BLADE OS™ Application Guide HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem Version 5.1 Advanced Functionality Software

Table Of Contents
BLADE OS 5.1 Application Guide
BMD00113, September 2009 Chapter 1: Accessing the Switch 39
Use the following commands to configure the switch as a BOOTP relay agent:
Use the following command to enable the Relay functionality on an IP interface:
DHCP Relay Agent
DHCP Relay Agent Overview
DHCP is described in RFC 2131, and the DHCP relay agent supported on the GbE2c is described in
RFC 1542. DHCP uses UDP as its transport protocol. The client sends messages to the server on
port 67 and the server sends messages to the client on port 68.
DHCP defines the methods through which clients can be assigned an IP address for a finite lease
period and allowing reassignment of the IP address to another client later. Additionally, DHCP
provides the mechanism for a client to gather other IP configuration parameters it needs to operate
in the TCP/IP network.
In the DHCP environment, the switch acts as a relay agent. The DHCP relay feature
(/cfg/l3/bootp) enables the switch to forward a client request for an IP address to two BOOTP
servers with IP addresses that have been configured on the switch.
When a switch receives a UDP broadcast on port 67 from a DHCP client requesting an IP address,
the switch acts as a proxy for the client, replacing the client source IP (SIP) and destination IP (DIP)
addresses. The request is then forwarded as a UDP Unicast MAC layer message to two BOOTP
servers whose IP addresses are configured on the switch. The servers respond as a a UDP Unicast
message back to the switch, with the default gateway and IP address for the client. The destination
IP address in the server response represents the interface address on the switch that received the
client request. This interface address tells the switch on which VLAN to send the server response to
the client.
>> # /cfg/l3/bootp
>> Bootstrap Protocol Relay# addr <IP address> (IP address of BOOTP server)
>> Bootstrap Protocol Relay# addr2 <IP address> (IP address of 2nd BOOTP server)
>> Bootstrap Protocol Relay# on (Globally turn BOOTP relay on)
>> Bootstrap Protocol Relay# off (Globally turn BOOTP relay off)
>> Bootstrap Protocol Relay# cur (Display current configuration)
>> # /cfg/l3/if <interface number>/relay ena