DHCP & BootP - Help

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General

DHCP Flag

Roaming Flag

Default Node DHCP Options

Additional DHCP Options

General

The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and BootP (Bootstrap Protocol) pass network configuration information to a host during startup. In NetDB, DHCP is configured on Node and Network records. For Node records, a unique hardware address must be entered to configure DHCP.

DHCP is also described in Internet RFCs 2131 and 2132. Note that BootP is a subset of DHCP commands.

DHCP information is updated from NetDB approximately every ten (10) minutes.

DHCP Flag (Node Record)

If the DHCP box is checked and a hardware address is entered, the campus DHCP servers will reply to a DHCP request from that hardware address. Default DHCP options will be returned. If specified in the NetDB record, additional DHCP options will also be returned.

Roaming Flag (Node Records)

Roaming DHCP was implemented to allow machines to move to other networks without requiring manual configuration of IP addresses, etc. If the Roaming box is checked, Roaming DHCP is enabled for that hardware address. If the machine now moves to another network that has available roaming DHCP addresses, the DHCP server will give one of these addresses to the mobile machine.

Default Node DHCP Options

The default Node DHCP options at Stanford are IP address, subnet mask, gateway, domain name and domain name servers. The option numbers come from RFCs 2131 and 2132.

DHCP Option Option
Number
Description
IP Address 50

returns IP address assigned to requesting hardware address

Subnet mask 1 returns 255.255.0.0, in general
Gateway 3

for 171.64 addresses, returns 171.64.1.1
for 171.65 addresses, returns 171.65.1.1

Domain name 15

returns domain name asssigned to the Node

Domain name servers 6

171.64.7.55, 171.64.7.77 and 171.64.7.99 returned in random order

Additional DHCP Options

In NetDB, the following additional DHCP options may be set for Node interfaces, Networks or address spaces. Note: Use with caution as improper use may cause networking problems. The syntax for options is <dhcp option> = <value>.

DHCP Option Option
Number
Node
Interface
Net Address
Space
Description
next-server   Y Y Y boot/config server
filename   Y N Y boot/config file - e.g. thin clients
tftp-server-name 66 Y Y Y TFTP boot/config server
bootfile-name 67 Y N Y boot/config file - e.g. thin clients
log-servers 7 Y Y Y  
domain-name 15 Y Y Y e.g., stanford.edu
domain-name-servers 5 Y Y Y DNS servers
netbios-name-servers 44 Y Y Y WINS servers
netbios-node-type 46 Y Y Y 1=B, 2=P, 4=M, 8=H
option-144 144 Y N N for HP printers
permit*   N N Y see below
max-lease-time   Y Y Y  
default-lease-time 51 Y Y Y DHCP lease time (currently two (2) days)

*permit DHCP option

The permit DHCP option controls which clients can lease dynamically assignable IP addresses, dynIPs, on a per subnet basis. By default, the DHCP service leases dynIPs to roaming clients, i.e., nodes with the roaming flag set. So any address space without the permit option essentially has permit=roaming. Adding the permit option to an address space completely overrides that default.

At this time there's only one other valid value for the permit option: unknown-clients. Setting permit=unknown-clients allows unknown clients to obtain dynIPs in a particular address space. This explicit permit option overrides the default, so only unknown clients can get dynIPs. To allow both unknown clients and roaming clients to obtain dynIPs simply combine values - permit=unknown-clients,roaming or permit=roaming,unknown-clients.

Note that the set of unknown clients isn't just nodes not listed in NetDB, but also includes nodes in NetDB without the DHCP flag set, and nodes in NetDB in the Unknown state.

To summarize:
   
Permit Value Clients that will get dynamically assigned leases
(default) Roaming clients
unknown-clients Only unknown clients (no roaming clients)
unknown-clients,roaming   Unknown clients and roaming clients
   
Unknown clients include:
  • nodes not registered in NetDB
  • nodes in NetDB without DHCP flag set
  • nodes in NetDB in the "Unknown" state

For more information, submit a ticket to HelpSU .

 
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Last modified Jun 12, 2009