Network Working Group R. Droms Request for Comments: 2131 Bucknell University Obsoletes: 1541 March 1997 Category: Standards Track Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Status of this memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) provides a framework for passing configuration information to hosts on a TCPIP network. DHCP is based on the Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) [7], adding the capability of automatic allocation of reusable network addresses and additional configuration options [19]. DHCP captures the behavior of BOOTP relay agents [7, 21], and DHCP participants can interoperate with BOOTP participants [9]. Table of Contents 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1 Changes to RFC1541. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 Related Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 Problem definition and issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.4 Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.5 Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1.6 Design goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2. Protocol Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1 Configuration parameters repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2 Dynamic allocation of network addresses . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3. The Client-Server Protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.1 Client-server interaction - allocating a network address. . . 13 3.2 Client-server interaction - reusing a previously allocated network address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3 Interpretation and representation of time values. . . . . . . 20 3.4 Obtaining parameters with externally configured network address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 3.5 Client parameters in DHCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3.6 Use of DHCP in clients with multiple interfaces . . . . . . . 22 3.7 When clients should use DHCP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4. Specification of the DHCP client-server protocol. . . . . . . 22 Droms Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 4.1 Constructing and sending DHCP messages. . . . . . . . . . . . 22 4.2 DHCP server administrative controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4.3 DHCP server behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 4.4 DHCP client behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 5. Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 7. Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 8. Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 A. Host Configuration Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 List of Figures 1. Format of a DHCP message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2. Format of the 'flags' field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3. Timeline diagram of messages exchanged between DHCP client and servers when allocating a new network address. . . . . . . . . 15 4. Timeline diagram of messages exchanged between DHCP client and servers when reusing a previously allocated network address. . 18 5. State-transition diagram for DHCP clients. . . . . . . . . . . 34 List of Tables 1. Description of fields in a DHCP message. . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2. DHCP messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3. Fields and options used by DHCP servers. . . . . . . . . . . . 28 4. Client messages from various states. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 5. Fields and options used by DHCP clients. . . . . . . . . . . . 37 1. Introduction The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) provides configuration parameters to Internet hosts. DHCP consists of two components: a protocol for delivering host-specific configuration parameters from a DHCP server to a host and a mechanism for allocation of network addresses to hosts. DHCP is built on a client-server model, where designated DHCP server hosts allocate network addresses and deliver configuration parameters to dynamically configured hosts. Throughout the remainder of this document, the term "server" refers to a host providing initialization parameters through DHCP, and the term "client" refers to a host requesting initialization parameters from a DHCP server. A host should not act as a DHCP server unless explicitly configured to do so by a system administrator. The diversity of hardware and protocol implementations in the Internet would preclude reliable operation if random hosts were allowed to respond to DHCP requests. For example, IP requires the setting of many parameters within the protocol implementation software. Because IP can be used on many dissimilar kinds of network hardware, values for those parameters cannot be guessed or assumed to have correct defaults. Also, distributed address allocation schemes depend on a polling/defense Droms Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 mechanism for discovery of addresses that are already in use. IP hosts may not always be able to defend their network addresses, so that such a distributed address allocation scheme cannot be guaranteed to avoid allocation of duplicate network addresses. DHCP supports three mechanisms for IP address allocation. In "automatic allocation", DHCP assigns a permanent IP address to a client. In "dynamic allocation", DHCP assigns an IP address to a client for a limited period of time (or until the client explicitly relinquishes the address). In "manual allocation", a client's IP address is assigned by the network administrator, and DHCP is used simply to convey the assigned address to the client. A particular network will use one or more of these mechanisms, depending on the policies of the network administrator. Dynamic allocation is the only one of the three mechanisms that allows automatic reuse of an address that is no longer needed by the client to which it was assigned. Thus, dynamic allocation is particularly useful for assigning an address to a client that will be connected to the network only temporarily or for sharing a limited pool of IP addresses among a group of clients that do not need permanent IP addresses. Dynamic allocation may also be a good choice for assigning an IP address to a new client being permanently connected to a network where IP addresses are sufficiently scarce that it is important to reclaim them when old clients are retired. Manual allocation allows DHCP to be used to eliminate the error-prone process of manually configuring hosts with IP addresses in environments where (for whatever reasons) it is desirable to manage IP address assignment outside of the DHCP mechanisms. The format of DHCP messages is based on the format of BOOTP messages, to capture the BOOTP relay agent behavior described as part of the BOOTP specification [7, 21] and to allow interoperability of existing BOOTP clients with DHCP servers. Using BOOTP relay agents eliminates the necessity of having a DHCP server on each physical network segment. 1.1 Changes to RFC 1541 This document updates the DHCP protocol specification that appears in RFC1541. A new DHCP message type, DHCPINFORM, has been added; see section 3.4, 4.3 and 4.4 for details. The classing mechanism for identifying DHCP clients to DHCP servers has been extended to include "vendor" classes as defined in sections 4.2 and 4.3. The minimum lease time restriction has been removed. Finally, many editorial changes have been made to clarify the text as a result of experience gained in DHCP interoperability tests. Droms Standards Track [Page 3] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 1.2 Related Work There are several Internet protocols and related mechanisms that address some parts of the dynamic host configuration problem. The Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) [10] (through the extensions defined in the Dynamic RARP (DRARP) [5]) explicitly addresses the problem of network address discovery, and includes an automatic IP address assignment mechanism. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) [20] provides for transport of a boot image from a boot server. The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) [16] provides for informing hosts of additional routers via "ICMP redirect" messages. ICMP also can provide subnet mask information through the "ICMP mask request" message and other information through the (obsolete) "ICMP information request" message. Hosts can locate routers through the ICMP router discovery mechanism [8]. BOOTP is a transport mechanism for a collection of configuration information. BOOTP is also extensible, and official extensions [17] have been defined for several configuration parameters. Morgan has proposed extensions to BOOTP for dynamic IP address assignment [15]. The Network Information Protocol (NIP), used by the Athena project at MIT, is a distributed mechanism for dynamic IP address assignment [19]. The Resource Location Protocol RLP [1] provides for location of higher level services. Sun Microsystems diskless workstations use a boot procedure that employs RARP, TFTP and an RPC mechanism called "bootparams" to deliver configuration information and operating system code to diskless hosts. (Sun Microsystems, Sun Workstation and SunOS are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.) Some Sun networks also use DRARP and an auto-installation mechanism to automate the configuration of new hosts in an existing network. In other related work, the path minimum transmission unit (MTU) discovery algorithm can determine the MTU of an arbitrary internet path [14]. The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) has been proposed as a transport protocol for resource location and selection [6]. Finally, the Host Requirements RFCs [3, 4] mention specific requirements for host reconfiguration and suggest a scenario for initial configuration of diskless hosts. 1.3 Problem definition and issues DHCP is designed to supply DHCP clients with the configuration parameters defined in the Host Requirements RFCs. After obtaining parameters via DHCP, a DHCP client should be able to exchange packets with any other host in the Internet. The TCP/IP stack parameters supplied by DHCP are listed in Appendix A. Droms Standards Track [Page 4] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 Not all of these parameters are required for a newly initialized client. A client and server may negotiate for the transmission of only those parameters required by the client or specific to a particular subnet. DHCP allows but does not require the configuration of client parameters not directly related to the IP protocol. DHCP also does not address registration of newly configured clients with the Domain Name System (DNS) [12, 13]. DHCP is not intended for use in configuring routers. 1.4 Requirements Throughout this document, the words that are used to define the significance of particular requirements are capitalized. These words are: o "MUST" This word or the adjective "REQUIRED" means that the item is an absolute requirement of this specification. o "MUST NOT" This phrase means that the item is an absolute prohibition of this specification. o "SHOULD" This word or the adjective "RECOMMENDED" means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore this item, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before choosing a different course. o "SHOULD NOT" This phrase means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances when the listed behavior is acceptable or even useful, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before implementing any behavior described with this label. Droms Standards Track [Page 5] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 o "MAY" This word or the adjective "OPTIONAL" means that this item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular marketplace requires it or because it enhances the product, for example; another vendor may omit the same item. 1.5 Terminology This document uses the following terms: o "DHCP client" A DHCP client is an Internet host using DHCP to obtain configuration parameters such as a network address. o "DHCP server" A DHCP server is an Internet host that returns configuration parameters to DHCP clients. o "BOOTP relay agent" A BOOTP relay agent or relay agent is an Internet host or router that passes DHCP messages between DHCP clients and DHCP servers. DHCP is designed to use the same relay agent behavior as specified in the BOOTP protocol specification. o "binding" A binding is a collection of configuration parameters, including at least an IP address, associated with or "bound to" a DHCP client. Bindings are managed by DHCP servers. 1.6 Design goals The following list gives general design goals for DHCP. o DHCP should be a mechanism rather than a policy. DHCP must allow local system administrators control over configuration parameters where desired; e.g., local system administrators should be able to enforce local policies concerning allocation and access to local resources where desired. Droms Standards Track [Page 6] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 o Clients should require no manual configuration. Each client should be able to discover appropriate local configuration parameters without user intervention and incorporate those parameters into its own configuration. o Networks should require no manual configuration for individual clients. Under normal circumstances, the network manager should not have to enter any per-client configuration parameters. o DHCP should not require a server on each subnet. To allow for scale and economy, DHCP must work across routers or through the intervention of BOOTP relay agents. o A DHCP client must be prepared to receive multiple responses to a request for configuration parameters. Some installations may include multiple, overlapping DHCP servers to enhance reliability and increase performance. o DHCP must coexist with statically configured, non-participating hosts and with existing network protocol implementations. o DHCP must interoperate with the BOOTP relay agent behavior as described by RFC 951 and by RFC 1542 [21]. o DHCP must provide service to existing BOOTP clients. The following list gives design goals specific to the transmission of the network layer parameters. DHCP must: o Guarantee that any specific network address will not be in use by more than one DHCP client at a time, o Retain DHCP client configuration across DHCP client reboot. A DHCP client should, whenever possible, be assigned the same configuration parameters (e.g., network address) in response to each request, o Retain DHCP client configuration across server reboots, and, whenever possible, a DHCP client should be assigned the same configuration parameters despite restarts of the DHCP mechanism, o Allow automated assignment of configuration parameters to new clients to avoid hand configuration for new clients, o Support fixed or permanent allocation of configuration parameters to specific clients. Droms Standards Track [Page 7] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 2. Protocol Summary From the client's point of view, DHCP is an extension of the BOOTP mechanism. This behavior allows existing BOOTP clients to interoperate with DHCP servers without requiring any change to the clients' initialization software. RFC 1542 [2] details the interactions between BOOTP and DHCP clients and servers [9]. There are some new, optional transactions that optimize the interaction between DHCP clients and servers that are described in sections 3 and 4. Figure 1 gives the format of a DHCP message and table 1 describes each of the fields in the DHCP message. The numbers in parentheses indicate the size of each field in octets. The names for the fields given in the figure will be used throughout this document to refer to the fields in DHCP messages. There are two primary differences between DHCP and BOOTP. First, DHCP defines mechanisms through which clients can be assigned a network address for a finite lease, allowing for serial reassignment of network addresses to different clients. Second, DHCP provides the mechanism for a client to acquire all of the IP configuration parameters that it needs in order to operate. DHCP introduces a small change in terminology intended to clarify the meaning of one of the fields. What was the "vendor extensions" field in BOOTP has been re-named the "options" field in DHCP. Similarly, the tagged data items that were used inside the BOOTP "vendor extensions" field, which were formerly referred to as "vendor extensions," are now termed simply "options." Droms Standards Track [Page 8] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | op (1) | htype (1) | hlen (1) | hops (1) | +---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+ | xid (4) | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | secs (2) | flags (2) | +-------------------------------+-------------------------------+ | ciaddr (4) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | yiaddr (4) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | siaddr (4) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | giaddr (4) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | chaddr (16) | | | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | sname (64) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | file (128) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | options (variable) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Figure 1: Format of a DHCP message DHCP defines a new 'client identifier' option that is used to pass an explicit client identifier to a DHCP server. This change eliminates the overloading of the 'chaddr' field in BOOTP messages, where 'chaddr' is used both as a hardware address for transmission of BOOTP reply messages and as a client identifier. The 'client identifier' is an opaque key, not to be interpreted by the server; for example, the 'client identifier' may contain a hardware address, identical to the contents of the 'chaddr' field, or it may contain another type of identifier, such as a DNS name. The 'client identifier' chosen by a DHCP client MUST be unique to that client within the subnet to which the client is attached. If the client uses a 'client identifier' in one message, it MUST use that same identifier in all subsequent messages, to ensure that all servers correctly identify the client. Droms Standards Track [Page 9] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 DHCP clarifies the interpretation of the 'siaddr' field as the address of the server to use in the next step of the client's bootstrap process. A DHCP server may return its own address in the 'siaddr' field, if the server is prepared to supply the next bootstrap service (e.g., delivery of an operating system executable image). A DHCP server always returns its own address in the 'server identifier' option. FIELD OCTETS DESCRIPTION ----- ------ ----------- op 1 Message op code / message type. 1 = BOOTREQUEST, 2 = BOOTREPLY htype 1 Hardware address type, see ARP section in "Assigned Numbers" RFC; e.g., '1' = 10mb ethernet. hlen 1 Hardware address length (e.g. '6' for 10mb ethernet). hops 1 Client sets to zero, optionally used by relay agents when booting via a relay agent. xid 4 Transaction ID, a random number chosen by the client, used by the client and server to associate messages and responses between a client and a server. secs 2 Filled in by client, seconds elapsed since client began address acquisition or renewal process. flags 2 Flags (see figure 2). ciaddr 4 Client IP address; only filled in if client is in BOUND, RENEW or REBINDING state and can respond to ARP requests. yiaddr 4 'your' (client) IP address. siaddr 4 IP address of next server to use in bootstrap; returned in DHCPOFFER, DHCPACK by server. giaddr 4 Relay agent IP address, used in booting via a relay agent. chaddr 16 Client hardware address. sname 64 Optional server host name, null terminated string. file 128 Boot file name, null terminated string; "generic" name or null in DHCPDISCOVER, fully qualified directory-path name in DHCPOFFER. options var Optional parameters field. See the options documents for a list of defined options. Table 1: Description of fields in a DHCP message The 'options' field is now variable length. A DHCP client must be prepared to receive DHCP messages with an 'options' field of at least length 312 octets. This requirement implies that a DHCP client must be prepared to receive a message of up to 576 octets, the minimum IP Droms Standards Track [Page 10] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 datagram size an IP host must be prepared to accept [3]. DHCP clients may negotiate the use of larger DHCP messages through the 'maximum DHCP message size' option. The options field may be further extended into the 'file' and 'sname' fields. In the case of a client using DHCP for initial configuration (before the client's TCP/IP software has been completely configured), DHCP requires creative use of the client's TCP/IP software and liberal interpretation of RFC 1122. The TCP/IP software SHOULD accept and forward to the IP layer any IP packets delivered to the client's hardware address before the IP address is configured; DHCP servers and BOOTP relay agents may not be able to deliver DHCP messages to clients that cannot accept hardware unicast datagrams before the TCP/IP software is configured. To work around some clients that cannot accept IP unicast datagrams before the TCP/IP software is configured as discussed in the previous paragraph, DHCP uses the 'flags' field [21]. The leftmost bit is defined as the BROADCAST (B) flag. The semantics of this flag are discussed in section 4.1 of this document. The remaining bits of the flags field are reserved for future use. They MUST be set to zero by clients and ignored by servers and relay agents. Figure 2 gives the format of the 'flags' field. 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |B| MBZ | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ B: BROADCAST flag MBZ: MUST BE ZERO (reserved for future use) Figure 2: Format of the 'flags' field 2.1 Configuration parameters repository The first service provided by DHCP is to provide persistent storage of network parameters for network clients. The model of DHCP persistent storage is that the DHCP service stores a key-value entry for each client, where the key is some unique identifier (for example, an IP subnet number and a unique identifier within the subnet) and the value contains the configuration parameters for the client. For example, the key might be the pair (IP-subnet-number, hardware- address) (note that the "hardware-address" should be typed by the Droms Standards Track [Page 11] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 type of hardware to accommodate possible duplication of hardware addresses resulting from bit-ordering problems in a mixed-media, bridged network) allowing for serial or concurrent reuse of a hardware address on different subnets, and for hardware addresses that may not be globally unique. Alternately, the key might be the pair (IP-subnet-number, hostname), allowing the server to assign parameters intelligently to a DHCP client that has been moved to a different subnet or has changed hardware addresses (perhaps because the network interface failed and was replaced). The protocol defines that the key will be (IP-subnet-number, hardware-address) unless the client explicitly supplies an identifier using the 'client identifier' option. A client can query the DHCP service to retrieve its configuration parameters. The client interface to the configuration parameters repository consists of protocol messages to request configuration parameters and responses from the server carrying the configuration parameters. 2.2 Dynamic allocation of network addresses The second service provided by DHCP is the allocation of temporary or permanent network (IP) addresses to clients. The basic mechanism for the dynamic allocation of network addresses is simple: a client requests the use of an address for some period of time. The allocation mechanism (the collection of DHCP servers) guarantees not to reallocate that address within the requested time and attempts to return the same network address each time the client requests an address. In this document, the period over which a network address is allocated to a client is referred to as a "lease" [11]. The client may extend its lease with subsequent requests. The client may issue a message to release the address back to the server when the client no longer needs the address. The client may ask for a permanent assignment by asking for an infinite lease. Even when assigning "permanent" addresses, a server may choose to give out lengthy but non-infinite leases to allow detection of the fact that the client has been retired. In some environments it will be necessary to reassign network addresses due to exhaustion of available addresses. In such environments, the allocation mechanism will reuse addresses whose lease has expired. The server should use whatever information is available in the configuration information repository to choose an address to reuse. For example, the server may choose the least recently assigned address. As a consistency check, the allocating server SHOULD probe the reused address before allocating the address, e.g., with an ICMP echo request, and the client SHOULD probe the newly received address, e.g., with ARP. Droms Standards Track [Page 12] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 3. The Client-Server Protocol DHCP uses the BOOTP message format defined in RFC 951 and given in table 1 and figure 1. The 'op' field of each DHCP message sent from a client to a server contains BOOTREQUEST. BOOTREPLY is used in the 'op' field of each DHCP message sent from a server to a client. The first four octets of the 'options' field of the DHCP message contain the (decimal) values 99, 130, 83 and 99, respectively (this is the same magic cookie as is defined in RFC 1497 [17]). The remainder of the 'options' field consists of a list of tagged parameters that are called "options". All of the "vendor extensions" listed in RFC 1497 are also DHCP options. RFC 1533 gives the complete set of options defined for use with DHCP. Several options have been defined so far. One particular option - the "DHCP message type" option - must be included in every DHCP message. This option defines the "type" of the DHCP message. Additional options may be allowed, required, or not allowed, depending on the DHCP message type. Throughout this document, DHCP messages that include a 'DHCP message type' option will be referred to by the type of the message; e.g., a DHCP message with 'DHCP message type' option type 1 will be referred to as a "DHCPDISCOVER" message. 3.1 Client-server interaction - allocating a network address The following summary of the protocol exchanges between clients and servers refers to the DHCP messages described in table 2. The timeline diagram in figure 3 shows the timing relationships in a typical client-server interaction. If the client already knows its address, some steps may be omitted; this abbreviated interaction is described in section 3.2. 1. The client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message on its local physical subnet. The DHCPDISCOVER message MAY include options that suggest values for the network address and lease duration. BOOTP relay agents may pass the message on to DHCP servers not on the same physical subnet. 2. Each server may respond with a DHCPOFFER message that includes an available network address in the 'yiaddr' field (and other configuration parameters in DHCP options). Servers need not reserve the offered network address, although the protocol will work more efficiently if the server avoids allocating the offered network address to another client. When allocating a new address, servers SHOULD check that the offered network address is not Droms Standards Track [Page 13] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 already in use; e.g., the server may probe the offered address with an ICMP Echo Request. Servers SHOULD be implemented so that network administrators MAY choose to disable probes of newly allocated addresses. The server transmits the DHCPOFFER message to the client, using the BOOTP relay agent if necessary. Message Use ------- --- DHCPDISCOVER - Client broadcast to locate available servers. DHCPOFFER - Server to client in response to DHCPDISCOVER with offer of configuration parameters. DHCPREQUEST - Client message to servers either (a) requesting offered parameters from one server and implicitly declining offers from all others, (b) confirming correctness of previously allocated address after, e.g., system reboot, or (c) extending the lease on a particular network address. DHCPACK - Server to client with configuration parameters, including committed network address. DHCPNAK - Server to client indicating client's notion of network address is incorrect (e.g., client has moved to new subnet) or client's lease as expired DHCPDECLINE - Client to server indicating network address is already in use. DHCPRELEASE - Client to server relinquishing network address and cancelling remaining lease. DHCPINFORM - Client to server, asking only for local configuration parameters; client already has externally configured network address. Table 2: DHCP messages Droms Standards Track [Page 14] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 Server Client Server (not selected) (selected) v v v | | | | Begins initialization | | | | | _____________/|\____________ | |/DHCPDISCOVER | DHCPDISCOVER \| | | | Determines | Determines configuration | configuration | | | |\ | ____________/ | | \________ | /DHCPOFFER | | DHCPOFFER\ |/ | | \ | | | Collects replies | | \| | | Selects configuration | | | | | _____________/|\____________ | |/ DHCPREQUEST | DHCPREQUEST\ | | | | | | Commits configuration | | | | | _____________/| | |/ DHCPACK | | | | | Initialization complete | | | | . . . . . . | | | | Graceful shutdown | | | | | |\ ____________ | | | DHCPRELEASE \| | | | | | Discards lease | | | v v v Figure 3: Timeline diagram of messages exchanged between DHCP client and servers when allocating a new network address Droms Standards Track [Page 15] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 3. The client receives one or more DHCPOFFER messages from one or more servers. The client may choose to wait for multiple responses. The client chooses one server from which to request configuration parameters, based on the configuration parameters offered in the DHCPOFFER messages. The client broadcasts a DHCPREQUEST message that MUST include the 'server identifier' option to indicate which server it has selected, and that MAY include other options specifying desired configuration values. The 'requested IP address' option MUST be set to the value of 'yiaddr' in the DHCPOFFER message from the server. This DHCPREQUEST message is broadcast and relayed through DHCP/BOOTP relay agents. To help ensure that any BOOTP relay agents forward the DHCPREQUEST message to the same set of DHCP servers that received the original DHCPDISCOVER message, the DHCPREQUEST message MUST use the same value in the DHCP message header's 'secs' field and be sent to the same IP broadcast address as the original DHCPDISCOVER message. The client times out and retransmits the DHCPDISCOVER message if the client receives no DHCPOFFER messages. 4. The servers receive the DHCPREQUEST broadcast from the client. Those servers not selected by the DHCPREQUEST message use the message as notification that the client has declined that server's offer. The server selected in the DHCPREQUEST message commits the binding for the client to persistent storage and responds with a DHCPACK message containing the configuration parameters for the requesting client. The combination of 'client identifier' or 'chaddr' and assigned network address constitute a unique identifier for the client's lease and are used by both the client and server to identify a lease referred to in any DHCP messages. Any configuration parameters in the DHCPACK message SHOULD NOT conflict with those in the earlier DHCPOFFER message to which the client is responding. The server SHOULD NOT check the offered network address at this point. The 'yiaddr' field in the DHCPACK messages is filled in with the selected network address. If the selected server is unable to satisfy the DHCPREQUEST message (e.g., the requested network address has been allocated), the server SHOULD respond with a DHCPNAK message. A server MAY choose to mark addresses offered to clients in DHCPOFFER messages as unavailable. The server SHOULD mark an address offered to a client in a DHCPOFFER message as available if the server receives no DHCPREQUEST message from that client. 5. The client receives the DHCPACK message with configuration parameters. The client SHOULD perform a final check on the parameters (e.g., ARP for allocated network address), and notes the duration of the lease specified in the DHCPACK message. At this Droms Standards Track [Page 16] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 point, the client is configured. If the client detects that the address is already in use (e.g., through the use of ARP), the client MUST send a DHCPDECLINE message to the server and restarts the configuration process. The client SHOULD wait a minimum of ten seconds before restarting the configuration process to avoid excessive network traffic in case of looping. If the client receives a DHCPNAK message, the client restarts the configuration process. The client times out and retransmits the DHCPREQUEST message if the client receives neither a DHCPACK or a DHCPNAK message. The client retransmits the DHCPREQUEST according to the retransmission algorithm in section 4.1. The client should choose to retransmit the DHCPREQUEST enough times to give adequate probability of contacting the server without causing the client (and the user of that client) to wait overly long before giving up; e.g., a client retransmitting as described in section 4.1 might retransmit the DHCPREQUEST message four times, for a total delay of 60 seconds, before restarting the initialization procedure. If the client receives neither a DHCPACK or a DHCPNAK message after employing the retransmission algorithm, the client reverts to INIT state and restarts the initialization process. The client SHOULD notify the user that the initialization process has failed and is restarting. 6. The client may choose to relinquish its lease on a network address by sending a DHCPRELEASE message to the server. The client identifies the lease to be released with its 'client identifier', or 'chaddr' and network address in the DHCPRELEASE message. If the client used a 'client identifier' when it obtained the lease, it MUST use the same 'client identifier' in the DHCPRELEASE message. 3.2 Client-server interaction - reusing a previously allocated network address If a client remembers and wishes to reuse a previously allocated network address, a client may choose to omit some of the steps described in the previous section. The timeline diagram in figure 4 shows the timing relationships in a typical client-server interaction for a client reusing a previously allocated network address. Droms Standards Track [Page 17] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 1. The client broadcasts a DHCPREQUEST message on its local subnet. The message includes the client's network address in the 'requested IP address' option. As the client has not received its network address, it MUST NOT fill in the 'ciaddr' field. BOOTP relay agents pass the message on to DHCP servers not on the same subnet. If the client used a 'client identifier' to obtain its address, the client MUST use the same 'client identifier' in the DHCPREQUEST message. 2. Servers with knowledge of the client's configuration parameters respond with a DHCPACK message to the client. Servers SHOULD NOT check that the client's network address is already in use; the client may respond to ICMP Echo Request messages at this point. Server Client Server v v v | | | | Begins | | initialization | | | | | /|\ | | _________ __/ | \__________ | | /DHCPREQU EST | DHCPREQUEST\ | |/ | \| | | | Locates | Locates configuration | configuration | | | |\ | /| | \ | ___________/ | | \ | / DHCPACK | | \ _______ |/ | | DHCPACK\ | | | Initialization | | complete | | \| | | | | | (Subsequent | | DHCPACKS | | ignored) | | | | | | | v v v Figure 4: Timeline diagram of messages exchanged between DHCP client and servers when reusing a previously allocated network address Droms Standards Track [Page 18] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol March 1997 If the client's request is invalid (e.g., the client has moved to a new subnet), servers SHOULD respond with a DHCPNAK message to the client. Servers SHOULD NOT respond if their information is not guaranteed to be accurate. For example, a server that identifies a request for an expired binding that is owned by another server SHOULD NOT respond with a DHCPNAK unless the servers are using an explicit mechanism to maintain coherency among the servers. If 'giaddr' is 0x0 in the DHCPREQUEST message, the client is on the same subnet as the server. The server MUST broadcast the DHCPNAK message to the 0xffffffff broadcast address because the client may not have a correct network address or subnet mask, and the client may not be answering ARP requests. Otherwise, the server MUST send the DHCPNAK message to the IP address of the BOOTP relay agent, as recorded in 'giaddr'. The relay agent will, in turn, forward the message directly to the client's hardware address, so that the DHCPNAK can be delivered even if the client has moved to a new network. 3. The client receives the DHCPACK message with configuration parameters. The client performs a final check on the parameters (as in section 3.1), and notes the duration of the lease specified in the DHCPACK message. The specific lease is implicitly identified by the 'client identifier' or 'chaddr' and the network address. At this point, the client is configured. If the client detects that the IP address in the DHCPACK message is already in use, the client MUST send a DHCPDECLINE message to the server and restarts the configuration process by requesting a new network address. This action corresponds to the client moving to the INIT state in the DHCP state diagram, which is described in section 4.4. If the client receives a DHCPNAK message, it cannot reuse its remembered network address. It must instead request a new address by restarting the configuration process, this time using the (non-abbreviated) procedure described in section 3.1. This action also corresponds to the client moving to the INIT state in the DHCP state diagram. The client times out and retransmits the DHCPREQUEST message if the client receives neither a DHCPACK nor a DHCPNAK message. The client retransmits the DHCPREQUEST according to the retransmission algorithm in section 4.1. The client should choose to retransmit the DHCPREQUEST enough times to give adequate probability of contacting the server without causing the client (and the user of that client) to wait overly long before giving up; e.g., a client retransmitting as described in section 4.1 might retransmit the Droms Standards Track [Page 19] RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Proto