2960-S and PXE Boot

[NeilBolin155]

Before I bought my catalyst 2960-24tc-s, I was assured by sales staff that it had full DHCP functionality.  However, upon unboxing I can find no hint of dhcp service beyond acting as a relay.  no 'ip dhcp pool' command in the cli, no nothing!  the documentation for configuring this guy only mentions setting up snooping and relay.

Is there something I'm missing?  I need to be able to specify a tftpboot/pxe boot server for my VOIP phones and Ghost system.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Neil

[Peter Paluch · Accepted solution]

Neil,

What is the exact version of your IOS? Can you post the output of the show version here? It is possible that you are running the LAN Lite image that perhaps does not support the DHCP functionality.

In any case, it is not usual (though not prohibited, either) to run a DHCP server on a Layer2 switch. Your network probably has a router - it would be more common to run a DHCP server on it, or have a dedicated DHCP server somewhere.

Best regards,

Peter

[NeilBolin155]

you are correct, the lan-lite version is installed.  This is going into a remote training facility, so options on hardware are limited.  At this point I'll just hope the router the ISP provides (which is supposably cisco) can handle it and if not then swap the switch for a regular model.

Thank you for the help!

[Peter Paluch]

Neil,

The 2960-S should support the LAN Base image - it is a matter of licensing but technically I believe you can replace the LAN Lite image with the LAN Base image that should support the DHCP operations. Your switch is not "crippled", it's just running a small feature-set IOS.

Best regards,

Peter

[NeilBolin155]

Veddddy interesting!  This I must look in to...

[Peter Paluch]

Neil,

I may have been wrong on this one. I am not sure if your particular switch version would actually run with LAN Base image. No problem with trying that but as to what I have been able to find so far, it does not seem to be officially supported.

I apologize very much for misleading you.

Best regards,

Peter

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi Neil,

Looking at the command reference guide for 2960, I do not see "ip dhcp pool" coomand.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2960/software/release/12.2_25_see/command/reference/cli1.html

[Peter Paluch]

Reza,

You're right about the documentation but what's interesting is that there actually is the possibility to configure a DHCP server on 2950/2960 series switches in the usual way. The documentations seems to be wrong on this... or is that an undocumented feature?

Best regards,

Peter

[Lei Tian]

What I heard is cannot do that on 2960-S. The hardware on LAN lite and LAN base is different.

Regards,

Lei Tian

[Lei Tian]

See 2960's Q&A

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps6406/qa_c67-577519.html

Q. Can a Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series LAN Lite switch be upgraded to LAN Base?

A. No. The feature set is bound to the hardware model. To get the features  and capabilities of LAN Base, you must purchase a LAN Base switch.

Regards,

Lei Tian

[Peter Paluch]

Lei,

Thank you very much for putting this straight. So, to conclude things - the LAN Base does support the DHCP Server feature (I can personally confirm this) but the LAN Lite version obviously does not, and the switch WS-2960-24TC-S cannot be upgraded from LAN Lite to LAN Base.

Best regards,

Peter