Option Negotiation

In DHCPv6 there is an Option Request Option, which provides a hint to the server of what the client prefers to see. If all possible options were sent from the server to the client, so much information could be sent that some of it would have to be dropped on the way to the client. The server might use the hint to choose among the options to include in the reply. Alternatively, the server could ignore the hint and choose other items to include. On Solaris OS, for example, the preferred options might include the Solaris DNS address domain or the NIS address domain, but would probably not include the net bios server.

The same type of hint is also provided for DHCPv4, but without the special Option Request Option. Instead DHCPv4 uses the PARAM_REQUEST_LIST in /etc/default/dhcpagent.