3Com 3CR17501-91 - SuperStack 3 Switch 3250, Implementation Manual

Page: 68 / 132

68 C
HAPTER
9: U
SING
A
UTOMATIC
IP C
ONFIGURATION
How Automatic IP
Configuration
Works
When your Switch is powered up for the first time the IP configuration
setting is set to
auto
— this is the default setting.
If your Switch has been powered up before, whichever of the three
options for IP configuration (
manual, auto, none
) was last
configured is activated when the Switch powers up again.
You can switch to manual IP configuration at any time using a serial port
connection to set up the IP information. For more information see the
Getting Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.
Automatic Process To detect its IP information using the automatic configuration process,
the Switch continually attempt to contact a DHCP server on the network
requesting IP information from the server.
If a DHCP server is on the network and working correctly it responds to
the clients request with an IP address (allocated from a pool of available
addresses) and other parameters such as a subnet mask, default gateway,
lease time, and any other options configured in the DHCP server.
The way a DHCP server responds is dependent on the DHCP server
settings. Therefore the way your DHCP server responds may be different
to the process outlined.
Important
Considerations
This section contains some important points to note when using the
automatic IP configuration feature.
The dynamic nature of automatically configured IP information means
that a Switch may change its IP address whilst in use. Your DHCP server
may allow you to reserve an IP address so that your Switch will always be
allocated the same IP address.
Server Support Your Switch has been tested to interoperate with DHCP servers that use
the following operating systems:
■
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
■
Microsoft Windows NT4 Server
■
Sun Solaris v2.5.1