How To: Use DHCPv6 to Assign Specific IPv6 Addresses to Specific Devices

With DHCPv6, it isn’t always easy for network administrators to associate IP addresses and specific users or devices. This How To Note describes a solution to this problem: the IPv6 “subscriber-id-auto-mac” feature. This feature configures a relay agent to insert the client’s MAC address into a subscriber-ID option in the relay envelope of the DHCP packets, as they pass through the relay on the way from the client to the server. A suitably configured server can then use this subscriber-ID option to assign an IPv6 address based on the client MAC address.