RFC 2937 (rfc2937) - Page 1 of 5
The Name Service Search Option for DHCP
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group C. Smith
Request for Comments: 2937 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Category: Standards Track September 2000
The Name Service Search Option for DHCP
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document defines a new Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) option which is passed from the DHCP Server to the DHCP Client
to specify the order in which name services should be consulted when
resolving hostnames and other information.
Introduction
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)[1] provides a
framework for passing configuration information to hosts on a TCP/IP
network. RFC 2132 [2] allows DHCP servers to specify configuration
information for various kinds of name services to be passed to DHCP
clients. Many clients use multiple name services and have crafted
their own conventions that allow an individual host to express the
order among the various name services with which lookups are done.
However, no search order can be specified via DHCP. The purpose of
this document is to allow DHCP servers to specify the search order to
be used by DHCP clients. To avoid the need for inventing and
maintaining a separate name space for this option, we rely on the
existence of previously-defined DHCP options that specify the IP
address(es) of servers which provide name services whose order we
wish to express.
Smith Standards Track