Default Client Configuration Macros

In Solaris DHCP, a macro is a collection of network configuration options and their assigned values. The DHCP server uses macros to determine what network configuration information to send to a DHCP client.

When you configure the DHCP server, the management tools gather information from system files and directly from you through prompts or command-line options you specify. With this information, the management tools create the following macros:

• Network address macro — The network address macro is named to match the IP address of the client network. For example, if the network is 192.68.0.0, the network address macro is also named 192.68.0.0. The macro contains information needed by any client that is part of the network, such as subnet mask, network broadcast address, default router or router discovery token, and NIS/NIS+ domain and server if the server uses NIS/NIS+. Other options that are applicable to your network might be included. The network address macro is automatically processed for all clients located on that network, as described in Order of Macro Processing.

• Locale macro — The locale macro is named Locale. The macro contains the offset (in seconds) from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to specify the time zone. The locale macro is not automatically processed, but is included in the server macro.

• Server macro — The server macro is named to match the server's host name. For example, if the server is named pineola, the server macro is also named pineola. The server macro contains information about the lease policy, time server, DNS domain, and DNS server, and possibly other information that the configuration program was able to obtain from system files. The server macro includes the locale macro, so the DHCP server processes the locale macro as part of the server macro.

  When you configure IP addresses for the first network, you must select a client configuration macro to be used for all DHCP clients that use the addresses you are configuring. The macro that you select is mapped to the IP addresses. By default, the server macro is selected because the macro contains information needed by all clients that use this server.

Clients receive the options contained in the network address macro before the options in the macro that is mapped to IP addresses. This processing order causes the options in the server macro to take precedence over any conflicting options in the network address macro. See Order of Macro Processing for more information about the order in which macros are processed.