Discovery of SZ based on DHCP Option 43

Beginning with SmartZone release 5.0, the administrator can monitor and manage switches and routers in the ICX 7000 series switches running FastIron version 08.0.80 or above. ICX (the DHCP client) can parse the value of DHCP option 43 containing SZ IP addresses received from the DHCP server and connect to Smartzone.

This feature works in the following manner:

  • The DHCP client sends the VCI option as "Ruckus CPE" to the DHCP Server in every request packet.
  • The DHCP client processes the vendor specific information (VSI) option data during the RENEW & REBIND process.
  • The SZ IP Address data received through VSI is not displayed in the running configuration.
  • The show ip dhcp-client options command displays the received VSI data in TLV format. The data can be displayed in two formats based on data received. Refer to the show ip dhcp-client options command for more information.
  • If the DHCP client fails to parse the received VSI data, or is not able to extract the SZ IP addresses from the VSI data received, the SZ IP addresses are not passed to the FSM API.

The example below shows how a DHCP server can be configured to send SmartZone IP addresses to ICX devices using DHCP Option 43.

Configure DHCP Option 43 on the DHCP server, using RKUS.scg-address to identify the SmartZone IP addresses. A single SmartZone IP address or a comma-separated list can be configured. SmartZone IP addresses are sent with a sub-option value of 6. The ICX device ignores all other data in DHCP Option 43 if SmartZone IP addresses are present. The following example shows a DHCP Option 43 configuration on a DHCP server. The IP addresses listed are examples only. 

subnet 192.168.12.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.12.100 192.168.12.199;
option routers 192.168.12.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option broadcast-address 192.168.12.255;
option ntp-servers 192.168.11.22;
class "Ruckus AP" {
match if option vendor-class-identifier = "Ruckus CPE";
option vendor-class-identifier "Ruckus CPE";
default-lease-time 86400;
vendor-option-space RKUS;
option RKUS.scg-address "192.168.11.200, 192.168.11.201, 192.168.11.202";
}
}

Configuration notes and feature limitations

The following configuration notes and feature limitations apply for discovery of SZ based on DHCP option 43:

  • The vendor-specific information data received from the DHCP server must be in simple ASCII text format.
  • The VCI option must be configured as “Ruckus CPE” and sent to the to DHCP server during DHCP discovery and renew. The DHCP server than fills the VSI option data in the offer packet that is sent to client in response.
  • A maximum of 128 characters(bytes) of VSI data can be received and processed by the DHCP client. If the received VSI data size is more than 128 characters, the DHCP client does not save or process the received data.
  • With the exception of the value “create default ve”, the DHCP client treats any received option 43 data as TLV format.
  • The DHCP client passes the IP address list to the FSM API only when the received VSI data is in TLV format with Sub-option Code 6, and the corresponding data is in IP addresses format with commas (,) separating the IP addresses.
Parent topic: DHCP Clients