Solaris DHCP Administration Guide

Supporting BOOTP Clients with DHCP Service

To support BOOTP clients on your DHCP server, you must set up your DHCP server to be BOOTP compatible. You can register BOOTP clients in the DHCP server's database or reserve a number of IP addresses for allocation to BOOTP clients, depending how you set up BOOTP compatibility.

You can set up support for BOOTP clients in one of the following ways:

Automatic BOOTP support – Any BOOTP client on a DHCP-managed network, or on a network connected by a BOOTP relay agent to a DHCP-managed network can obtain an IP address from the server. This requires you to reserve a pool of addresses for exclusive use by BOOTP clients. This option may be more useful if the server must support a large number of BOOTP clients.
Manual BOOTP support – Only those BOOTP clients that have been manually registered with the DHCP service will receive a response from the server. This requires you to bind a client's ID to a particular IP address that has been marked for BOOTP clients. This option is useful for a small number of BOOTP clients, or in the event that you want to restrict the BOOTP clients that can use the server.

Note –

BOOTP addresses are permanently assigned, whether or not you explicitly assign them a permanent lease.

The following task map lists tasks you need to perform to support BOOTP clients and the procedures used to carry them out.

Table 4–4 BOOTP Support Task Map


Tasks	Description	Where to Find Instructions
Set up automatic BOOTP support	Provide IP address for any BOOTP client on a DHCP-managed network, or on a network connected by a relay agent to a DHCP-managed network.	How to Set Up Support of Any BOOTP Client (DHCP Manager)
Set up manual BOOTP support	Provide IP address for only those BOOTP clients that have been manually registered with the DHCP service.	How to Set Up Support of Registered BOOTP Clients (DHCP Manager)

How to Set Up Support of Any BOOTP Client (DHCP Manager)

Select Modify from the Service menu.

The Modify Service Options dialog box opens.

In the BOOTP Compatibility section of the dialog box, select Automatic.

Select Restart Server, if it is not already selected.

Click OK.

Select the Addresses tab in DHCP Manager.

Select addresses that you want to reserve for BOOTP clients.

Select a range of addresses by clicking the first address, pressing the Shift key, and clicking the last address.

Select multiple non-concurrent addresses by pressing the Control key while clicking each address.

Select Properties from the Edit menu.

The Modify Multiple Addresses dialog box opens.

In the BOOTP section, select Assign All Addresses Only to BOOTP Clients.

All other options should be set to Keep Current Settings.

Click OK.

Any BOOTP client can now obtain an address from this DHCP server.

How to Set Up Support of Registered BOOTP Clients (DHCP Manager)

Select Modify from the Service menu.

The Modify Service Options dialog box opens.

In the BOOTP Compatibility section of the dialog box, select Manual.

Select Restart Server if it is not already selected.

Click OK.

Select the Addresses tab in DHCP Manager.

Select an address you want to assign to a particular BOOTP client.

Choose Properties from the Edit menu.

The Address Properties dialog box opens.

Select the Lease tab.

In the Client ID field, type the client's identifier.

For a BOOTP client that runs the Solaris operating environment on an Ethernet network, the client ID is a string derived from the client's hexadecimal Ethernet address, preceded by the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) type for Ethernet (01). For example, a BOOTP client having the Ethernet address 8:0:20:94:12:1e would use the client ID 0108002094121E.

Tip –
As superuser on a Solaris client system, type the following command to obtain the Ethernet address for the interface:

ifconfig -a

Select Reserved to reserve the IP address for this client.

Select Assign Only to BOOTP Clients.

Click OK.

In the Addresses tab, BOOTP is displayed in the Status field, and the client ID you entered is listed in the Client ID field.