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BOOTP CLIENT CONFIGURATION
While configuring a BOOTP client, go to these sections for information you are 
interested in:
■ “Introduction to BOOTP Client” on page 831
■ “Configuring an Interface to Dynamically Obtain an IP Address Through 
BOOTP” on page 832
■ “Displaying and Maintaining BOOTP Client Configuration” on page 832
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■ BOOTP client configuration only applies to VLAN interfaces.
■ If several VLAN interfaces sharing the same MAC address obtain IP addresses 
through a BOOTP relay agent, the BOOTP server cannot be a Windows 2000 
Server or Windows 2003 Server.
■ You are not recommended to enable both the DHCP client and the DHCP 
Snooping on the same device. Otherwise, DHCP Snooping entries may fail to 
be generated, or the BOOTP client may fail to obtain an IP address.
Introduction to BOOTP 
Client
This section covers these topics:
■ “BOOTP Application” on page 831
■ “Obtaining an IP Address Dynamically” on page 832
■ “Protocols and Standards” on page 832
BOOTP Application After you specify an interface of a device as a BOOTP client, the interface can use 
BOOTP to get information (such as IP address) from the BOOTP server, which 
simplifies your configuration.
Before using BOOTP, an administrator needs to configure a BOOTP parameter file 
for each BOOTP client on the BOOTP server. The parameter file contains 
information such as MAC address and IP address of a BOOTP client. When a 
BOOTP client originates a request to the BOOTP server, the BOOTP server will 
search for the BOOTP parameter file and return the corresponding configuration 
information.
Because you need to configure a parameter file for each client on the BOOTP 
server, BOOTP usually runs under a relatively stable environment. If the network 
changes frequently, DHCP is applicable.
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Because a DHCP server can interact with a BOOTP client, you can use the DHCP 
server to configure an IP address for the BOOTP client, without any BOOTP server.