Catalyst 2960 and 2960-S Software Configuration Guide, 12.2(55)SE

DHCP Server

The DHCP server assigns IP addresses from specified address pools on a switch or router to DHCP clients and manages them. If the DHCP server cannot give the DHCP client the requested configuration parameters from its database, it forwards the request to one or more secondary DHCP servers defined by the network administrator.

DHCP Relay Agent

A DHCP relay agent is a Layer 3 device that forwards DHCP packets between clients and servers. Relay agents forward requests and replies between clients and servers when they are not on the same physical subnet. Relay agent forwarding is different from the normal Layer 2 forwarding, in which IP datagrams are switched transparently between networks. Relay agents receive DHCP messages and generate new DHCP messages to send on output interfaces.

DHCP Snooping

DHCP snooping is a DHCP security feature that provides network security by filtering untrusted DHCP messages and by building and maintaining a DHCP snooping binding database, also referred to as a DHCP snooping binding table.

DHCP snooping acts like a firewall between untrusted hosts and DHCP servers. You use DHCP snooping to differentiate between untrusted interfaces connected to the end user and trusted interfaces connected to the DHCP server or another switch.

Note For DHCP snooping to function properly, all DHCP servers must be connected to the switch through trusted interfaces.

An untrusted DHCP message is a message that is received from outside the network or firewall. When you use DHCP snooping in a service-provider environment, an untrusted message is sent from a device that is not in the service-provider network, such as a customer’s switch. Messages from unknown devices are untrusted because they can be sources of traffic attacks.

The DHCP snooping binding database has the MAC address, the IP address, the lease time, the binding type, the VLAN number, and the interface information that corresponds to the local untrusted interfaces of a switch. It does not have information regarding hosts interconnected with a trusted interface.

In a service-provider network, a trusted interface is connected to a port on a device in the same network. An untrusted interface is connected to an untrusted interface in the network or to an interface on a device that is not in the network.

When a switch receives a packet on an untrusted interface and the interface belongs to a VLAN in which DHCP snooping is enabled, the switch compares the source MAC address and the DHCP client hardware address. If the addresses match (the default), the switch forwards the packet. If the addresses do not match, the switch drops the packet.

The switch drops a DHCP packet when one of these situations occurs:

• A packet from a DHCP server, such as a DHCPOFFER, DHCPACK, DHCPNAK, or DHCPLEASEQUERY packet, is received from outside the network or firewall.
• A packet is received on an untrusted interface, and the source MAC address and the DHCP client hardware address do not match.
• The switch receives a DHCPRELEASE or DHCPDECLINE broadcast message that has a MAC address in the DHCP snooping binding database, but the interface information in the binding database does not match the interface on which the message was received.
• A DHCP relay agent forwards a DHCP packet that includes a relay-agent IP address that is not 0.0.0.0, or the relay agent forwards a packet that includes option-82 information to an untrusted port.

If the switch is an aggregation switch supporting DHCP snooping and is connected to an edge switch that is inserting DHCP option-82 information, the switch drops packets with option-82 information when packets are received on an untrusted interface. If DHCP snooping is enabled and packets are received on a trusted port, the aggregation switch does not learn the DHCP snooping bindings for connected devices and cannot build a complete DHCP snooping binding database.

When an aggregation switch can be connected to an edge switch through an untrusted interface and you enter the ip dhcp snooping information option allow-untrusted global configuration command, the aggregation switch accepts packets with option-82 information from the edge switch. The aggregation switch learns the bindings for hosts connected through an untrusted switch interface. The DHCP security features, such as dynamic ARP inspection or IP source guard, can still be enabled on the aggregation switch while the switch receives packets with option-82 information on untrusted input interfaces to which hosts are connected. The port on the edge switch that connects to the aggregation switch must be configured as a trusted interface.

Option-82 Data Insertion

In residential, metropolitan Ethernet-access environments, DHCP can centrally manage the IP address assignments for a large number of subscribers. When the DHCP option-82 feature is enabled on the switch, a subscriber device is identified by the switch port through which it connects to the network (in addition to its MAC address). Multiple hosts on the subscriber LAN can be connected to the same port on the access switch and are uniquely identified.

Note The DHCP option-82 feature is supported only when DHCP snooping is globally enabled and on the VLANs to which subscriber devices using this feature are assigned.

Figure 1-1 is an example of a metropolitan Ethernet network in which a centralized DHCP server assigns IP addresses to subscribers connected to the switch at the access layer. Because the DHCP clients and their associated DHCP server do not reside on the same IP network or subnet, a DHCP relay agent (the Catalyst switch) is configured with a helper address to enable broadcast forwarding and to transfer DHCP messages between the clients and the server.

Figure 1-1 DHCP Relay Agent in a Metropolitan Ethernet Network

When you enable the DHCP snooping information option 82 on the switch, this sequence of events occurs:

• The host (DHCP client) generates a DHCP request and broadcasts it on the network.
• When the switch receives the DHCP request, it adds the option-82 information in the packet. The remote-ID suboption is the switch MAC address, and the circuit-ID suboption is the port identifier, vlan-mod-port, from which the packet is received.
• If the IP address of the relay agent is configured, the switch adds this IP address in the DHCP packet.
• The switch forwards the DHCP request that includes the option-82 field to the DHCP server.
• The DHCP server receives the packet. If the server is option-82-capable, it can use the remote ID, the circuit ID, or both to assign IP addresses and implement policies, such as restricting the number of IP addresses that can be assigned to a single remote ID or circuit ID. Then the DHCP server echoes the option-82 field in the DHCP reply.
• The DHCP server unicasts the reply to the switch if the request was relayed to the server by the switch. The switch verifies that it originally inserted the option-82 data by inspecting the remote ID and possibly the circuit ID fields. The switch removes the option-82 field and forwards the packet to the switch port that connects to the DHCP client that sent the DHCP request.

When the described sequence of events occurs, the values in these fields in Figure 1-2 do not change:

• Circuit-ID suboption fields

– Suboption type

– Length of the suboption type

– Circuit-ID type

– Length of the circuit-ID type

• Remote-ID suboption fields

– Suboption type

– Length of the suboption type

– Remote-ID type

– Length of the remote-ID type

In the port field of the circuit-ID suboption, the port numbers start at 3. For example, on a switch with 24 10/100 ports and small form-factor pluggable (SFP) module slots, port 3 is the Fast Ethernet x/0/1 port, port 4 is the Fast Ethernet x/0/2 port, and so forth, where x is the stack member number. Port 27 is the SFP module slot x/0/1, and so forth.

Figure 1-2 shows the packet formats for the remote-ID suboption and the circuit-ID suboption. For the circuit-ID suboption, the module number corresponds to the switch number in the stack. The switch uses the packet formats when you globally enable DHCP snooping and enter the ip dhcp snooping information option global configuration command.

Figure 1-2 Suboption Packet Formats

shows the packet formats for user-configured remote-ID and circuit-ID suboptions The switch uses these packet formats when DHCP snooping is globally enabled and when the ip dhcp snooping information option format remote-id global configuration command and the ip dhcp snooping vlan information option format-type circuit-id string interface configuration command are entered.

The values for these fields in the packets change from the default values when you configure the remote-ID and circuit-ID suboptions:

• Circuit-ID suboption fields

– The circuit-ID type is 1.

– The length values are variable, depending on the length of the string that you configure.

• Remote-ID suboption fields

– The remote-ID type is 1.

– The length values are variable, depending on the length of the string that you configure.

Figure 1-3 User-Configured Suboption Packet Formats

DHCP Snooping Binding Database

When DHCP snooping is enabled, the switch uses the DHCP snooping binding database to store information about untrusted interfaces. The database can have up to 8192 bindings.

Each database entry ( binding) has an IP address, an associated MAC address, the lease time (in hexadecimal format), the interface to which the binding applies, and the VLAN to which the interface belongs. The database agent stores the bindings in a file at a configured location. At the end of each entry is a checksum that accounts for all the bytes from the start of the file through all the bytes associated with the entry. Each entry is 72 bytes, followed by a space and then the checksum value.

To keep the bindings when the switch reloads, you must use the DHCP snooping database agent. If the agent is disabled, dynamic ARP inspection or IP source guard is enabled, and the DHCP snooping binding database has dynamic bindings, the switch loses its connectivity. If the agent is disabled and only DHCP snooping is enabled, the switch does not lose its connectivity, but DHCP snooping might not prevent DHCP spoofing attacks.

When reloading, the switch reads the binding file to build the DHCP snooping binding database. The switch updates the file when the database changes.

When a switch learns of new bindings or when it loses bindings, the switch immediately updates the entries in the database. The switch also updates the entries in the binding file. The frequency at which the file is updated is based on a configurable delay, and the updates are batched. If the file is not updated in a specified time (set by the write-delay and abort-timeout values), the update stops.

This is the format of the file with bindings:

Each entry in the file is tagged with a checksum value that the switch uses to verify the entries when it reads the file. The initial-checksum entry on the first line distinguishes entries associated with the latest file update from entries associated with a previous file update.

This is an example of a binding file:

When the switch starts and the calculated checksum value equals the stored checksum value, the switch reads entries from the binding file and adds the bindings to its DHCP snooping binding database. The switch ignores an entry when one of these situations occurs:

• The switch reads the entry and the calculated checksum value does not equal the stored checksum value. The entry and the ones following it are ignored.
• An entry has an expired lease time (the switch might not remove a binding entry when the lease time expires).
• The interface in the entry no longer exists on the system.
• The interface is a routed interface or a DHCP snooping-trusted interface.

DHCP Snooping and Switch Stacks

DHCP snooping is managed on the stack master. When a new switch joins the stack, the switch receives the DHCP snooping configuration from the stack master. When a member leaves the stack, all DHCP snooping address bindings associated with the switch age out.

All snooping statistics are generated on the stack master. If a new stack master is elected, the statistics counters reset.

When a stack merge occurs, all DHCP snooping bindings in the stack master are lost if it is no longer the stack master. With a stack partition, the existing stack master is unchanged, and the bindings belonging to the partitioned switches age out. The new master of the partitioned stack begins processing the new incoming DHCP packets. For more information about switch stacks, see Chapter1, “Managing Switch Stacks”

Default DHCP Snooping Configuration

Table 1-1 shows the default DHCP snooping configuration.

DHCP Snooping Configuration Guidelines

These are the configuration guidelines for DHCP snooping.

• You must globally enable DHCP snooping on the switch.
• DHCP snooping is not active until DHCP snooping is enabled on a VLAN.
• Before globally enabling DHCP snooping on the switch, make sure that the devices acting as the DHCP server and the DHCP relay agent are configured and enabled.
• Before configuring the DHCP snooping information option on your switch, be sure to configure the device that is acting as the DHCP server. For example, you must specify the IP addresses that the DHCP server can assign or exclude, or you must configure DHCP options for these devices.
• When configuring a large number of circuit IDs on a switch, consider the impact of lengthy character strings on the NVRAM or the flash memory. If the circuit-ID configurations, combined with other data, exceed the capacity of the NVRAM or the flash memory, an error message appears.
• Before configuring the DHCP relay agent on your switch, make sure to configure the device that is acting as the DHCP server. For example, you must specify the IP addresses that the DHCP server can assign or exclude, configure DHCP options for devices, or set up the DHCP database agent.
• If the DHCP relay agent is enabled but DHCP snooping is disabled, the DHCP option-82 data insertion feature is not supported.
• If a switch port is connected to a DHCP server, configure a port as trusted by entering the ip dhcp snooping trust interface configuration command.
• If a switch port is connected to a DHCP client, configure a port as untrusted by entering the no ip dhcp snooping trust interface configuration command.
• Follow these guidelines when configuring the DHCP snooping binding database:

– Because both NVRAM and the flash memory have limited storage capacity, we recommend that you store the binding file on a TFTP server.

– For network-based URLs (such as TFTP and FTP), you must create an empty file at the configured URL before the switch can write bindings to the binding file at that URL. See the documentation for your TFTP server to determine whether you must first create an empty file on the server; some TFTP servers cannot be configured this way.

– To ensure that the lease time in the database is accurate, we recommend that you enable and configure NTP. For more information, see the “Configuring NTP” section.

– If NTP is configured, the switch writes binding changes to the binding file only when the switch system clock is synchronized with NTP.

• Do not enter the ip dhcp snooping information option allow-untrusted command on an aggregation switch to which an untrusted device is connected. If you enter this command, an untrusted device might spoof the option-82 information.
• You can display DHCP snooping statistics by entering the show ip dhcp snooping statistics user EXEC command, and you can clear the snooping statistics counters by entering the clear ip dhcp snooping statistics privileged EXEC command.

Note Do not enable Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snooping on RSPAN VLANs. If DHCP snooping is enabled on RSPAN VLANs, DHCP packets might not reach the RSPAN destination port.

Configuring the DHCP Relay Agent

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to enable the DHCP relay agent on the switch:

To disable the DHCP server and relay agent, use the no service dhcp global configuration command.

See the “ Configuring DHCP ” section of the “IP Addressing and Services” section of the Cisco IOS IP Configuration Guide, Release 12.2 from the Cisco.com page under Documentation > Cisco IOS Software > 12.2 Mainline > Configuration Guides for these procedures:

• Checking (validating) the relay agent information
• Configuring the relay agent forwarding policy

Enabling DHCP Snooping and Option 82

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to enable DHCP snooping on the switch:

To disable DHCP snooping, use the no ip dhcp snooping global configuration command. To disable DHCP snooping on a VLAN or range of VLANs, use the no ip dhcp snooping vlan vlan-range global configuration command. To disable the insertion and the removal of the option-82 field, use the no ip dhcp snooping information option global configuration command. To configure an aggregation switch to drop incoming DHCP snooping packets with option-82 information from an edge switch, use the no ip dhcp snooping information option allow-untrusted global configuration command.

This example shows how to enable DHCP snooping globally and on VLAN 10 and to configure a rate limit of 100 packets per second on a port:

Enabling the DHCP Snooping Binding Database Agent

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to enable and configure the DHCP snooping binding database agent on the switch:

To stop using the database agent and binding files, use the no ip dhcp snooping database global configuration command. To reset the timeout or delay values, use the ip dhcp snooping database timeout seconds or the ip dhcp snooping database write-delay seconds global configuration command.

To clear the statistics of the DHCP snooping binding database agent, use the clear ip dhcp snooping database statistics privileged EXEC command. To renew the database, use the renew ip dhcp snooping database privileged EXEC command.

To delete binding entries from the DHCP snooping binding database, use the no ip dhcp snooping binding mac-address vlan vlan-id ip-address interface interface-id privileged EXEC command. Enter this command for each entry that you want to delete.

Source IP Address Filtering

When IPSG is enabled with this option, IP traffic is filtered based on the source IP address. The switch forwards IP traffic when the source IP address matches an entry in the DHCP snooping binding database or a binding in the IP source binding table.

When a DHCP snooping binding or static IP source binding is added, changed, or deleted on an interface, the switch modifies the port ACL by using the IP source binding changes and re-applies the port ACL to the interface.

If you enable IPSG on an interface on which IP source bindings (dynamically learned by DHCP snooping or manually configured) are not configured, the switch creates and applies a port ACL that denies all IP traffic on the interface. If you disable IP source guard, the switch removes the port ACL from the interface.

Source IP and MAC Address Filtering

IP traffic is filtered based on the source IP and MAC addresses. The switch forwards traffic only when the source IP and MAC addresses match an entry in the IP source binding table.

When address filtering is enabled, the switch filters IP and non-IP traffic. If the source MAC address of an IP or non-IP packet matches a valid IP source binding, the switch forwards the packet. The switch drops all other types of packets except DHCP packets.

The switch uses port security to filter source MAC addresses. The interface can shut down when a port-security violation occurs.

IP Source Guard for Static Hosts

Note Do not use IPSG (IP source guard) for static hosts on uplink ports or trunk ports.

IPSG for static hosts extends the IPSG capability to non-DHCP and static environments. The previous IPSG used the entries created by DHCP snooping to validate the hosts connected to a switch. Any traffic received from a host without a valid DHCP binding entry is dropped. This security feature restricts IP traffic on nonrouted Layer 2 interfaces. It filters traffic based on the DHCP snooping binding database and on manually configured IP source bindings. The previous version of IPSG required a DHCP environment for IPSG to work.

IPSG for static hosts allows IPSG to work without DHCP. IPSG for static hosts relies on IP device tracking-table entries to install port ACLs. The switch creates static entries based on ARP requests or other IP packets to maintain the list of valid hosts for a given port. You can also specify the number of hosts allowed to send traffic to a given port. This is equivalent to port security at Layer 3.

IPSG for static hosts also supports dynamic hosts. If a dynamic host receives a DHCP-assigned IP address that is available in the IP DHCP snooping table, the same entry is learned by the IP device tracking table. In a stacked environment, when the master failover occurs, the IP source guard entries for static hosts attached to member ports are retained. When you enter the show ip device tracking all EXEC command, the IP device tracking table displays the entries as ACTIVE.

Note Some IP hosts with multiple network interfaces can inject some invalid packets into a network interface. The invalid packets contain the IP or MAC address for another network interface of the host as the source address. The invalid packets can cause IPSG for static hosts to connect to the host, to learn the invalid IP or MAC address bindings, and to reject the valid bindings. Consult the vender of the corresponding operating system and the network interface to prevent the host from injecting invalid packets.

IPSG for static hosts initially learns IP or MAC bindings dynamically through an ACL-based snooping mechanism. IP or MAC bindings are learned from static hosts by ARP and IP packets. They are stored in the device tracking database. When the number of IP addresses that have been dynamically learned or statically configured on a given port reaches a maximum, the hardware drops any packet with a new IP address. To resolve hosts that have moved or gone away for any reason, IPSG for static hosts leverages IP device tracking to age out dynamically learned IP address bindings. This feature can be used with DHCP snooping. Multiple bindings are established on a port that is connected to both DHCP and static hosts. For example, bindings are stored in both the device tracking database as well as in the DHCP snooping binding database.

Default IP Source Guard Configuration

By default, IP source guard is disabled.

IP Source Guard Configuration Guidelines

• You can configure static IP bindings only on nonrouted ports. If you enter the ip source binding mac-address vlan vlan-id ip-address interface interface-id global configuration command on a routed interface, this error message appears:

• When IP source guard with source IP filtering is enabled on an interface, DHCP snooping must be enabled on the access VLAN for that interface.
• If you are enabling IP source guard on a trunk interface with multiple VLANs and DHCP snooping is enabled on all the VLANs, the source IP address filter is applied on all the VLANs.

Note If IP source guard is enabled and you enable or disable DHCP snooping on a VLAN on the trunk interface, the switch might not properly filter traffic.

• If you enable IP source guard with source IP and MAC address filtering, DHCP snooping and port security must be enabled on the interface. You must also enter the ip dhcp snooping information option global configuration command and ensure that the DHCP server supports option 82. When IP source guard is enabled with MAC address filtering, the DHCP host MAC address is not learned until the host is granted a lease. When forwarding packets from the server to the host, DHCP snooping uses option-82 data to identify the host port.
• When configuring IP source guard on interfaces on which a private VLAN is configured, port security is not supported.
• IP source guard is not supported on EtherChannels.
• You can enable this feature when 802.1x port-based authentication is enabled.
• If the number of ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) entries exceeds the maximum, the CPU usage increases.
• In a switch stack, if IP source guard is configured on a stack member interface and you remove the switch configuration by entering the no switch stack-member-number provision global configuration command, the interface static bindings are removed from the binding table. They are not removed from the running configuration. If you again provision the switch by entering the switch stack-member-number provision command, the binding is restored. To remove the binding from the running configuration, you must disable IP source guard before entering the no switch provision global configuration command. The configuration is also removed if the switch reloads while the interface is removed from the binding table. For more information about provisioned switches, see the “Stack Offline Configuration” section.

Enabling IP Source Guard

Begin in privileged EXEC mode.

To disable IP source guard with source IP address filtering, use the no ip verify source interface configuration command.

To delete a static IP source binding entry, use the no ip source global configuration command.

This example shows how to enable IP source guard with source IP and MAC filtering on VLANs 10
and 11:

Configuring IP Source Guard for Static Hosts

• Configuring IP Source Guard for Static Hosts on a Layer 2 Access Port

Configuring IP Source Guard for Static Hosts on a Layer 2 Access Port

Note You must configure the ip device tracking maximum limit-number interface configuration command globally for IPSG for static hosts to work. If you only configure this command on a port without enabling IP device tracking globally or by setting an IP device tracking maximum on that interface, IPSG with static hosts rejects all the IP traffic from that interface

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode:

This example shows how to stop IPSG with static hosts on an interface.

This example shows how to enable IPSG with static hosts on a port.

This example shows how to enable IPSG for static hosts with IP filters on a Layer 2 access port and to verify the valid IP bindings on the interface Gi0/3:

This example shows how to enable IPSG for static hosts with IP-MAC filters on a Layer 2 access port, to verify the valid IP-MAC bindings on the interface Gi0/3, and to verify that the number of bindings on this interface has reached the maximum:

This example displays all IP or MAC binding entries for all interfaces. The CLI displays all active as well as inactive entries. When a host is learned on a interface, the new entry is marked as active. When the same host is disconnected from that interface and connected to a different interface, a new IP or MAC binding entry displays as active as soon as the host is detected. The old entry for this host on the previous interface is marked as INACTIVE.

This example displays all active IP or MAC binding entries for all interfaces:

This example displays all inactive IP or MAC binding entries for all interfaces. The host was first learned on GigabitEthernet 0/1 and then moved to GigabitEthernet 0/2. the IP or MAC binding entries learned on GigabitEthernet 0/1 are marked as inactive.

This example displays the count of all IP device tracking host entries for all interfaces:

Default Port-Based Address Allocation Configuration

By default, DHCP server port-based address allocation is disabled.

Port-Based Address Allocation Configuration Guidelines

These are the configuration guidelines for DHCP port-based address allocation:

• Only one IP address can be assigned per port.
• Reserved addresses (preassigned) cannot be cleared by using the clear ip dhcp binding global configuration command.
• Preassigned addresses are automatically excluded from normal dynamic IP address assignment. Preassigned addresses cannot be used in host pools, but there can be multiple preassigned addresses per DHCP address pool.
• To restrict assignments from the DHCP pool to preconfigured reservations (unreserved addresses are not offered to the client and other clients are not served by the pool), you can enter the reserved-only DHCP pool configuration command.

Enabling DHCP Server Port-Based Address Allocation

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to globally enable port-based address allocation and to automatically generate a subscriber identifier on an interface.

After enabling DHCP port-based address allocation on the switch, use the ip dhcp pool global configuration command to preassign IP addresses and to associate them to clients. To restrict assignments from the DHCP pool to preconfigured reservations, you can enter the reserved-only DHCP pool configuration command. Unreserved addresses that are part of the network or on pool ranges are not offered to the client, and other clients are not served by the pool. By entering this command, users can configure a group of switches with DHCP pools that share a common IP subnet and that ignore requests from clients of other switches.

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode follow these steps to preassign an IP address and to associate it to a client identified by the interface name.

To disable DHCP port-based address allocation, use the no ip dhcp use subscriber-id client-id global configuration command. To disable the automatic generation of a subscriber identifier, use the no ip dhcp subscriber-id interface-name global configuration command. To disable the subscriber identifier on an interface, use the no ip dhcp server use subscriber-id client-id interface configuration command.

To remove an IP address reservation from a DHCP pool, use the no address ip-address client-id string DHCP pool configuration command. To change the address pool to nonrestricted, enter the no reserved-only DHCP pool configuration command.

In this example, a subscriber identifier is automatically generated, and the DHCP server ignores any client identifier fields in the DHCP messages and uses the subscriber identifier instead. The subscriber identifier is based on the short name of the interface and the client preassigned IP address 10.1.1.7.

This example shows that the preassigned address was correctly reserved in the DHCP pool:

For more information about configuring the DHCP server port-based address allocation feature, go to Cisco.com, and enter Cisco IOS IP Addressing Services in the Search field to access the Cisco IOS software documentation. You can also access the documentation:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/ipaddr/command/reference/iad_book.html