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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Can you use DHCP to assign an address to the downstream
      interface used by dhcrelay? (Simon)
   2. RE: Can you use DHCP to assign an address to the downstream
      interface used by dhcrelay? (Vallevand, Mark K)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2024 12:43:16 +0000
From: Simon <dh...@thehobsons.co.uk>
To: Users of ISC DHCP <dhcp-users@lists.isc.org>
Subject: Re: Can you use DHCP to assign an address to the downstream
        interface used by dhcrelay?
Message-ID: <728280a8-a52d-46a5-b274-7d843d481...@thehobsons.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

On 2 Nov 2023, at 17:13, Vallevand, Mark K <mark.vallev...@unisys.com> wrote:

> I have configured dhcrelay upstream and downstream interfaces and a server 
> address.
> DHCP addresses are correctly relayed from machines on the downstream side to 
> the upstream side and back.
> Rather than using a static address in the downstream interface, I would like 
> to assign a DHCP address using dhclient to the downstream interface.
> Dhcrelay does not seem to handle this case.  If the origin of the request is 
> the actual downstream interface, it is not relayed.
> Is this possible?  Can I use dhclient to get an address for the downstream 
> interface used by dhcrelay?

Sorry, I?ve not had time to keep up here for a bit - I see this one seems to 
have gone unanswered.

Unfortunately, you are in a catch-22 situation here. If the downstream 
interface doesn?t have an IP address then presumably the relay cannot fill in 
the GI-Addr field. If it can?t fill in the GI-Addr field, then the server can?t 
locate the interface in order to offer an address.

To get around this situation, you?d need to configure the device in some way 
before it could then use DHCP to get an address for the downstream - and once 
you?ve set this up, you might as well just configure the interface.
Alternatively, you might be able to do some ?fudge? to get a subnet from the 
server (similar to the way IPv6 Prefix Delegations can be done) and then use an 
algorithm to configure the interface (e.g. pick the lowest usable address in 
the subnet). The DHCP server would need some way of associating the request 
with the device - and of course it needs the subnet details (such as router) 
configured anyway in order to hand them to the clients.

However, I think your observation is a separate implementation specific 
limitation. Because of the need to handle unaddressed packets (i.e. it needs to 
receive and send broadcasts from/to the clients before they have an IP address) 
I assume the relay agent shares code with the server in using a raw packet 
interface rather than going through the IP stack. You can?t have two bits of 
software doing this, and in any case running a client would result in a 
broadcast packet OUT of the interface which would not be seen as an incoming 
packet by the relay agent.

I assume not the answer you were looking for, but at least you now understand 
why it isn?t working.


Simon



------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2024 14:19:28 +0000
From: "Vallevand, Mark K" <mark.vallev...@unisys.com>
To: Users of ISC DHCP <dhcp-users@lists.isc.org>
Subject: RE: Can you use DHCP to assign an address to the downstream
        interface used by dhcrelay?
Message-ID:
        
<ch2pr07mb6693abb261a45745f5011528ea...@ch2pr07mb6693.namprd07.prod.outlook.com>
        
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Thanks for the reply.

I tried several different methods and hit on one that works.
It involves MACvlans, dhclient pseudo interfaces, and dhclient hook scripts.
I?ve formalized it into a utility library and it is used in a network appliance 
for any interface that needs a DHCP address but cannot be directly connect to 
the subnet with the DHCP server.

A macvlan interface is created to represent the target that needs a DHCP 
address.  The other end of the interface is the desired uplink interface.  A 
special configuration file is created for dhclient which tells it to run two 
instances of DHCP state machine - one for the macvlan interface,
and one for a pseudo interface.  The configuration also specifies a hook script 
for the pseudo interface.  The hook script doesn't actually do anything to the 
pseudo interface - its not real - but uses its assigned address to configure 
the target.  So, two DHCP leases are pulled from the server - one for the 
macvlan interface and one for the pseudo interface.


Regards.

Mark K Vallevand
Unisys 651-635-7708 | 
mark.vallev...@unisys.com<mailto:mark.vallev...@unisys.com>

[cid:image001.png@01DA55AE.FD3E9B20]<http://www.unisys.com/>

From: dhcp-users <dhcp-users-boun...@lists.isc.org> On Behalf Of Simon
Sent: Friday, February 2, 2024 6:43 AM
To: Users of ISC DHCP <dhcp-users@lists.isc.org>
Subject: Re: Can you use DHCP to assign an address to the downstream interface 
used by dhcrelay?

On 2 Nov 2023, at 17:?13, Vallevand, Mark K <Mark.?Vallevand@?UNISYS.?com> 
wrote: > I have configured dhcrelay upstream and downstream interfaces and a 
server address. > DHCP addresses are correctly relayed from machines on the 
downstream


On 2 Nov 2023, at 17:13, Vallevand, Mark K 
<mark.vallev...@unisys.com<mailto:mark.vallev...@unisys.com>> wrote:



> I have configured dhcrelay upstream and downstream interfaces and a server 
> address.

> DHCP addresses are correctly relayed from machines on the downstream side to 
> the upstream side and back.

> Rather than using a static address in the downstream interface, I would like 
> to assign a DHCP address using dhclient to the downstream interface.

> Dhcrelay does not seem to handle this case.  If the origin of the request is 
> the actual downstream interface, it is not relayed.

> Is this possible?  Can I use dhclient to get an address for the downstream 
> interface used by dhcrelay?



Sorry, I?ve not had time to keep up here for a bit - I see this one seems to 
have gone unanswered.



Unfortunately, you are in a catch-22 situation here. If the downstream 
interface doesn?t have an IP address then presumably the relay cannot fill in 
the GI-Addr field. If it can?t fill in the GI-Addr field, then the server can?t 
locate the interface in order to offer an address.



To get around this situation, you?d need to configure the device in some way 
before it could then use DHCP to get an address for the downstream - and once 
you?ve set this up, you might as well just configure the interface.

Alternatively, you might be able to do some ?fudge? to get a subnet from the 
server (similar to the way IPv6 Prefix Delegations can be done) and then use an 
algorithm to configure the interface (e.g. pick the lowest usable address in 
the subnet). The DHCP server would need some way of associating the request 
with the device - and of course it needs the subnet details (such as router) 
configured anyway in order to hand them to the clients.



However, I think your observation is a separate implementation specific 
limitation. Because of the need to handle unaddressed packets (i.e. it needs to 
receive and send broadcasts from/to the clients before they have an IP address) 
I assume the relay agent shares code with the server in using a raw packet 
interface rather than going through the IP stack. You can?t have two bits of 
software doing this, and in any case running a client would result in a 
broadcast packet OUT of the interface which would not be seen as an incoming 
packet by the relay agent.



I assume not the answer you were looking for, but at least you now understand 
why it isn?t working.





Simon



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