transactions-per-second. The
resulting combination created a desirable operating condition
for the DHCP server where the performance of the server and the
perceived client response times were both acceptable.

2006 by Ixia

p.24

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DHCP Server Test Plan

4. Test 4 Server Resiliency


Objective
This test will help to characterize how resilient DHCP servers are
under adverse or failure conditions. It will assess any service
degradation that is to be anticipated during an active failover
transition, and also provide user response time analysis when
servers are working in a degraded state.
Large enterprises and carrier-grade DHCP implementations
usually service thousands of users at any given time. An outage
condition due to human error or device failure is generally not
acceptable. To reduce the impact of such failures, DHCP servers
are clustered to provide load balancing under normal operating
conditions, and to provide failover services in the event of a
failure, to maintain service availability.
Setup
The setup will require at least one Ixia test port to generate
stateful DHCP trafc. The conguration presented here is
indicative of a typical large-scale DHCP server deployment
and may not reect any specic use-case. Refer to Topology
illustration below to set up the test appropriately.
Ixia DHCP Clients

DHCP RA

L3 Switch
DHCP Failover
Server Cluster

Ixia Port

Figure 12. Topology for Test 4 Server Resiliency

2006 by Ixia

p.25

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Input Parameters
Parameter

Description

Client Conguration

100 or more [user] per test


port
Retransmission (initial timeout
timer) iterative determination
Number of retransmissions =
None (to determine rst failed
packets)

Client Network

One or more VLAN with


untagged and/or 802.1q
tagged packets per VLAN

Client Command-list

DISCOVER, Wait (iterative),


REQUEST, Wait (iterative),
RELEASE, Wait (iterative)

Test Ports

At least one. More ports can


be used to scale the test

DHCP Server(s)

1 or more external DHCP


server

DHCP Server Conguration

Several lease scopes to allow


server test to scale to offer
1000 or more IP addresses
Specic lease offer hold times
to optimize test conguration
requirements

Test Objective

Iterative method to determine


the behavior of the server
under normal and failed
conditions using a
combination of typical
transactions per second and/
or typical client capacity

Table 4. Input Parameters for Test 4 Server Resiliency

2006 by Ixia

p.26

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DHCP Server Test Plan

Methodology
1. Congure the DHCP server with one or more lease scopes.
This conguration is contingent on the test network. If one
or more VLAN is used to classify different groups of DHCP
clients, the server will require several lease scopes to be
setup to accommodate the DHCP clients. Refer to the Input
Parameters table. The DHCP failover and cluster setup is
vendor-specic and not covered in this test. At a minimum,
ensure that there is a heartbeat between the clustered
systems or the failover services between the servers.
2. Congure any network devices to forward DHCP broadcast
packets to an upstream DHCP server. This process may
include enabling helper services on a per-port or per-VLAN
basis. Additionally, if using the RA capability included with
the test tool, a trusted mode of operation may need to be
enabled on the switch to forward such packets.
3. Set up the emulated DHCP client network appropriately.
Congure the DHCP clients to use one or more VLAN tags
per test port. For example, a trunk-port supports several VLAN
tags. This conguration must match the lease scope and
network switch conguration.
4. Congure the emulated DHCP client trafc. Refer to the Input
Parameters table.
5. Set up the test objective to perform under normal load
conditions. Normal load condition refers to typical load
conditions for the DHCP server to handle.
6. Run the test. Perform an unscheduled system shutdown of the
Primary DHCP server (or perform any other failure condition).
The assessment of this action must be monitored closely.
Look for statistics that indicate how well the failover was
implemented and if there was any noticeable service
degradation during the failover. Refer to the Results section
for analysis.

2006 by Ixia

p.27

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DHCP Server Test Plan

7. Bring the Primary server back online and assess the


performance improvement, such as faster client response
times and less errors due to timeouts and retransmissions.
8. Iteratively perform several failure scenarios while changing
the test parameters to assess the performance of the DHCP
server. For example, taking down one of a dual-server system
that normally runs at 40% of client capacity with acceptable
client response times will entail looking at the response times
with only one server fullling all the requests. This can lead to
longer timeouts and increased errors if the server is unable to
process all the requests.

Results
The objective of this test was to characterize the DHCP server(s)
performance working under degraded conditions. It was
expected that the performance of the DHCP server in servicing
requests would be lower, and the client response time would
increase as the server was required to process more requests
than if it was working under normal operating conditions.
To characterize how resilient the DHCP servers are during a
failure condition, several statistics must be monitored during this
critical condition:
Number of DHCP requests sent to the servers that failed due to
timeouts
Number of DHCP request retransmissions due to timeout
conditions
Incorrect leases offered to clients if the DHCP servers are not
synchronized before the failure
Duplicate addresses detected on the client-side because of
uncommitted transactions on the Primary server results in out-ofsync Backup database

2006 by Ixia

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Notes:
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About Ixia
Ixia is a leading provider of performance test systems
for IP-based infrastructure and services. Its highly
scalable solutions generate, capture, characterize, and
emulate network and application trafc, establishing
denitive performance and conformance metrics
of network devices or systems under test. Ixias test
systems are used by Network and Telephony Equipment
Manufacturers, Semiconductor Manufacturers, Service
Providers, Governments, and Enterprises to validate
the functionality and reliability of complex IP networks,
devices, and applications. Ixias Triple Play test systems
address the growing need to test voice, video, and
data services and network capability under realworld conditions. Ixias vision is to be the worlds
pre-eminent provider of solutions to enable testing
of next generation IP Triple Play networks. Ixias test
systems utilize a wide range of industry-standard
interfaces, including Ethernet, SONET, ATM, and
wireless connectivity, and are distinguished by their
performance, accuracy, reliability, and adaptability to
the industrys constant evolution.

Contact Ixia

For more information, contact Ixia or visit our Web Site at


http://www.ixiacom.com.

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Phone: +44.1753.722056 Email: salesemea@ixiacom.com
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Phone: +82.11.897.1326

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