Benefits
2
Release 12.0(1)T
Note
The formal request for the offered IP address (the DHCPREQUEST message) that is sent by
the client is broadcast so that all other DHCP servers that received the DHCPDISCOVER broadcast
message from the client can reclaim the IP addresses that they offered to the client.
If the configuration parameters sent to the client in the DHCPOFFER unicast message by the DHCP
server are invalid (a misconfiguration error exists), the client returns a DHCPDECLINE broadcast
message to the DHCP server.
The DHCP server will send to the client a DHCPNAK denial broadcast message, which means the
offered configuration parameters have not been assigned, if an error has occurred during the
negotiation of the parameters or the client has been slow in responding to the DHCPOFFER message
(the DHCP server assigned the parameters to another client) of the DHCP server.
Benefits
The Cisco IOS DHCP Server feature offers the following benefits:
•
Reduced Internet access costs
Using automatic IP address assignment at each remote site substantially reduces Internet access
costs. Static IP addresses are considerably more expensive to purchase than are automatically
allocated IP addresses.
•
Reduced client configuration tasks and costs
Because DHCP is easy to configure, it minimizes operational overhead and costs associated with
device configuration tasks and eases deployment by nontechnical users.
•
Centralized management
Because the DHCP server maintains configurations for several subnets, an administrator only
needs to update a single, central server when configuration parameters change.
Supported Platforms
This Cisco IOS DHCP Server feature is supported on the following routers and access servers:
•
Catalyst 5000 family switches with an installed Route Switch Module
•
Catalyst 6000 family switches with an installed MultiLayer Switch Feature Card
•
Catalyst 8500 series
•
Cisco 800 series
•
Cisco 1000 series
•
Cisco 1400 series
•
Cisco 1600 series
•
Cisco 1700 series (support for the Cisco 1700 series was added in Cisco IOS Release 12.0[2]T)
•
Cisco 2500 series
•
Cisco 2600 series
•
Cisco 3600 series
•
Cisco 3800 series
