DHCP/bootstrapping of various devices

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Geronimo W. Christ Esq Contact options for registered users 's Avatar (by Gravatar) posted on
May 9, 2005, 6:54 pm
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Hi,

I'm working with a system where several different but related devices
may wish to boot by downloading an OS kernel from a central source. I
was hoping to achieve this using DHCP, which does everything I want
except one thing - I can't find a way to identify to the DHCP server
what type of device I am.

For example, I'd like to be able to tell the DHCP server that I am
device type A, and it would respond with the correct configuration
details appropriate for type A. If a type B device makes a request, the
DHCP server would respond with a type B configuration and so on.

Are there any standard ways of achieving this ?






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Tauno Voipio Contact options for registered users 's Avatar (by Gravatar) posted on
May 9, 2005, 8:17 pm
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Re: DHCP/bootstrapping of various devices
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Yes.

The DHCP protocol contains a Client ID option which is
sent from the client to the server. The server can
distinguish the different clients and the responses
sent by the identifier.

If the identifier is not sent separately, the server
uses the client MAC (Media Access Control) address,
e.g. the 6-byte Ethernet address instead.

The exact way how to tell the server the different
client configurations from the identifiers depends
on your server.

The Diskless-HOWTO from the Linux Documentation
Project might be of help.

HTH

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi



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Geronimo W. Christ Esq Contact options for registered users 's Avatar (by Gravatar) posted on
May 9, 2005, 9:27 pm
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Re: DHCP/bootstrapping of various devices

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Ah, I see it. I didn't spot that when I looked at other summaries of the
protocol. I guess it is less frequently used since most people just want
to retrieve an IP address, gateway settings and so on.

I'd spoken to a few other people and they talked about using PXE, but
that seems quite overkill for what I need to do. All I need is a
filename and an IP address ;)

Thanks again for your help.

Tauno Voipio Contact options for registered users 's Avatar (by Gravatar) posted on
May 10, 2005, 10:34 am
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Re: DHCP/bootstrapping of various devices
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PXE is a totally different beast, destined to be between the
initial network boot and O/S start-up.

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Thank you for positive feedback - it keeps the response
engine running.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi


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