dhcpagent(1M) System Administration Commands dhcpagent(1M)
NAME
dhcpagent - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client daemon
SYNOPSIS
dhcpagent [-a] [ -d n] [-f] [-v]
DESCRIPTION
dhcpagent implements the client half of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for machines running Solaris software.
The dhcpagent daemon obtains configuration parameters for the client (local) machine's network interfaces from a DHCP server. These parame-
ters may include a lease on an IP address, which gives the client machine use of the address for the period of the lease, which may be
infinite. If the client wishes to use the IP address for a period longer than the lease, it must negotiate an extension using DHCP. For
this reason, dhcpagent must run as a daemon, terminating only when the client machine powers down.
For IPv4, the dhcpagent daemon is controlled through ifconfig(1M) in much the same way that the init(1M) daemon is controlled by
telinit(1M). dhcpagent can be invoked as a user process, albeit one requiring root privileges, but this is not necessary, as ifconfig(1M)
will start it automatically.
For IPv6, the dhcpagent daemon is invoked automatically by in.ndpd(1M). It can also be controlled through ifconfig(1M), if necessary.
When invoked, dhcpagent enters a passive state while it awaits instructions from ifconfig(1M) or in.ndpd(1M). When it receives a command to
configure an interface, it brings up the interface (if necessary) and starts DHCP. Once DHCP is complete, dhcpagent can be queried for the
values of the various network parameters. In addition, if DHCP was used to obtain a lease on an address for an interface, it configures the
address for use. When a lease is obtained, it is automatically renewed as necessary. If the lease cannot be renewed, dhcpagent will uncon-
figure the address, but the interface will be left up and dhcpagent will attempt to acquire a new address lease. dhcpagent monitors system
suspend/resume events and will validate any non-permanent leases with the DHCP server upon resume. Similarly, dhcpagent monitors link
up/down events and will validate any non-permanent leases with the DHCP server when the downed link is brought back up.
For IPv4, if the configured interface is found to be unplumbed, or to have a different IP address, subnet mask, or broadcast address from
those obtained from DHCP, the interface is abandoned from DHCP control.
For IPv6, dhcpagent automatically plumbs and unplumbs logical interfaces as necessary for the IPv6 addresses supplied by the server. The
IPv6 prefix length (netmask) is not set by the DHCPv6 protocol, but is instead set by in.ndpd(1M) using prefix information obtained by
Router Advertisements. If any of the logical interfaces created by dhcpagent is unplumbed, or configured with a different IP address, it
will be abandoned from DHCP control. If the link-local interface is unplumbed, then all addresses configured by DHCP on that physical
interface will be removed.
In addition to DHCP, dhcpagent also supports BOOTP (IPv4 only). See RFC 951, Bootstrap Protocol. Configuration parameters obtained from a
BOOTP server are treated identically to those received from a DHCP server, except that the IP address received from a BOOTP server always
has an infinite lease.
DHCP also acts as a mechanism to configure other information needed by the client, for example, the domain name and addresses of routers.
Aside from the IP address, and for IPv4 alone, the netmask, broadcast address, and default router, the agent does not directly configure
the workstation, but instead acts as a database which may be interrogated by other programs, and in particular by dhcpinfo(1).
On clients with a single interface, this is quite straightforward. Clients with multiple interfaces may present difficulties, as it is pos-
sible that some information arriving on different interfaces may need to be merged, or may be inconsistent. Furthermore, the configuration
of the interfaces is asynchronous, so requests may arrive while some or all of the interfaces are still unconfigured. To handle these
cases, one interface may be designated as primary, which makes it the authoritative source for the values of DHCP parameters in the case
where no specific interface is requested. See dhcpinfo(1) and ifconfig(1M) for details.
For IPv4, the dhcpagent daemon can be configured to request a particular host name. See the REQUEST_HOSTNAME description in the FILES sec-
tion. When first configuring a client to request a host name, you must perform the following steps as root to ensure that the full DHCP
negotiation takes place:
# pkill dhcpagent
# rm /etc/dhcp/interface.dhc
# reboot
All DHCP packets sent by dhcpagent include a vendor class identifier (RFC 2132, option code 60; RFC 3315, option code 16). This identifier
is the same as the platform name returned by the uname -i command, except:
o Any commas in the platform name are changed to periods.
o If the name does not start with a stock symbol and a comma, it is automatically prefixed with SUNW.
Messages
The dhcpagent daemon writes information and error messages in five categories:
critical
Critical messages indicate severe conditions that prevent proper operation.
errors
Error messages are important, sometimes unrecoverable events due to resource exhaustion and other unexpected failure of system calls;
ignoring errors may lead to degraded functionality.
warnings
Warnings indicate less severe problems, and in most cases, describe unusual or incorrect datagrams received from servers, or requests
for service that cannot be provided.
informational
Informational messages provide key pieces of information that can be useful to debugging a DHCP configuration at a site. Informational
messages are generally controlled by the -v option. However, certain critical pieces of information, such as the IP address obtained,
are always provided.
debug
Debugging messages, which may be generated at two different levels of verbosity, are chiefly of benefit to persons having access to
source code, but may be useful as well in debugging difficult DHCP configuration problems. Debugging messages are only generated when
using the -d option.
When dhcpagent is run without the -f option, all messages are sent to the system logger syslog(3C) at the appropriate matching priority and
with a facility identifier LOG_DAEMON. When dhcpagent is run with the -f option, all messages are directed to standard error.
DHCP Events and User-Defined Actions
If an executable (binary or script) is placed at /etc/dhcp/eventhook, the dhcpagent deamon will automatically run that program when any of
the following events occur:
BOUND and BOUND6
These events occur during interface configuration. The event program is invoked when dhcpagent receives the DHCPv4 ACK or DHCPv6 Reply
message from the DHCP server for the lease request of an address, indicating successful initial configuration of the interface. (See
also the INFORM and INFORM6 events, which occur when configuration parameters are obtained without address leases.)
EXTEND and EXTEND6
These events occur during lease extension. The event program is invoked just after dhcpagent receives the DHCPv4 ACK or DHCPv6 Reply
from the DHCP server for the DHCPv4 REQUEST (renew) message or the DHCPv6 Renew or Rebind message.
Note that with DHCPv6, the server might choose to remove some addresses, add new address leases, and ignore (allow to expire) still
other addresses in a given Reply message. The EXTEND6 event occurs when a Reply is received that leaves one or more address leases
still valid, even if the Reply message does not extend the lease for any address. The event program is invoked just before any
addresses are removed, but just after any new addresses are added. Those to be removed will be marked with the IFF_DEPRECATED flag.
EXPIRE and EXPIRE6
These events occur during lease expiration. For DHCPv4, the event program is invoked just before the leased address is removed from an
interface. For DHCPv6, the event program is invoked just before the last remaining leased addresses are removed from the interface.
DROP and DROP6
These events occur during the period when an interface is dropped. The event program is invoked just before the interface is removed
from DHCP control. If the interface has been abandoned due the user unplumbing the interface, then this event will occur after the
user's action has taken place. The interface might not be present.
INFORM and INFORM6
These events occur when an interface acquires new or updated configuration information from a DHCP server by means of the DHCPv4 INFORM
or the DHCPv6 Information-Request message. These messages are sent using an ifconfig(1M) dhcp inform command or when the DHCPv6 Router
Advertisement O (letter 0) bit is set and the M bit is not set. Thus, these events occur when the DHCP client does not obtain an IP
address lease from the server, and instead obtains only configuration parameters.
LOSS6
This event occurs during lease expiration when one or more valid leases still remain. The event program is invoked just before expired
addresses are removed. Those being removed will be marked with the IFF_DEPRECATED flag.
Note that this event is not associated with the receipt of the Reply message, which occurs only when one or more valid leases remain,
and occurs only with DHCPv6. If all leases have expired, then the EXPIRE6 event occurs instead.
RELEASE and RELEASE6
This event occurs during the period when a leased address is released. The event program is invoked just before dhcpagent relinquishes
the address on an interface and sends the DHCPv4 RELEASE or DHCPv6 Release packet to the DHCP server.
The system does not provide a default event program. The file /etc/dhcp/eventhook is expected to be owned by root and have a mode of 755.
The event program will be passed two arguments, the interface name and the event name, respectively. For DHCPv6, the interface name is the
name of the physical interface.
The event program can use the dhcpinfo(1) utility to fetch additional information about the interface. While the event program is invoked
on every event defined above, it can ignore those events in which it is not interested. The event program runs with the same privileges and
environment as dhcpagent itself, except that stdin, stdout, and stderr are redirected to /dev/null. Note that this means that the event
program runs with root privileges.
If an invocation of the event program does not exit after 55 seconds, it is sent a SIGTERM signal. If does not exit within the next three
seconds, it is terminated by a SIGKILL signal.
See EXAMPLES for an example event program.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a
Adopt a configured IPv4 interface. This option is for use with diskless DHCP clients. In the case of diskless DHCP, DHCP has already
been performed on the network interface providing the operating system image prior to running dhcpagent. This option instructs the
agent to take over control of the interface. It is intended primarily for use in boot scripts.
The effect of this option depends on whether the interface is being adopted.
If the interface is being adopted, the following conditions apply:
dhcpagent uses the client id specified in /chosen:<client_id>, as published by the PROM or as specified on a boot(1M) command line. If
this value is not present, the client id is undefined. The DHCP server then determines what to use as a client id. It is an error con-
dition if the interface is an Infiniband interface and the PROM value is not present.
If the interface is not being adopted:
dhcpagent uses the value stored in /etc/default/dhcpagent. If this value is not present, the client id is undefined. If the interface
is Infiniband and there is no value in /etc/default/dhcpagent, a client id is generated as described by the draft document on DHCP over
Infiniband, available at:
http://www.ietf.org
-d n
Set debug level to n. Two levels of debugging are currently available, 1 and 2; the latter is more verbose.
-f
Run in the foreground instead of as a daemon process. When this option is used, messages are sent to standard error instead of to sys-
log(3C).
-v
Provide verbose output useful for debugging site configuration problems.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Example Event Program
The following script is stored in the file /etc/dhcp/eventhook, owned by root with a mode of 755. It is invoked upon the occurrence of the
events listed in the file.
#!/bin/sh
(
echo "Interface name: " $1
echo "Event: " $2
case $2 in
"BOUND")
echo "Address acquired from server "
`/sbin/dhcpinfo -i $1 ServerID`
;;
"BOUND6")
echo "Addresses acquired from server "
`/sbin/dhcpinfo -v6 -i $1 ServerID`
;;
"EXTEND")
echo "Lease extended for "
`sbin/dhcpinfo -i $1 LeaseTim`" seconds"
;;
"EXTEND6")
echo "New lease information obtained on $i"
;;
"EXPIRE" | "DROP" | "RELEASE")
;;
esac
) >/var/run/dhcp_eventhook_output 2>&1
Note the redirection of stdout and stderr to a file.
FILES
/etc/dhcp/if.dhc
/etc/dhcp/if.dh6
Contains the configuration for interface. The mere existence of this file does not imply that the configuration is correct, since the
lease might have expired. On start-up, dhcpagent confirms the validity of the address using REQUEST (for DHCPv4) or Confirm (DHCPv6).
/etc/dhcp/duid
/etc/dhcp/iaid
Contains persistent storage for DUID (DHCP Unique Identifier) and IAID (Identity Association Identifier) values. The format of these
files is undocumented, and applications should not read from or write to them.
/etc/default/dhcpagent
Contains default values for tunable parameters. All values may be qualified with the interface they apply to by prepending the inter-
face name and a period (".") to the interface parameter name. The parameters include: the interface parameter name.
To configure IPv6 parameters, place the string .v6 between the interface name (if any) and the parameter name. For example, to set the
global IPv6 parameter request list, use .v6.PARAM_REQUEST_LIST. To set the CLIENT_ID (DUID) on hme0, use hme0.v6.CLIENT_ID.
The parameters include:
RELEASE_ON_SIGTERM
Indicates that a RELEASE rather than a DROP should be performed on managed interfaces when the agent terminates. Release causes the
client to discard the lease, and the server to make the address available again. Drop causes the client to record the lease in
/etc/dhcp/interface.dhc or /etc/dhcp/interface.dh6 for later use.
OFFER_WAIT
Indicates how long to wait between checking for valid OFFERs after sending a DISCOVER. For DHCPv6, sets the time to wait between
checking for valid Advertisements after sending a Solicit.
CLIENT_ID
Indicates the value that should be used to uniquely identify the client to the server. This value can take one of three basic
forms:
decimal,data...
0xHHHHH...
"string...."
The first form is an RFC 3315 DUID. This is legal for both IPv4 DHCP and DHCPv6. For IPv4, an RFC 4361 Client ID is constructed
from this value. In this first form, the format of data... depends on the decimal value. The following formats are defined for this
first form:
1,hwtype,time,lla
Type 1, DUID-LLT. The hwtype value is an integer in the range 0-65535, and indicates the type of hardware. The time value is
the number of seconds since midnight, January 1st, 2000 UTC, and can be omitted to use the current system time. The lla value
is either a colon-separated MAC address or the name of a physical interface. If the name of an interface is used, the hwtype
value can be omitted. For example: 1,,,hme0
2,enterprise,hex...
Type 2, DUID-EN. The enterprise value is an integer in the range 0-4294967295 and represents the SMI Enterprise number for an
organization. The hex string is an even-length sequence of hexadecimal digits.
3,hwtype,lla
Type 3, DUID-LL. This is the same as DUID-LLT (type 1), except that a time stamp is not used.
*,hex
Any other type value (0 or 4-65535) can be used with an even-length hexadecimal string.
The second and third forms of CLIENT_ID are legal for IPv4 only. These both represent raw Client ID (without RFC 4361), in hex, or
NVT ASCII string format. Thus, Sun and 0x53756E are equivalent.
PARAM_REQUEST_LIST
Specifies a list of comma-separated integer values of options for which the client would like values.
REQUEST_HOSTNAME
Indicates the client requests the DHCP server to map the client's leased IPv4 address to the host name associated with the network
interface that performs DHCP on the client. The host name must be specified in the /etc/hostname.interface file for the relevant
interface on a line of the form
inet hostname
where hostname is the host name requested.
This option works with DHCPv4 only.
/etc/dhcp/eventhook
Location of a DHCP event program.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsr |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Committed |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
dhcpinfo(1), ifconfig(1M), init(1M), in.mpathd(1M), in.ndpd(1M), syslog(3C), attributes(5), dhcp(5)
Croft, B. and Gilmore, J.,Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP)RFC 951, Network Working Group, September 1985.
Droms, R., Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, RFC 2131, Network Working Group, March 1997.
Lemon, T. and B. Sommerfeld. RFC 4361, Node-specific Client Identifiers for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Version Four (DHCPv4).
Nominum and Sun Microsystems. February 2006.
Droms, R. RFC 3315, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6). Cisco Systems. July 2003.
NOTES
The dhcpagent daemon can be used on IPv4 logical interfaces, just as with physical interfaces. When used on a logical interface, the daemon
automatically constructs a Client ID value based on the DUID and IAID values, according to RFC 4361. The /etc/default/dhcpagent CLIENT_ID
value, if any, overrides this automatic identifier.
As with physical IPv4 interfaces, the /etc/hostname.hme0:1 and /etc/dhcp.hme0:1 files must also be created in order for hme0:1 to be auto-
matically plumbed and configured at boot. In addition, unlike physical IPv4 interfaces, dhcpagent does not add or remove default routes
associated with logical interfaces.
DHCP can be performed on IPMP IP interfaces to acquire and maintain IPMP data addresses. Because an IPMP IP interface has no hardware
address, the daemon automatically constructs a Client ID using the same approach described above for IPv4 logical interfaces. In addition,
the lack of a hardware address means the daemon must set the "broadcast" flag in all DISCOVER and REQUEST messages on IPMP IP interfaces.
Some DHCP servers may refuse such requests.
DHCP can be performed on IP interfaces that are part of an IPMP group (to acquire and maintain test addresses). The daemon will automati-
cally set the NOFAILOVER and DEPRECATED flags on each test address. Additionally, the daemon will not add or remove default routes in this
case. Note that the actual DHCP packet exchange may be performed over any active IP interface in the IPMP group. It is strongly recommended
that test addresses have infinite leases. Otherwise, an extended network outage detectable only by probes may cause test address leases to
expire, causing in.mpathd(1M) to revert to link-based failure detection and trigger an erroneous repair.
With DHCPv6, the link-local interface must be configured using /etc/hostname6.hme0 in order for DHCPv6 to run on hme0 at boot time. The
logical interfaces for each address are plumbed by dhcpagent automatically.
SunOS 5.11 20 Jan 2009 dhcpagent(1M)