External DHCP server for BCM install

[paterson]

I need some help. This is my first install on the BCM 400. I pretty much have most of the install working fine, but the customer has thrown a curve ball my way (at the last minute of course).

He wants to use his existing DHCP server for all DHCP requests. We are using VLANs for seperating data from voice traffic and he will set up his network for DHCP requests to be handled by his machine.

I had the IP sets (i2002 sets) working direct off the BCM, so I know that they work. I have now disabled the BCMs DHCP server to avoid trouble on the LAN. I have had very little success with the documentation other than finding the standard options 03 etc and option 128. The documents say that the option 128 value must be "Nortel-i2004A,10.10.10.1:7000,1,1", but they don't say what type of value it is. Would it be considered a string? Or should I just put in the IP address of the BCM and the value type of IP address? We did try it as string, but it did not work. By the way, the IP address of the BCM has changed from default and I did update the option 128 value that I gave to the IT guy.

Basically, I am having trouble with instructing the IT guy what values and IP options the DHCP server has to give out to the IP sets. I have tried setting up the IP sets for partial DHCP and physically programming in the IP address of the BCM but that has not worked either. Statically assigning all the values may be an option at the very last minute, but it cannot be a long term solution as the plan is to add more IP sets in the future.

I have also seen in the DOCS something about a the BCM being a DHCP relay agent. This is something new to me, is this what I need to set up and if so, how?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[inet2xtreme]

Most people use partial DHCP and program the S1 to the IP address of the BCM. Make sure you program those IP phones to port 7000 instead of 4100 (the default). I'm thinking that this is where you are having the most problems. I have about 60 IP phones running this way today with no issues. When another phone is added, it is programmed on S1 & S2 to the IP of the BCM, setup for port 7000 and the rest of the settings default. Hope that helps.

 

[paterson]

Thanks, but I have programmed the sets for partial DHCP, S1 is programmed for the BCM and the port is set for 7000.... there has been no success.

How do you have the external DHCP server set up? What options does it supply the IP sets with?

The DHCP server is a Windows 2000 machine.

Thanks for responding!!

 

[inet2xtreme]

At that site, I have a Cisco router prividing the DHCP service. No special options other than the default ones. It sounds like you may have some other issues related to the network path. I would suspect having either a firewall or extra router in the mix. DHCP asside, you could just hard code the phone with a static IP address and make sure you can ping it from the BCM (using putty on SSH at the command line). If you cannot see the phone, then you have some sort of network issue to deal with. If you can see the phone, make sure that there is not a firewall setup somewhere (including on the BCM itelf). Hope that helps.

 

[paterson]

Thanks for the help. I had to set the BCM to have the DHCP server set to be a Relay Agent pointing to the the external DHCP server. The IT guy also had the firewall blocking some traffic. All is good now!