Installing and Configuring DHCPv6 2

Overview

How DHCPv6 2.001 Works

Chapter 1 13

How DHCPv6 2.001 Works

This section describes how the DHCPv6 2.001 software works.

It discusses the following topics:

• “Client/Server Operation” on page 13

• “Identifying and Managing IPv6 Addresses” on page 16

Client/Server Operation

This section describes how the DHCPv6 2.001 server and the client

communicate with each other.

Servers and clients on the same link communicate directly with each

other.

The DHCPv6 2.001 client initiates the message interaction by sending a

SOLICIT message. It uses the SOLICIT message to locate DHCPv6 2.001

servers, which are able to provide an IPv6 address and other

conﬁguration parameters. Multiple servers respond to the client’s

message with a DHCP ADVERTISE message. The DHCP ADVERTISE

message may contain a preference value, which indicates the server’s

ability to offer services to the client. You need to set this preference value

for a server. See “The dhcpv6d Server Daemon” on page 31 for more

information.

The server preference variable is an unsigned single octet value, with the

lowest preference value being 0 and the highest 255. Clients choose

higher preference servers over lower preference servers to conﬁgure their

interfaces.

The client then sends the DHCP REQUEST message to the server, which is

able to provide the required conﬁguration parameters.