Stateless DHCPv6

Stateless DHCPv6 enables a device that has obtained an IPv6 address/prefix to get other configuration parameters from a DHCPv6 server.

The device performs stateless DHCPv6 if an RA message with the following flags is received from the router during stateless address autoconfiguration:

For more information about stateless address autoconfiguration, see "Configuring basic IPv6 settings."

Figure 68: Stateless DHCPv6 operation

As shown in Figure 68, stateless DHCPv6 operates in the following steps:

  1. The DHCPv6 client sends an Information-request message to the multicast address of all DHCPv6 servers and DHCPv6 relay agents. The Information-request message contains an Option Request option that specifies the requested configuration parameters.

  2. The DHCPv6 server returns to the client a Reply message containing the requested configuration parameters.

  3. The client checks the Reply message. If the obtained configuration parameters match those requested in the Information-request message, the client uses these parameters to complete configuration. If not, the client ignores the configuration parameters. If the client receives multiple replies with configuration parameters matching those requested in the Information-request message, it uses the first received reply.