Running DHCPerf on Ubuntu

DHCPerf is an open source load testing tool for DHCP-Server setups. The tool is capable of generating DHCP Client traffic with a customizable load. It comes in handy in stress testing scenarios.

I have tested it to work with Ubuntu 12.0 and Nomium’s DHCPerf 1.0.

Steps:

• Download the  Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server ES3 (x86) version of DHCPPerf from here: http://www.nominum.com/support/measurement-tools/
• We need the Alien tool to convert the download RPM format file to debian package to be installed in Ubuntu.
• Download Alien tool by running:

$sudo apt-get install alien

• Convert the downloaded RPM file to Debian package format through Alien using the following command

       $sudo alien -k DHCPPerf1.0.1.0.rpm

• The Converted Debian package would be placed in the same folder. Install it using the following command:

$sudo dpkg -i DHCPPerf1.0.1.0.deb

• The DHCPerf, by default, gets installed into /usr/local/nom/…
• To Run, navigate into the bin folder under nom and run the DHCPerf command:

./dhcperf  –help

to see the usage of the command.

Run WireShark and set the filter to bootp to see the DHCP packets on the wire.