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, named to match the IP address of the client network. 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 applicable to your network might be included.

• Locale macro, named Locale. The macro contains the offset (in seconds) from Universal Time to specify the time zone.

• Server macro, named to match the server's host name. The 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. This macro includes the Locale macro.

The network address macro is automatically processed for all clients located on that network. The locale macro is included in the server macro, so it is processed when the server macro is processed.

When you configure IP addresses for the first network, you must select a client configuration macro to be used for all DHCP clients using the addresses you are configuring. By default, the server macro is selected because it is contains information needed by all clients that use this server. Clients receive the options contained in the network address macro before those in the server macro. See Order of Macro Processing for more information about the order in which macros are processed.