DHCP, DNS, SNMP: Debashis Saha MIS Group, IIM Calcutta Ds@iimcal - Ac.in

Lecture on DHCP, DNS & SNMP Debashis Saha
DHCP, DNS, SNMP
Debashis Saha
MIS Group, IIM Calcutta
ds@iimcal.ac.in
Thursday, May 17, 2007 1
First Question
• How does your computer know which IP

to use?
• How does your computer know that

www.iimcal.ac.in is at IP 202.54.116.3?
• How can you track your network’s health?

The Internet and Addressing
• All machines on the Internet are accessed via

their IP address
– Dotted quad: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
• Problem: IP addresses are hard to remember and
hard to statically assign on large networks
• Solution: Need to come up with a way to
automatically assign IP addresses and a text based
representation of machine addresses instead of
just 4 numbers

Addressing Solutions
• Two protocols have been developed to solve

these problems
– DHCP – automatic network configuration (including IP

address)
– DNS – translates textual based names into IP addresses

and vice versa

DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration

Protocol

DHCP
• Allows client machines to receive an IP

address, DNS information, etc
automatically
• Before DHCP came into use, users had to
type in all this information by hand, which
is bad:
– Easy to mistype something when entering by hand
– Manually changing network configuration every time you
move your laptop is a pain
– Bootp resolved some of these issues
• … and DHCP still uses the same port as bootp

Purpose of DHCP
From RFC-2131 (the Internet standard):
• The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) provides a framework for passing
configuration information to hosts on a TCP/IP
network.
• DHCP consists of two components:
– a protocol for delivering host-specific configuration
parameters from a DHCP server to a host and
– a mechanism for allocation of network addresses to hosts.

DHCP functional goals

• A host without a valid IP address locates
and communicates with a DHCP server
• A DHCP server passes configuration
parameters, including an IP address, to the
host
• The DHCP server may dynamically allocate
addresses to hosts and reuse addresses
• Hosts can detect when they require a new IP
address
• Unavailability of DHCP server has minimal
effect on operation of hosts
DHCP: Basics
• A client leases an IP address from a DHCP

server for a given amount of time
• When lease expires, the client must ask
DHCP server for a new address (clients
attempt to renew lease after 50% of the
lease time has expired)
• Typical leases may last for from 30
seconds to 24 hours, or even longer.

What does DHCP do?

• Provides protocol stack, application and
other configuration parameters to hosts
• Eliminates need for individual, manual
configuration for hosts
• Includes administrative controls for
network administrators
• Backward compatible packet format for
BOOTP interoperation (RFC 1542)
• Can coexist with hosts that have pre-
assigned IP addresses and hosts that do
not participate in DHCP
Design Goals
• Eliminate manual configuration of hosts
• Prevent use of any IP address by more than
one host
• Should not require a server on every subnet
• Allow for multiple DHCP servers
• Provide a mechanism, not a policy
• Provide the same configuration - including
IP address - to a host whenever possible

What can you do with DHCP

• Plug-and-play
• Move desktop PCs between offices
• Renumber
• Other restructuring - change subnet masks
• Mobile IP - laptops
• Moving equipment - cartable

What DHCP doesn’t do

• Support multiple addresses per interface
• Inform running host that parameters have changed
• Propagate new addresses to DNS
• Support inter-server communication
• Provide authenticated message delivery
• Configure routers and other network equipment
• Design network addressing plan
• Determine other configuration parameters
• Locate other servers

DHCP: Messages Overview
• Several messages are sent back and forth

between a client and the DHCP server
before it can successfully obtain an IP
address

DHCP: DISCOVER
• Hardcoding the addresses of DHCP servers

kind of defeats the purpose of automatic
configuration
• Solution: A client using DHCP will broadcast
a DISCOVER message to all computers on
its subnet (addr 255.255.255.255) to
figure out the IP address of any DHCP
servers
• Most routers are configured to pass this
request within the campus or enterprise

DHCP: OFFER
• (Optionally) sent from server in response

to a DISCOVER
• Contains an IP address, other configuration
information as well (subnet mask, DNS
servers, default gateway, search domains,
etc)
• Note that all DHCP servers that receive a
DISCOVER request may send an OFFER;
– since a client typically does not need more than one IP
address, more messages needed to zero on one IP

DHCP: REQUEST
• Sent by client to request a certain IP address
– Usually the one sent by an OFFER, but also used to renew
leases. Also can be sent to try to get same address after a
reboot
• This message is broadcast
• Most OSs by default will send a REQUEST for the
first OFFER they receive – this means that if
there is a rogue DHCP server on your subnet, most
clients will ignore the OFFERs from the campus
DHCP servers (since the OFFER from the rogue
server gets to the user’s PC first)!

DHCP: ACK/NACK
• Sent by server in response to a REQUEST

• ACK: Request accepted, client can start
using the IP it REQUESTed
• NACK: Something is wrong with the client’s
REQUEST (for example they requested an
IP address they’re not supposed to have)

DHCP: RELEASE
• Sent by client to end a lease
• Not strictly required, but is the “polite” thing to

do if done with the IP (could just let the lease
expire)
• Some clients may not send RELEASEs in an

attempt to keep the same IP address for as long
as possible

DHCP: Big Picture

Summary
• DHCP works today as a tool for automatic
configuration of TCP/IP hosts
• It is an open Internet standard and
interoperable client implementations are
widely available
• Provides automation for routine
configuration tasks, once network architect
has configured network and addressing plan
• Ongoing work will extend DHCP with
authentication, DHCP-DNS interaction and
inter-server communication
DHCP: Conclusion
• Efficient way of assigning computers IP

addresses and delivering configuration
information to those computers
• Does not solve other problem of addressing

– that IP addresses are hard to remember

IETF standards
• Formal process for development, review and

acceptance of TCP/IP protocol suite
standards
• Initial specifications published as Internet
Drafts (I-Ds)
• Accepted specifications published as
Request for Comments (RFCs)

Protocol status
• DHCP has been accepted as a Draft

Standard; the specifications are
published in:
– RFC 2131: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
– RFC 2132: DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor
Extensions
• Several additional options are in
development

Implementation status
• DHCP is an open standard, with freely

available specifications
• Can be (and has been) implemented entirely
from the specification
• Commercial implementations are widely
available
• Non-commerical implementations are also
available

DHCP Resources
• Compilation of DHCP-related WWW links and
other information:
http://www.dhcp.org
• DHCP FAQ (maintained by John Wobus)
• dhcp-v4@bucknell.edu mailing list (admin
requests to listserv@bucknell.edu)
• IETF information can be retrieved from:
http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us
• I-Ds and RFCs can also be retrieved from:
http://www.rfc-editor.org

DNS – Domain Name System

Second Question
• How does your computer know which IP to

use?

• How can you track your network’s health?

Domain Name System (DNS)
• The first IP networks distributed host

files on a regular basis
– This became a burden and an automated distributed
solution was needed
• IP Addresses are great for computers
– IP address includes information used for routing.
• IP addresses are tough for humans to
remember.
• IP addresses are impossible to guess.
– ever guessed at the name of a WWW site?

Hostnames
• DNS is born
• Domain names comprise a hierarchy so that
names are unique, yet easy to remember.
• The domain name system is usually used to
translate a host name into an IP address .
– Ex: www.xxx.org <-> IP 212.87.7.181
• (which one would you rather remember?)

DNS: Basics
• Hierarchical namespace
• Distributed system – very few core servers
• Stores other information than simple

hostname <-> IP mappings
• Request/response protocol

DNS Hierarchy
edu com org in
rpi albany ac
iimcal
Host name structure

• Each host name is made up of a sequence of
labels separated by periods.
– Each label can be up to 63 characters
– The total name can be at most 255 characters.
• Examples:
– whitehouse.gov
– barney.the.purple.dinosaur.com
– monica.cs.rpi.edu

Domain Name
• The domain name for a host is the

sequence of labels that lead from the host
(leaf node in the naming tree) to the top of
the worldwide naming tree.
• A domain is a subtree of the worldwide

naming tree.

Hierarchical Naming
arpa
com edu gov mil net org us
colordao
cs foobar.cs.colorado.edu
foobar
Top level domains

• edu, gov, com, net, org, mil, …
• Countries each have a top level domain (2
letter domain name).
– Such as .in, .uk, .it, etc.
• New top level domains include:
.aero .biz .coop .info .name .pro

Domain Naming System
edu com gov mil org net uk fr
harvard …mit cisco…yahoonasa…nsf arpa…navy acm…ieee
hbs ee physics
www
DNS: Architecture
• DNS servers are responsible for one or more
domains of any level
• “Root servers” are maintained throughout the
world (one is in Palo Alto) and are responsible for
all of the top-level domains
– When you register a domain, an entry for that domain is added
to the appropriate root server
• Owners of each regular domain or subdomain
maintain (or outsource) their own DNS servers
containing the correct information

Name Servers
• Partition hierarchy into zones
edu com gov mil org net uk fr
princeton … mit cisco … yahoo nasa … nsf arpa … navy acm … ieee
cs ee physics
ux01 ux04 Root

name server
Each zone implements two or
more name servers
1. Primary Princeton
name server
… Cisco
name server
2. secondary
CS … EE
name server name server

Hierarchical Administration - “Zones”

arpa
arpa com in gov mil net org us
ac
iimcal
www.iimcal.ac.in
www

Administration - Zones
• A zone is a subtree of the DNS tree that is

independently managed
– Second-level domains (“ac.in”) are usually an independent
zone
– Most sub-domains (“iimcal.ac.in”) are also independent.
• A zone must provide multiple name servers.

This server records the members in the
domain.
– You typically need a primary name server and one or more
secondary name servers.
– Secondary retrieves information from primary using a zone
transfer.
Resolving an address
• A.C.D wants to know about F.E.D
D
C E
Name
servers
A B F G
• Host “A.C.D” asks “B.C.D” (the local name

server) to resolve “F.E.D”
Resolving an address
• B.C.D doesn’t know the answer.

• It wants to ask the primary domain server for the
“E.D” domain, so it asks the parent of the “B.C”
domain (“D” in this example) to resolve “E.D”.
• D asks H, the root server.
• H doesn’t know the answer, but it’s the top-level
domain and knows that “G.E.D” is the primary
domain server for the “E.D” domain
• B.C.D now knows the primary domain server for the
E.D domain, and can now ask “G.E.D” about “F.E.D”

Domain servers
• What kind of records can be requested for a given
domain?
– Address translation
– Caching information
– Mail server information
– Authoritative nameserver information
• How is this data requested?
– Each record has a type and certain data associated with it –
clients request records of a certain type from a server

DNS Organization
• Distributed Database
– The organization that owns a domain name is responsible
for running a DNS server that can provide the mapping
between hostnames within the domain to IP addresses.
– So - some machine run by RPI is responsible for
everything within the rpi.edu domain.

DNS Distributed Database

• There is one primary server for a domain,
and typically a number of secondary
servers containing replicated databases.
rpi.edu DNS server
rpi.edu
rpi.edu rpi.edu
rpi.edu
DNS DB
DNS DB DNS
DNSDBDB
Authoritative Replicas

DNS Clients
• A DNS client is called a resolver.
• A call to gethostbyname()is handled by a

resolver (typically part of the client).
• Most Unix workstations have the file

/etc/resolv.conf that contains the local
domain and the addresses of DNS servers
for that domain.

/etc/resolv.conf
domain rpi.edu
128.113.1.5
128.113.1.3

nslookup
• nslookup is an interactive resolver that

allows the user to communicate directly
with a DNS server.
• nslookup is usually available on Unix

workstations. (dig and host are also DNS
clients).

DNS Servers
• Servers handle requests for their domain

directly.
• Servers handle requests for other domains
by contacting remote DNS server(s).
• Servers cache external mappings.

Server - Server Communication

• If a server is asked to provide the mapping
for a host outside it’s domain (and the
mapping is not in the server cache):
– The server finds a nameserver for the target domain.
– The server asks the nameserver to provide the host
name to IP translation.
• To find the right nameserver, use DNS!

DNS Data
• DNS databases contain more than just

hostname-to-address records:
– Name server records NS
– Hostname aliases CNAME
– Mail Exchangers MX
– Host Information HINFO

The Root DNS Server
• The root server needs to know the address

of 1st (and many 2nd) level domain
nameservers.
edu com org jp
rpi albany
Server Operation
• If a server has no clue about where to find

the address for a hostname, ask the root
server.
• The root server will tell you what
nameserver to contact.
• A request may get forwarded a few times.

DNS Message Format
HEADER
HEADER
QUERIES
QUERIES
Response
Response RESOURCE
RESOURCE RECORDS
RECORDS
Response
Response AUTHORITY
AUTHORITY RECORDS
RECORDS
Response
Response ADDITIONAL
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
INFORMATION

DNS Message Header
• query identifier
16 bit fields
• flags
• # of questions
• # of RRs
•
•
# of authority RRs
# of additional RRs } Response

Message Flags
• QR: Query=0, Response=1

• AA: Authoritative Answer
• TC: response truncated (> 512 bytes)
• RD: recursion desired
• RA: recursion available
• rcode: return code

Recursion
• A request can indicate that recursion is

desired - this tells the server to find out
the answer (possibly by contacting other
servers).
• If recursion is not requested - the
response may be a list of other name
servers to contact.

Question Format
• Name: domain name (or IP address)
• Query type (A, NS, MX, …)
• Query class (1 for IP)

Response Resource Record
• Domain Name
• Response type
• Class (IP)
• Time to live (in seconds)
• Length of resource data
• Resource data

UDP & TCP
• Both UDP and TCP are used:

– TCP for transfers of entire database to secondary
servers (replication).
– UDP for lookups
– If more than 512 bytes in response - requestor
resubmits request using TCP.

Lots more
• This is not a complete description !

• If interested - look at:
– RFC 1034: DNS concepts and facilities.
– RFC 1035: DNS implementation and protocol
specification.
– play with nslookup.
– Look at code for BIND (DNS server code).

References
• RFC 1034
• RFC 1035

SNMP - Simple Network

Management Protocol

Third Question
• How does your computer know which IP to

use?

• How can you track your network’s

health?

SNMP is …
• A network management tool
– Designed to allow data acquisition from SNMP capable
network equipment
– Allows control of SNMP capable equipment by the distant
controller
• Based on inquiry/response architecture
with simple response parameters

SNMP is …
• Used for management of fault conditions –
prevention of and response to network
failure
• Designed to manage performance – coping
with deterioration of performance due to
congestion, changing traffic conditions

SNMP Message Protocol

• Messages use UDP, ports 161 (requests/responses)
and 162 (notifications)
• Message types:
– GetRequest: request values of variables from device
– GetNextRequest: request value of variable following the one
supplied
– GetResponse: return values
– SetRequest: instruct device to set values of variables
– Trap: from device - notify monitor / manager of value change

To know more on SNMP
• “Essential SNMP”, Douglas R Mauro & Kevin

J Schmidt, Shroff Publishers &
Distributors, Calcutta, 2001

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Lecture on DHCP, DNS & SNMP Debashis Saha

DHCP, DNS, SNMP

• How does your computer know which IP

• How does your computer know that

• How can you track your network’s health?

Thursday, May 17, 2007 2

The Internet and Addressing

• All machines on the Internet are accessed via

Thursday, May 17, 2007 3

• Two protocols have been developed to solve

– DHCP – automatic network configuration (including IP

– DNS – translates textual based names into IP addresses

Thursday, May 17, 2007 4

DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration

Thursday, May 17, 2007 5

• Allows client machines to receive an IP

Thursday, May 17, 2007 6

Thursday, May 17, 2007 7

DHCP functional goals

• A client leases an IP address from a DHCP

Thursday, May 17, 2007 9

What does DHCP do?

Thursday, May 17, 2007 11

What can you do with DHCP

Thursday, May 17, 2007 12

What DHCP doesn’t do

Thursday, May 17, 2007 13

DHCP: Messages Overview

• Several messages are sent back and forth

Thursday, May 17, 2007 14

• Hardcoding the addresses of DHCP servers

Thursday, May 17, 2007 15

• (Optionally) sent from server in response

Thursday, May 17, 2007 16

Thursday, May 17, 2007 17

• Sent by server in response to a REQUEST

Thursday, May 17, 2007 18

• Sent by client to end a lease

• Not strictly required, but is the “polite” thing to

• Some clients may not send RELEASEs in an

Thursday, May 17, 2007 19

DHCP: Big Picture

Thursday, May 17, 2007 20

• Efficient way of assigning computers IP

• Does not solve other problem of addressing

Thursday, May 17, 2007 22

• Formal process for development, review and

Thursday, May 17, 2007 23

• DHCP has been accepted as a Draft

Thursday, May 17, 2007 24

• DHCP is an open standard, with freely

Thursday, May 17, 2007 25

Thursday, May 17, 2007 26

DNS – Domain Name System

Thursday, May 17, 2007 27

• How does your computer know which IP to

• How does your computer know that