How to Configure Microsoft DHCP Server for BOOTP Clients (174765)

SUMMARY

Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later provides a feature that allows the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Server Service to respond to BOOTP requests as well as DHCP requests. There are two types of BOOTP clients:

BOOTP clients that can request an IP address and other relevant information, such as default gateway address, name server address, and so on.
BOOTP clients that can request the location of the boot file information from which the client is to boot. This is most common with diskless workstations.

This article discusses the procedures required to configure a Microsoft Windows NT DHCP server to provide the requested information to either of the above BOOTP clients.

MORE INFORMATION

NOTE: The following steps assume that your computer running Microsoft Windows NT Server already has the DHCP Server Service installed and correctly configured for DHCP clients.

BOOTP Clients Requesting IP Address Information Only

To configure your Microsoft Windows NT DHCP Server to assign IP address information to BOOTP clients, you must add a reservation for each BOOTP client. For information about how to add a reservation, view the "Managing Client Reservations" Help topic in DHCP Manager (Dhcpadmn.exe).

The reservation builds an association between the media access control address and the IP address. The clients simply request an address and Windows NT Server provides the IP address based on the client's media access control address in the BOOTP request frame. Your scope options apply to both your DHCP and your BOOTP clients, so it is imperative to verify that your scopes are configured correctly.

BOOTP Clients Requesting Boot File Information

To configure your Microsoft Windows NT DHCP server to provide boot file information to BOOTP clients, you must edit the BOOTP table in DHCP Manager. The BOOTP Table is located in the Server Properties dialog box that can be accessed from the Server menu. For information about how to edit the BOOTP Table, view the "BOOTP Table" Help topic in DHCP Manager (Dhcpadmn.exe).

NOTE: A reservation must be configured in the appropriate scope for each BOOTP client as specified in the section BOOTP Clients Requesting IP Address Information Only above.

The downloading of the image file by the client is performed using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). Microsoft Windows NT does not include a TFTP Server service. To use your Windows NT DHCP Server with BOOTP clients who must boot from an image file (usually diskless workstations), a third-party TFTP server is required.

For more information on BOOTP see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: 142373
TITLE : TFTP Server Not Included With Windows NT

ARTICLE-ID: 164394
TITLE : BOOTP Service Does Not populate ARP cache

ARTICLE-ID: 167708
TITLE : BOOTP Client Name Disappear in DHCP Manager

REFERENCES

For more information about BOOTP, see RFC 1532, RFC 2131, and RFC 2132.

RFCs may be obtained through the Internet as follows:

Paper copies of all RFCs are available from the NIC, either individually or on a subscription basis (for more information, contact NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL). Online copies are available through FTP or Kermit from NIC.DDN.MIL as rfc/rfc####.txt or rfc/rfc####.PS (#### is the RFC number without leading zeros).