Choosing an open source DHCPv6 client

Shane Kerr shane at time-travellers.org
Wed Dec 23 20:08:22 CET 2009


Phil,

On Wed, 2009-12-23 at 09:45 -0800, Phil Pennock wrote:
> On 2009-12-22 at 14:59 +0100, Shane Kerr wrote:
> > For BIND 10 DHCP on the server side, we are planning on beginning with
> > DHCPv6 and then adding DHCPv4 later. Except for the weird BOOTP-inspired
> > packet format and weird things you have to do to send & receive packets
> > before you have an IP address, DHCPv4 behavior is actually a simplified
> > subset of DHCPv6 behavior. :)
> 
> *snert*  No.
> 
> In an ISP environment, dealing with RAIO support, it quickly became
> clear how screwed up DHCPv4 relay support is.  DHCPv6 is clean and
> unambiguous (controls for, eg, whether or not the authoritative server's
> IP address should be passed onto the client).  The relevant areas in
> DHCPv4 show battle-scars from vendors fighting to avoid having to do The
> Right Thing.
> 
> I wish DHCPv4 were as clean, secure and unambiguous as DHCPv6.

Ah, our relay support is quite basic. Something we hope to fix as
well... but it is lowish priority as most people use appliances to do
DHCP relaying rather than software-only solutions like our software.

And yes, DHCPv6 is a work of beauty compared to DHCPv4. Probably because
so many people tried to kill it!

--
Shane



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