The following summary of the protocol exchanges between clients and
servers refers to the DHCP messages described in table 2. The
timeline diagram in figure 3 shows the timing relationships in a
typical client-server interaction. If the client already knows its
address, some steps may be omitted; this abbreviated interaction is
described in section 3.2.
- The client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message on its local physical
subnet. The DHCPDISCOVER message MAY include options that suggest
values for the network address and lease duration. BOOTP relay
agents may pass the message on to DHCP servers not on the same
physical subnet.
- Each server may respond with a DHCPOFFER message that includes an
available network address in the 'yiaddr' field (and other
configuration parameters in DHCP options). Servers need not
reserve the offered network address, although the protocol will
work more efficiently if the server avoids allocating the offered
network address to another client. When allocating a new address,
servers SHOULD check that the offered network address is not
already in use; e.g., the server may probe the offered address
with an ICMP Echo Request. Servers SHOULD be implemented so that
network administrators MAY choose to disable probes of newly
allocated addresses. The server transmits the DHCPOFFER message
to the client, using the BOOTP relay agent if necessary.
Message Use
------- ---
DHCPDISCOVER - Client broadcast to locate available servers.
DHCPOFFER - Server to client in response to DHCPDISCOVER with
offer of configuration parameters.
DHCPREQUEST - Client message to servers either (a) requesting
offered parameters from one server and implicitly
declining offers from all others, (b) confirming
correctness of previously allocated address after,
e.g., system reboot, or (c) extending the lease on a
particular network address.
DHCPACK - Server to client with configuration parameters,
including committed network address.
DHCPNAK - Server to client indicating client's notion of network
address is incorrect (e.g., client has moved to new
subnet) or client's lease as expired
DHCPDECLINE - Client to server indicating network address is already
in use.
DHCPRELEASE - Client to server relinquishing network address and
cancelling remaining lease.
DHCPINFORM - Client to server, asking only for local configuration
parameters; client already has externally configured
network address.
Table 2: DHCP messages
Server Client Server
(not selected) (selected)
v v v
| | |
| Begins initialization |
| | |
| _____________/|\____________ |
|/DHCPDISCOVER | DHCPDISCOVER \|
| | |
Determines | Determines
configuration | configuration
| | |
|\ | ____________/ |
| \________ | /DHCPOFFER |
| DHCPOFFER\ |/ |
| \ | |
| Collects replies |
| \| |
| Selects configuration |
| | |
| _____________/|\____________ |
|/ DHCPREQUEST | DHCPREQUEST\ |
| | |
| | Commits configuration
| | |
| | _____________/|
| |/ DHCPACK |
| | |
| Initialization complete |
| | |
. . .
. . .
| | |
| Graceful shutdown |
| | |
| |\ ____________ |
| | DHCPRELEASE \|
| | |
| | Discards lease
| | |
v v v
Figure 3: Timeline diagram of messages exchanged between DHCP
client and servers when allocating a new network address
- The client receives one or more DHCPOFFER messages from one or more
servers. The client may choose to wait for multiple responses.
The client chooses one server from which to request configuration
parameters, based on the configuration parameters offered in the
DHCPOFFER messages. The client broadcasts a DHCPREQUEST message
that MUST include the 'server identifier' option to indicate which
server it has selected, and that MAY include other options
specifying desired configuration values. The 'requested IP
address' option MUST be set to the value of 'yiaddr' in the
DHCPOFFER message from the server. This DHCPREQUEST message is
broadcast and relayed through DHCP/BOOTP relay agents. To help
ensure that any BOOTP relay agents forward the DHCPREQUEST message
to the same set of DHCP servers that received the original
DHCPDISCOVER message, the DHCPREQUEST message MUST use the same
value in the DHCP message header's 'secs' field and be sent to the
same IP broadcast address as the original DHCPDISCOVER message.
The client times out and retransmits the DHCPDISCOVER message if
the client receives no DHCPOFFER messages.
- The servers receive the DHCPREQUEST broadcast from the client.
Those servers not selected by the DHCPREQUEST message use the
message as notification that the client has declined that server's
offer. The server selected in the DHCPREQUEST message commits the
binding for the client to persistent storage and responds with a
DHCPACK message containing the configuration parameters for the
requesting client. The combination of 'client identifier' or
'chaddr' and assigned network address constitute a unique
identifier for the client's lease and are used by both the client
and server to identify a lease referred to in any DHCP messages.
Any configuration parameters in the DHCPACK message SHOULD NOT
conflict with those in the earlier DHCPOFFER message to which the
client is responding. The server SHOULD NOT check the offered
network address at this point. The 'yiaddr' field in the DHCPACK
messages is filled in with the selected network address.
If the selected server is unable to satisfy the DHCPREQUEST message
(e.g., the requested network address has been allocated), the
server SHOULD respond with a DHCPNAK message.
A server MAY choose to mark addresses offered to clients in
DHCPOFFER messages as unavailable. The server SHOULD mark an
address offered to a client in a DHCPOFFER message as available if
the server receives no DHCPREQUEST message from that client.
- The client receives the DHCPACK message with configuration
parameters. The client SHOULD perform a final check on the
parameters (e.g., ARP for allocated network address), and notes the
duration of the lease specified in the DHCPACK message. At this
point, the client is configured. If the client detects that the
address is already in use (e.g., through the use of ARP), the
client MUST send a DHCPDECLINE message to the server and restarts
the configuration process. The client SHOULD wait a minimum of ten
seconds before restarting the configuration process to avoid
excessive network traffic in case of looping.
If the client receives a DHCPNAK message, the client restarts the
configuration process.
The client times out and retransmits the DHCPREQUEST message if the
client receives neither a DHCPACK or a DHCPNAK message. The client
retransmits the DHCPREQUEST according to the retransmission
algorithm in section 4.1. The client should choose to retransmit
the DHCPREQUEST enough times to give adequate probability of
contacting the server without causing the client (and the user of
that client) to wait overly long before giving up; e.g., a client
retransmitting as described in section 4.1 might retransmit the
DHCPREQUEST message four times, for a total delay of 60 seconds,
before restarting the initialization procedure. If the client
receives neither a DHCPACK or a DHCPNAK message after employing the
retransmission algorithm, the client reverts to INIT state and
restarts the initialization process. The client SHOULD notify the
user that the initialization process has failed and is restarting.
- The client may choose to relinquish its lease on a network address
by sending a DHCPRELEASE message to the server. The client
identifies the lease to be released with its 'client identifier',
or 'chaddr' and network address in the DHCPRELEASE message. If the
client used a 'client identifier' when it obtained the lease, it
MUST use the same 'client identifier' in the DHCPRELEASE message.
Next: 3.2 Client-server interaction - reusing a previously allocated network address
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3.1 Client-server interaction - allocating a network address