Technically, could I use DHCP on a DHCP Server?

Solution 1:

If you are asking if a DHCP server can assign itself a dynamic address then the answer is NO. The DHCP server needs to know the IP of the interface the request was received on for it to decide which scope to use for returning the address. A DHCP server couldn't assign address to itself, because it would have no way to figure out which scope to use.

I suppose it may be possible to have another DHCP server offer the address for the box, but that seems like a very silly idea. I am not sure if Windows would permit that though. I know you get lots of warnings when you install DHCP while you still have a dynamic address.

Solution 2:

DHCP works through a process Discover-Offer-Request-Acknowledge (DORA). When a client is joined to a network, it discovers if there is a DHCP server in the network. . So technically if you dont have an IP address for the server, clients (which includes the server itself) cannot Discover it. For DHCP to work, it needs an IP address and pool of addresses it can lease