Planning DHCP Configuration of Your Remote Networks

After the initial DHCP configuration, you can place IP addresses in remote networks under DHCP management. However, because the system files are not local to the server, DHCP Manager and dhcpconfig cannot look up information to provide default values, so you must provide the information. Before you try to configure a remote network, be sure you know the following information:

• The remote network's IP address.

• The subnet mask of the remote network. This information can be obtained from the netmasks table in the name service. If the network uses local files, look in /etc/netmasks on a system in the network. If the network uses NIS+, use the command niscat netmasks.org_dir. If the network uses NIS, use the command ypcat -k netmasks.byaddr. Make sure the netmasks table contains all the topology information for all the subnets you want to manage.

• The network type. The clients connect to the network through either a local area network (LAN) connection or a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).

• Routing information. Can the clients use router discovery? If not, you must determine the IP address of a router they can use.

• NIS domain and NIS servers, if applicable.

• NIS+ domain and NIS+ servers, if applicable.

See Adding DHCP Networks for the procedure for adding DHCP networks.