Subject: [dhcwg] draft-volz-dhc-dhcpv4-vendor-message-00.txt

From: Ted Lemon <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:42:12 -0600

Two observations.   First, is it necessary to send a DHCP Message Type  
option at all?   It seems like the presence of this option in a DHCP  
packet is unambiguous, and so the dhcp-message-type option isn't  
necessary.   A DHCP server, client or relay implementation that  
doesn't grok this option also won't grok DHCP Message Type 254.

Secondly, you should probably specify how to set the bootp message  
type - when it should be BOOTREQUEST, and when it should be  
BOOTREPLY.   I would say that DHCP packets sent to clients should  
always be BOOTREPLY, and DHCP packets sent to servers should always be  
BOOTREQUEST.   DHCP packets sent to relay agents should be BOOTREPLY  
when sent from servers, and BOOTREQUEST when sent from clients.

_______________________________________________
dhcwg mailing list
[email-masked]
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dhcwg

---

From: "Bernie Volz (volz)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:58:23 -0500

Ted:

Thanks for the review and comments.

The lack of the DHCP Message Type option may trigger a server to assume
that this is a BOOTP packet? I need to double check RFC 2131 what really
distinguishes a DHCP from a BOOTP, but I think it might be existence of
this option?

Regarding the "op" field, I guess I assumed that it would be clear but
perhaps more needs to be said on this. Some concerns for explicitly
requiring specific values might be a DHCPFORCERENEW-like case as the
DHCP server sends a BOOTREQUEST and technically it would be possible for
a communication in either direction (though RFC 3203 never mentions the
op field so perhaps my assumption is wrong). And, this could be used for
server-to-server communication in which case it could well be that a
server sends BOOTREQUEST and BOOTREPLY messages. We can discuss further.

- Bernie 

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf
Of Ted Lemon
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:42 AM
To: [email-masked] WG
Subject: [dhcwg] draft-volz-dhc-dhcpv4-vendor-message-00.txt

---

From: Ted Lemon <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:13:09 -0600

> distinguishes a DHCP from a BOOTP, but I think it might be existence  

Hm, you raise a good point - a server that doesn't know about this  
option might in fact send a BOOTREPLY in response to a DHCP packet  
with an unknown vendor-specific type.