DHCP server is often used on Cisco IOS routers so you supply hosts with an IP address. We can also use DHCP client on our routers which is useful if your ISP uses dynamic IP addresses for customers.

In this lesson, we’ll take a look how to configure your router as DHCP client.

Configuration

This is the topology we will use:

Let’s start with the DHCP server.

DHCP Server

Let’s create a pool for our local subnet and include a default route:

Server(config)#ip dhcp pool MY_POOL
Server(dhcp-config)#network 192.168.1.0 /24
Server(dhcp-config)#default-router 192.168.1.254

That’s all we need, let’s look at the DHCP client now.

DHCP Client

You only need one command on the interface to use DHCP:

Client(config)#interface FastEthernet 0/0
Client(config-if)#ip address dhcp
Client(config-if)#no shutdown

After a few seconds you will see this:

Client#
%DHCP-6-ADDRESS_ASSIGN: Interface FastEthernet0/0 assigned DHCP address 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0, hostname Client

Great so we got an IP address:

Client#show ip interface brief
Interface                  IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol
FastEthernet0/0            192.168.1.1     YES DHCP   up                    up

The router also installs a default route: