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Software Configuration Guide—Release 12.2(25)SG
OL-7659-03
Chapter3 Configuring the Switch for the First Time
Configuring DHCP-Based Autoconfiguration
Configuring the DHCP Server
A switch can act as both the DHCP client and the DHCP server. By default, the Cisco IOS DHCP server
and relay agent features are enabled on your switch.
You should configure the DHCP server, or the DHCP server feature running on your switch, with
reserved leases that are bound to each switch by the switch hardware address.
If you want the switch to receive IP address information, you must configure the DHCP server with these
lease options:
•IP address of the client (required)
•Subnet mask of the client (required)
•DNS server IP address (optional)
•Router IP address (required)
Note The router IP address is the default gateway address for the swit ch.
If you want the switch to receive the configuration file from a TFTP server, you must configure the
DHCP server with these lease options:
•TFTP server name or IP address (required)
•Boot filename (the name of the configuration file that the client needs) (recommended)
•Host name (optional)
Depending on the settings of the DHCP server or the DHCP server feature running on your switch, the
switch can receive IP address information, the configuration file, or both.
If you do not configure the DHCP server, or the DHCP server feature running on your switch, with the
lease options described earlier, the switch replies to client requests with only those parameters that are
configured. If the IP address and subnet mask are not in the reply, the switch is not configured. If the
router IP address or TFTP server name (or IP address) are not found, the switch might send broadcast,
instead of unicast, TFTP requests. Unavailability of other lease options does not impact
autoconfiguration.
The DHCP server, or the DHCP server feature running on your switch, can be on the same LAN or on a
different LAN than the switch. If the DHCP server is running on a different LAN, you should configure
a DHCP relay, which forwards broadcast traffic between two directly connected LANs. A router does
not forward broadcast packets, but it forwards packets based on the destination IP address in the received
packet. For more information on relay devices, see the “Configuring the Relay Device” section on
page 3-5.
Configuring the TFTP Server
Based on the DHCP server configuration, the switch attempts to download one or more configuration
files from the TFTP server. If you configured the DHCP server to respond to the switch with all the
options required for IP connectivity to the TFTP server, and if you configured the DHCP server with a
TFTP server name, address, and configuration filename, the switch attempts to download the specified
configuration file from the specified TFTP server.
If you did not specify the configuration filename or the TFTP server name, or if the configuration file
could not be downloaded, the switch attempts to download a configuration file using various
combinations of filenames and TFTP server addresses. The files include the specified configuration