Can MS350-switches take over DHCP when configured gateway goes down?

[Erik]

Hi,

is it possible for the MS350 switch to take over the DHCP role when configured gateway goes down?

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

No it can not do this automatically.  It is either the DHCP server or it is not.

I guess you could manually enable it - but it still needs an Internet connection to be able to configure it to be a DHCP server (because it needs to get its config from the Meraki cloud) - and if the default gateway is down then this is not likely.

[jdsilva]

I don't think you'd want to manually bring up a new DHCP server when your primary is down. the binding database wouldn't be synchronized so the new server would have no way to know what address are already in use. Most modern DHCP servers try and arp/ping for an address before they hand it out just to be safe... Not sure if the Meraki devices do this since I haven't checked. Maybe someone else knows?

IMO If you want redundant DHCP servers you're better off to use a dedicated DHCP product that is built to properly handle redundant servers. 

[m_Andrew]

This is not possible. However, if you have two MS350s configured either using warm spare (VRRP) or in a switch stack, DHCP leases will be synced among them for failover purposes if you run a DHCP server.