dhcp_modules(5)

NAME

     dhcp_modules - data storage modules for the DHCP service

DESCRIPTION

     This man page describes the characteristics of data  storage
     modules (public modules) for use by the Solaris Dynamic Host
     Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service.

     Public modules are the part of the DHCP service architecture
     that encapsulate the details of storing DHCP service data in
     a data storage service. Examples of  data  storage  services
     are NIS+, Oracle, and ufs file systems.

     Public modules are dynamic  objects  which  can  be  shipped
     separately  from the Solaris DHCP service. Once installed, a
     public module is visible to the DHCP  service,  and  can  be
     selected  for  use  by  the service through the DHCP service
     management    interfaces    (dhcpmgr(1M),    dhcpconfig(1M),
     dhtadm(1M), and pntadm(1M)).

     Public modules may be provided by Sun Microsystems,  Inc  or
     by third parties.

     The Solaris DHCP service management architecture provides  a
     mechanism for plugging in public module-specific administra-
     tion functionality into the dhcpmgr(1M)  and  dhcpconfig(1M)
     utilities. This functionality is in the form of a Java Bean,
     which is provided by the public  module  vendor.  This  Java
     Bean  collects public module-specific configuration from the
     user (you) and provides it to the Solaris DHCP service.

     The Solaris DHCP service bundles three modules with the ser-
     vice,   which   are   described   below.   There  are  three
     dhcpsvc.conf(4) DHCP service configuration  parameters  per-
     taining    to    public   modules:   RESOURCE,   PATH,   and
     RESOURCE_CONFIG. See dhcpsvc.conf(4)  for  more  information
     about these parameters.

  SUNWfiles
     This module stores its data in  ASCII  files.  Although  the
     format  is  ASCII, hand-editing is discouraged. It is useful
     for DHCP service environments that support  several  hundred
     to  a  couple  thousand of clients and lease times are a few
     hours or more.

     This module's  data  may  be  shared  between  DHCP  servers
     through the use of NFS.

  SUNWbinfiles
     This module stores its data in binary files.  It  is  useful
     for  DHCP  service  environments with many networks and many
     thousands of clients.  This  module  provides  an  order  of
     magnitude   increase   in   performance  and  capacity  over
     SUNWfiles.

     This module's data cannot be shared between DHCP servers.

  SUNWnisplus
     This module stores its data within a NIS+ domain. It is use-
     ful  in  environments  where  NIS+  is  already deployed and
     facilitates sharing among multiple DHCP servers. This module
     suports several hundred to a few thousand clients with lease
     times of several hours or more.

     The NIS+ service should be hosted on a  machine  with  ample
     CPU  power,  memory,  and disk space, as the load on NIS+ is
     significant when it is used to  store  DHCP  data.  Periodic
     checkpointing  of  the NIS+ service is necessary in order to
     roll the transaction logs and keep the NIS+ service  operat-
     ing  at  its  highest  efficiency. See nisping(1M) and cron-
     tab(1) for more information.

SEE ALSO

     crontab(1),   dhcpconfig(1M),    dhcpmgr(1M),    dhtadm(1M),
     nisping(1M), pntadm(1M), dhcpsvc.conf(4), dhcp(5)

     Solaris DHCP Service Developer's Guide