Strange syslog message

[Michael D. Zorn]

I have a new server - still putting it all together. I just noticed these entries in syslog.log:

dms-2 bootpd[15402]: Option 43: Client specified unacceptable option length (89 octets)

The number of octets is different each message - usually less than 120.

There's nothing going on - no users.

For today (9/13), they start at 0617, and come at irregular intervals - sometimes 2 or 3 a minute, sometimes 5 or 10 minutes between.

There are very few entries for Sat and Sun.

My syslog.conf is the default:

mail.debug /var/adm/syslog/mail.log
*.info;mail.none /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log
*.alert /dev/console
*.alert root
*.emerg *

It may have something to do with the machine being on the LAN, along with lots of other machines.

[spex]

Michael,

See this thread:

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=961384

PCS

[Sameer_Nirmal]

What is HPUX version?
Are the number of octets shown more than 80 ?
Are you going to use DHCP ?

[Michael D. Zorn]

Samir: It looks like spex's response clears up the question.

Spex: The other HP thread link helps. My machine is on a large LAN with lots of others. I suppose it's possible that machines are booting other machines hundreds of times a day, but it does seem odd.

Do I really need to have bootpd running? Nobody else is going to boot my machine. Can I just turn it off?

[spex · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

According to 'man bootpd':

The bootpd daemon implements three functions: a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server as defined in RFC1541, an Internet Boot Protocol (BOOTP) server as defined in RFC951 and RFC1395, and a DHCP/BOOTP relay agent as defined in RFC1542.

Note that the most common use for bootpd is probably as a DHCP server, not as a BOOTP server. If you are not using this function or the other two functions mentioned above, you can stop/disable it.

PCS

[Michael D. Zorn]

I tried #kill -1 (HUP), no effect, so I upped it to #kill -15, and it disappeared.

I'll check the syslog tomorrow morning and see if the entries stop coming in. So far - about 5 minutes - there haven't been any new ones.

[Michael D. Zorn]

bootpd seems to start itself after a few minutes. 'kill -15' stops it, but then it starts again.

killed at 16:27:16, then

16:29:20 ... reading /etc/bootptab

Just about 2 minutes.

(All the entries are commented out, and the syslog line reads "read 0 entries from /etc/bootptab")

I looked in the rcN.d directories, but nothing there to start it.

Now the messages filling up syslog.log are

...bootpd[24051] hardware address not found: 00XXXXXXXXXX

These are probably MAC addresses from machines on the LAN. But they come a few hundred a day.