Endure is a DHCP diagnostics utility installed next to a server or relay. It analyzes the inbound and outbound DHCP traffic and collects various diagnostic metrics. It can also be used for the capture file analysis.
Endure has been tested on Ubuntu 22 and macOS Sonoma 14.1.1. It requires libpcap library.
To compile the program on Ubuntu 22, first install lib Ipcap-dev:
$ apt install libpcap-dev
Endure is written in Rust and can be compiled using the cargo utility. The minimal required rustc version is 1.74.
$ cd endure
$ cargo build --release
The resulting binary can be found in the endure/target/release directory.
Suppose your DHCP server is responding to the traffic on the interfaces bridge101 and bridge102.
You can start monitoring the server with the following command:
$ endure collect -i bridge101 -i bridge102 -c stdout
The -c stdout argument configures the program to output collected metrics into the console periodically.
Listening on the local loopback interface has no practical application in production, however it may be useful for testing purposes. The --loopback switch is an alias for the -i [loopback name] (e.g., -i lo). However, the --loopback argument cannot be combined with -i.
$ endure collect --loopback -c stdout
Having a capture file named capture.pcap it is possible to gather the same metrics using the read command:
$ endure read --pcap capture.pcap --json
It will produce a report in the JSON format containing the metrics computed from all the DHCP packets in the capture file. The same report can be produced in the CSV format using the --csv switch.
Finally, using the --stream switch it is possible to generate a CSV output with several rows, each row presenting metrics for the last 100 packets. For example:
$ endure read --pcap capture.pcap --csv --stream
Endure is a new project with limited capabilities. However, it can already collect and report several useful metrics:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
opcode_boot_requests_count |
A total number of BootRequest messages |
opcode_boot_replies_count |
A total number of BootRequest messages |
opcode_invalid_count |
A total number of invalid messages (having invalid OpCode) |
opcode_boot_requests_percent |
A percentage of BootRequest messages |
opcode_boot_replies_percent |
A percentage of the BootReply messages |
opcode_invalid_percent |
A percentage of neither request nor reply messages |
opcode_boot_requests_percent_100 |
A percentage of BootRequest messages in last 100 packets |
opcode_boot_replies_percent_100 |
A percentage of the BootReply messages in last 100 packets |
opcode_invalid_percent_100 |
A percentage of neither request nor reply messages in last 100 packets |
retransmit_percent |
Percentage of retransmissions |
retransmit_secs_avg |
Average number of seconds the DHCP clients have been retrying to acquire a lease |
retransmit_longest_trying_client |
MAC address of a client who has been trying to get the lease the longest |
retransmit_percent_100 |
Percentage of retransmissions in last 100 packets |
retransmit_secs_avg_100 |
Average number of seconds the DHCP clients have been retrying to acquire a lease in last 100 packets |
retransmit_longest_trying_client_100 |
MAC address of a client who has been trying to get the lease the longest in last 100 packets |
The metrics can be reported over several different channels: CSV write to a file or console, export to Prometheus, Server Sent Events, or the REST API. Consult the User's Manual for details.
Endure is licensed under the MIT License.