Softpanorama

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
Home Switchboard Unix Administration Red Hat TCP/IP Networks Neoliberalism Toxic Managers
(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and  bastardization of classic Unix

Solaris DHCP Client

News

DHCP Protocol

Solaris books Recommended Links DHCP Server Selected Solaris man pages Reference
DHCP security       History Humor  Etc

The Solaris DHCP client is a daemon (dhcpagent ). DHCP clients from other vendors can also use the services of the Solaris DHCP server.

The DHCP client’s process ( dhcpagent ):

The Solaris DHCP client is installed and enabled on a system during installation of the Solaris when you specify that you want to use DHCP to configure network interfaces.

DHCP Client Startup

The dhcpagent daemon obtains configuration information that is needed by other processes involved in booting the system. For this reason, dhcpagent is started early in the boot process by the system startup scripts; booting is suspended until the network configuration information is obtained or timeout occurs. 

The presence of the file /etc/dhcp.interface (for example, /etc/dhcp.hme0) indicates to the startup scripts that DHCP is to be used on the specified interface. Upon finding a dhcp.interface file, the startup scripts start the dhcpagent .

After starting up, dhcpagent waits until it receives instructions to configure a network interface.

The startup scripts issue the ifconfig interface dhcp start command, which instructs dhcpagent to start DHCP. If commands are contained within the dhcp.interface file, they are appended to the dhcp start option of ifconfig . See the ifconfig  man page for more information about options used with dhcp .

How DHCP Client Manages Network Configuration Information

After the information packet is obtained from a DHCP server, dhcpagent configures the network interface and brings it up, controlling the interface for the duration of the lease time for the IP address. dhcpagent maintains the configuration data in an internal table held in memory.

The system startup scripts use the dhcpinfo command to extract configuration option values from the dhcpagent ’s table.

The values are used in configuring the system and becoming part of the network.

The agent waits passively until a set period elapses (usually half the lease time) and then requests an extension of the lease from a DHCP server.

If dhcpagent finds that the interface is down or the IP address has changed, it does not control the interface until it is instructed by ifconfig to do so.

If dhcpagent finds that the interface is up and the IP address hasn’t changed, it sends a request to the server for a lease renewal. If the lease cannot be renewed, dhcpagent takes the interface down at the end of the lease time.

DHCP Client Management

The Solaris DHCP client does not need to be managed under normal system operation. It automatically starts when the system boots, renegotiates leases, and stops when the system shuts down. You cannot manually start and stop the dhcpagent daemon.

However, you can use the ifconfig command as superuser on the client machine to affect the client’s management of the network interface if necessary.

ifconfig Commands Used With DHCP Client

The ifconfig command lets you:

DHCP Client Parameter File

The file /etc/default/dhcpagent on the client system contains tunable parameters for dhcpagent . You can use a text editor to change several parameters that affect client operation.

The file is well-documented so please refer to the file for more information about the parameters.

DHCP Client Shutdown

When the system running the DHCP client shuts down normally, the dhcpagent daemon writes the current configuration information to the file /etc/dhcp/ interface.dhc .

The lease is dropped rather than released, so the DHCP server does not know that the IP address is not in active use. If the lease is still valid when the system is rebooted, the DHCP client sends an abbreviated request to use the same IP address and network configuration information it had used before the system was rebooted. If the DHCP server permits this, the client can use the information that it wrote to disk when the system shut down. If the server does not permit using the information, the client initiates the DHCP protocol sequence described previously and obtains new network configuration information.

DHCP Clients With Multiple Network Interfaces

The DHCP client daemon can manage several different interfaces on one system simultaneously, each with its own IP address and lease time. If more than one network interface is configured for DHCP, the client issues separate requests to configure them and maintains a separate set of network configuration options for each interface.

However, although the parameters are stored separately, some of the parameters are global in nature, applying to the system as a whole, rather than to a particular network interface. Options such as hostname, NIS domain name, and timezone are global parameters and should have the same values for each interface, but it might not be the case due to errors in the information entered by the DHCP administrator. To ensure that there is only one answer to a query for a global parameter, only the parameters for the primary network interface are requested. You can insert the word primary in the /etc/dhcp. interface file for the interface you want to be treated as the primary interface.

You can use DHCP services in a network you are creating, or in an existing network.

If you are setting up a network, see Chapter 5 before attempting to set up DHCP services. If you have an existing network, continue in this chapter.

This chapter describes what you need to do before setting up DHCP service on your network.

The planning information is targeted for use with DHCP Manager, although you can also use the command-line utility dhcpconfig to set up DHCP service.



Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotesSomerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose BierceBernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOSProgramming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC developmentScripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-MonthHow to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D


Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.

This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...

You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site

Disclaimer:

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last Modified: June 13, 2021