Installing and Administering Internet Services

Chapter 6 253

Dynamic Host Conﬁguration Protocol (DHCP)

Overview

DHCP is built on top of bootp. There is one executable

(/usr/lbin/bootpd) and one daemon (bootpd) that handles the job for

DHCP and BOOTP. Also the DHCP and BOOTP daemon is a subsidiary

of inetd, and will be started or restarted automatically (that is, as

requests are passed to it).

This chapter provides information to help you conﬁgure DHCP servers

and troubleshoot potential problems with DHCP servers. The speciﬁc

topics covered in this chapter include:

• DHCP Components

• Conﬁguring DHCP Servers

• Command Options for DHCP Servers

• Troubleshooting DHCP Servers

Beneﬁts of Using DHCP

Using DHCP reduces the labor involved in managing the network.

Before DHCP, the network administrator had to manually connect and

conﬁgure every computer to the network.

Because the DHCP server automatically dispenses IP addresses and

other conﬁguration information, the process of connecting a new

computer to the network is much simpler. DHCP is very ﬂexible and

allows the network administrator to set up the server one time to serve

many thousands of clients.