Option 82 field content

The remote ID and circuit ID subfields comprise the Option 82 field a relay agent appends to client requests. A DHCP server configured to apply a different IP addressing policy to different areas of a network uses the values in these subfields to determine which DHCP policy to apply to a given client request.

Remote ID

This configurable subfield identifies a policy area that comprises either the routing switch as a whole (by using the routing switch MAC address) or an individual VLAN configured on the routing switch (by using the IP address of the VLAN receiving the client request.)

  • Use the IP address option if the server will apply different IP addressing policies to DHCP client requests from ports in different VLANs on the same routing switch.

  • Use the management VLAN option if a management VLAN is configured and you want all DHCP clients on the routing switch to use the same IP address. (This is useful if you are applying the same IP addressing policy to DHCP client requests from ports in different VLANs on the same routing switch.) Configuring this option means the management VLAN's IP address appears in the remote ID subfield of all DHCP requests originating with clients connected to the routing switch, regardless of the VLAN on which the requests originate.

  • Use the MAC address option if, on a given routing switch, it does not matter to the DHCP server which VLAN is the source of a client request (that is, use the MAC address option if the IP addressing policies supported by the target DHCP server do not distinguish between client requests from ports in different VLANs in the same routing switch.)

Circuit ID

This nonconfigurable subfield identifies the port number of the physical port through which the routing switch received a given DHCP client request and is necessary to identify if you want to configure an Option 82 DHCP server to use the Circuit ID to select a DHCP policy to assign to clients connected to the port. This number is the identity of the inbound port. On fixed-port switches, the port number used for the circuit ID is always the same as the physical port number shown on the front of the switch. On chassis switches, where a dedicated, sequential block of internal port numbers are reserved for each slot, regardless of whether a slot is occupied, the circuit ID for a given port is the sequential index number for that port position in the slot. (To view the index number assignments for ports in the routing switch, use the walkmib ifname command.)

Using walkmib to determine the circuit ID for a port on a chassis

For example, the circuit ID for port B11 on a switch is "35”, as shown in the following example.

For example, suppose you want port 10 on a given relay agent to support no more than five DHCP clients simultaneously. You can configure the server to allow only five IP addressing assignments at any one time for the circuit ID (port) and remote ID (MAC address) corresponding to port 10 on the selected relay agent.

Similarly, if you want to define specific ranges of addresses for clients on different ports in the same VLAN, you can configure the server with the range of IP addresses allowed for each circuit ID (port) associated with the remote ID (IP address) for the selected VLAN.