Dell PowerConnect 8100 CLI Reference Guide - Page 953

45 DHCP Server and Relay Agent Commands DHCP is based on the Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP). It also captures the behavior of BOOTP relay agents and DHCP participants can inter operate with BOOTP participants. The host RFC's standardize the configuration parameters which can be supplied by the DHCP server to the client. After obtaining parameters via DHCP, a DHCP client should be able to exchange packets with any other host in the Internet. DHCP is based on a client-server model. DHCP consists of the following components: • A protocol for delivering host-specific configuration parameters from a DHCP server to a host. • A mechanism for allocation of network addresses to hosts. DHCP offers the following features and benefits: • It supports the definition of "pools" of IP addresses that can be allocated to clients by the server. Many implementations use the term scope instead of pool. • Configuration settings like the subnet mask, default router, DNS server, that are required to make TCP/ IP work correctly can be passed to the client using DHCP. • DHCP is supported by most TCP/ IP routers this allows it to allocate an IP address according to the subnet the original request came from. This means that a single DHCP server can be used in multiple subnets and that there is no need to reconfigure a client that changed subnets. • Addresses can be leased out for a specific duration after which they need to be explicitly renewed. This allows DHCP to reclaim expired addresses and put back in the unallocated pool. DHCP Server and Relay Agent Commands 953