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DHCP at UC Santa Cruz

Home > ITS Services > Network Services > DHCP at UC Santa Cruz

DHCP is stable and operating campus-wide at UC Santa Cruz. Dynamically assigned IP addresses are avaiable on all campus subnets. We are running the Internet Software Consortium's DHCP server, a freely available server providing BOOTP and DHCP service. DHCP offers advantages to computer users and administrators. Among the benefits are:

  • Efficient utilization of our IP address space
    Static assignment of IP addresses ultimately results in poor utilization of our address space, whereas dynamic assignment virtually guarantees that underutilization won't occur. Static assignment doesn't offer any mechanism for returning unused or abandoned IP addresses.

  • Host mobility is enabled
    DHCP provides the capability for a client to connect to any subnet, unlike BOOTP which tied a hardware address to a specific subnet. Thus, users with laptops can easily rove campus without having to ever modify their network configuration.

  • Immediate and automatic address assignment
    IP addresses are assigned by the DHCP server automatically, without the need for manual intervention. The latency of requesting a BOOTP entry be added has been eliminated, simplifying the work for users, computer coordinators, and central support.
DNS entries corresponding to dynamically assigned addresses are of the form: dhcp- where corresponds to the subnet to which your host is attached and is an integer value. So, for example, if you reside on the 128.114.160 subnet, and you were dynamically assigned the IP address 128.114.160.210, you would find your hostname was dhcp-160-1. This name is statically bound to this IP address, so whomever is assigned 128.114.160.210 will be known as dhcp-160-1.

Not all machines will want their IP address (and DNS name) assigned dynamically. Those users who require a static name/address pair are still required to submit a BOOTP/DNS request to scnet@cats.ucsc.edu prior to activating their machines. Machines such as the following typically require a fixed name and address:

Unix Workstations Novell ServersXterminals and Printers WWW, FTP Daemon, and Mail servers

We will continue to support BOOTP on campus. If your machine is already registered and using BOOTP, then no action on your part is necessary. However, if it is possible to convert the machine to DHCP, NTS would appreciate your doing so as we would like to move as many hosts on campus to DHCP as is possible.

If you are installing a new machine which is capable of supporting DHCP, then NTS requires that you run DHCP. Please see the Client Information section below for information on how to configure your Mac or PC to use DHCP.

Client Information

DHCP Sites

DHCP RFC's