Technote: DHCP-Relay Decoding Option 82 values
Decoding Option 82 Agent “Circuit ID” & “Remote ID” values in DHCP Request
What is the Option 82 Sub-option “Agent Circuit ID” and “Agent Remote ID”?
How do I translate these values?
When the DHCP Relay Proxy adds OPTION 82 to DHCP Request, the gateway includes sub-
options as part of the OPTION 82 body. The destination VRF will determine which sub-options
to include. The Default sub-options added by the ACI switches for DHCP Relay are Agent
Circuit ID & Agent Remote ID.
Note: In a “multiple VRF” ACI DHCP-Relay use case scenario, the ACI DHCP-Relay Leaf will
add additional OPTION 82 sub-options (VRF Name\VPN ID, Server ID Override, & Link
selection). This technote addresses the “default” values only.
• Agent Circuit ID: is the Physical Interface, VLAN ID, and VLAN vnid of where the Client
resides on the DHCP Relay Proxy Gateway.
• Agent Remote ID: is the TEP Address of the DHCP Relay Proxy Gateway (Leaf).
You can decode these values to use for troubleshooting ACI DHCP Relay issues.
Sample Topology:
rtp-f2-p1-spines
TEP Address
10.0.200.93
10.0.200.94
rtp-f2-p1-leaf3 rtp-f2-p1-leaf4
TEP Address TEP Address
10.0.200.92 10.0.200.91
Po1 Po5
Po7 Po7
VMM Networking
Datacenter Cluster
deadbeef-esxi126
deadbeef-esxi127
deadbeef-vcsa
DHCP Servers DHCP Client
aconcagua.cisco.com dhcp3-bd25
192.2.26.252 192.2.25.1/24
lhotse.cisco.com 00:50:56:89:28:6e
192.2.28.252
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Technote: DHCP-Relay Decoding Option 82 values
ACI Tenant & Client Information:
Tenant: deadbeef-dhcp3
Single VRF: dhcp3-v1
Client BD: dhcp3-bd25
BD Subnet: 192.2.25.1/24
Client MAC: 00:50:56:89:28:6e
BD DHCP Relay Labels:
dhcp3-ipv4-dhcpRelay-server1 192.2.26.252
dhcp3-ipv4-dhcpRelay-server2 192.2.28.252
DHCP DISCOVER Request Snippet from DHCP Client 00:50:56:89:85:e6
Frame 1: 372 bytes on wire (2976 bits), 372 bytes captured (2976 bits) on interface 0
Ethernet II, Src: CiscoInc_f8:19:ff (00:22:bd:f8:19:ff), Dst: Vmware_89:85:e6
(00:50:56:89:85:e6)
Internet Protocol Version 4, Src: 192.2.25.1, Dst: 192.2.28.252
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 67 (67), Dst Port: 67 (67)
Bootstrap Protocol (Discover)
Bootp flags: 0x0000 (Unicast)
Relay agent IP address: 192.2.25.1
Client MAC address: Vmware_89:28:6e (00:50:56:89:28:6e)
Option: (53) DHCP Message Type (Discover)
Option: (82) Agent Information Option
Length: 24
Option 82 Suboption: (1) Agent Circuit ID
Length: 16
Agent Circuit ID: 160000060000001b00000000000023fd
Option 82 Suboption: (2) Agent Remote ID
Length: 4
Agent Remote ID: 0a00c85b
Agent Circuit ID: is the Physical Interface, VLAN ID, and VLAN vnid of where
the Client resides on the DHCP Relay Proxy Gateway
Agent Circuit ID: 160000060000001b00000000000023fd
Agent Circuit ID: 160000060000 = Physical Interface (port-channel7 from
the "show system internal epmc endpoint vlan 27”)
Agent Circuit ID: 001b00000000 = VLAN 27
Agent Circuit ID: 000023fd = VLAN vnid (9213 from the "show system
internal epmc endpoint vlan 27")
Agent Circuit ID: port-channel7, VLAN 27, VLAN vnid 9213
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Technote: DHCP-Relay Decoding Option 82 values
Use the “show system internal epmc endpoint vlan ###” command output to decode the Option
82 sub-option values.
For example:
(vsh_lc)# show system internal epmc endpoint vlan ##
rtp-f2-p1-leaf4# vsh_lc
module-1# show system internal epmc endpoint vlan 27
Vlan 27
MAC : 0050.5689.286e ::: Num IPs : 1
IP# 0 : 192.2.25.101
Vlan id : 27 ::: Vlan vnid : 9213 ::: BD vnid : 16580488
Encap vlan : 802.1Q/51
VRF name : deadbeef-dhcp3:dhcp3-v1 ::: VRF vnid : 2981889
phy if : 0x16000006 ::: tunnel if : 0 ::: Interface : port-channel7
Ref count : 5 ::: sclass : 16388
Agent Remote ID: is the TEP Address of the DHCP Relay Proxy Gateway
Agent Remote ID: 0a00c85b
Hex to IP Address: 10.0.200.91
# On APIC
# show switch | egrep -E "10.0.200.91|ID|---"
rtp-f2-p1-apic1# show switch | egrep -E "10.0.200.91|ID|---"
Abreviated Output
ID Pod Address Version Serial Number Name
---- ---- ------------ ----------------- ------------- ---------------
214 1 10.0.200.91 n9000-12.2(0.64a) SAL1816QWDQ rtp-f2-p1-leaf4
# On LEAF
# acidiag fnvread | egrep -E "10.0.200.91|ID|---"
rtp-f2-p1-leaf3# acidiag fnvread | egrep -E "10.0.200.91|ID|---"
ID Pod ID Name Serial Number IP Address Role State
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
214 1 rtp-f2-p1-leaf4 SAL1816QWDQ 10.0.200.91/32 leaf active
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Technote: DHCP-Relay Decoding Option 82 values
Resources for decoding values:
• A wireshark capture from the DHCP Server. Filter on “bootp” and capture the DHCP
Discover or DHCP Request Packet.
• IP Address - HEX, Decimal, Binary Converter
- http://ncalculators.com/digital-computation/ip-address-hex-decimal-binary.htm
• Hexadecimal to Decimal Converter
- http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/hex-to-decimal-converter
• Access to ACI Leaf Nodes so that you can run some CLI commands
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