I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt

[[e-mail]]

 A Revised Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts 
 directories. This draft is a work item of the Dynamic Host Configuration 
 Working Group of the IETF.                                                

       Title     : An option for FQDNs in DHCP options                     
       Author(s) : Y. Rekhter, R. Droms
       Filename  : draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt
       Pages     : 4
       Date      : 07/25/1997

DHCP [DHCP] can be used to automate the process of configuring TCP/IP host 
computers.  However, some of the DHCP options carry IP addresses rather 
than Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN). Use of IP addresses constrains 
the DHCP client to use the addresses that were in use at the time the 
client received its configuration information; these addresses may change 
over time, (e.g., a server may be assigned a new IP address), so that the 
IP addresses used by the client may become invalid.  
                      
An alternative to passing IP addresses is to pass FQDNs instead of 
(numeric) IP addresses.  Doing this allows a client to defer binding 
between a particular network entity (e.g., a server) and its IP address 
until run time.  As stated in [Carpenter:96], "Deferring the binding avoids
the risk of changed mapping between IP addresses and specific network 
entities (due to changing addressing information).  Moreover, reliance on 
FQDNs (rather than IP addresses) also localizes to the DNS the changes 
needed to deal with changing addressing information due to renumbering."   

This document defines a new DHCP option that allows the use of FQDNs 
instead of IP addresses in DHCP options.                                   

Internet-Drafts are available by anonymous FTP.  Login with the username
"anonymous" and a password of your e-mail address.  After logging in,
type "cd internet-drafts" and then
     "get draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt".
A URL for the Internet-Draft is:
ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt
 
Internet-Drafts directories are located at:	
	                                                
     o  Africa:  ftp.is.co.za                    
	                                                
     o  Europe:  ftp.nordu.net            	
                 ftp.nis.garr.it                 
	                                                
     o  Pacific Rim: munnari.oz.au               
	                                                
     o  US East Coast: ds.internic.net           
	                                                
     o  US West Coast: ftp.isi.edu               
	                                                
Internet-Drafts are also available by mail.	
	                                                
Send a message to:  [e-mail]. In the body type: 
     "FILE /internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt".
							
NOTE: The mail server at ds.internic.net can return the document in
      MIME-encoded form by using the "mpack" utility.  To use this
      feature, insert the command "ENCODING mime" before the "FILE"
      command.  To decode the response(s), you will need "munpack" or
      a MIME-compliant mail reader.  Different MIME-compliant mail readers
      exhibit different behavior, especially when dealing with
      "multipart" MIME messages (i.e., documents which have been split
      up into multiple messages), so check your local documentation on
      how to manipulate these messages.
							
							

Below is the data which will enable a MIME compliant mail reader 
implementation to automatically retrieve the ASCII version
of the Internet-Draft.

ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt"><ftp://ds.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dhc-fqdn-opt-03.txt>