Users Guide

Auto Config sequence

1. Create or modify the XML file that configures the attributes of Dell servers.

2. Place the XML file in a share location that is accessible by the DHCP server and all the Dell servers

that are assigned IP address from the DHCP server.

3. Specify the XML file location in vendor-option 43 field of DHCP server.

4. The iDRAC as part of acquiring IP address advertises vendor class identifier iDRAC. (Option 60)

5. The DHCP server matches the vendor class to the vendor option in the dhcpd.conf file and sends the

XML file location and XML file name to the iDRAC.

6. The iDRAC processes the XML file and configures all the attributes listed in the file

DHCP options

DHCPv4 allows a large number of globally defined parameters to be passed to the DHCP clients. Each

parameter is known as a DHCP option. Each option is identified with an option tag, which is a 1 byte

value. Option tags 0 and 255 are reserved for padding and end of options, respectively. All other values

are available for defining options.

The DHCP Option 43 is used to send information from the DHCP server to the DHCP client. The option is

defined as a text string. This text string is set to contain the values of the XML filename, share location and

the credentials to access the location. For example,

option myname code 43 = text;

option myname "-l 10.35.175.88://xmlfiles –f dhcpProv.xml -u root -p calvin";

where, -l is the location of the Remote File Share and –f is the file name in the string along with the

credentials to the Remote File Share. In this example, root and calvin are the username and password to

the RFS.

The DHCP Option 60 identifies and associates a DHCP client with a particular vendor. Any DHCP server

configured to take action based on a client’s vendor ID should have Option 60 and Option 43 configured.

With Dell PowerEdge servers, the iDRAC identifies itself with vendor ID: iDRAC. Therefore, you must add a

new ‘Vendor Class’ and create a ‘scope option’ under it for ‘code 60,’ and then enable the new scope

option for the DHCP server.