Spirent TestCenter

DHCP Testing

www.spirentcampus.com
Topic Overview
„ DHCP Features „ Traffic Wizard with DHCP End Points
„ Host Setup Options „ Bind/Release DHCP
„ Using the Host Wizard „ Interactive Mode versus Batch Mode
„ Host Interface Settings „ Using the Command Sequencer
„ DHCP Host Parameters „ Results Views and DHCP Results
„ Session Host Name Setup „ Viewing Session Information
„ Option Request List „ Sending Traffic and Viewing Results
„ Custom Options Support „ Enabling IGMP
„ Layer 2 and 3 Relay Agent Setup „ Working with Multicast Groups
„ DHCP Port and Test Settings „ DHCPv4 Server Features

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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
 DHCP Features
„ Support for DHCP Client, DHCP Relay Agent (L2&3), and DHCP Server emulation
„ Configure a DHCP Test using Wizards to simplify the setup
„ DHCPv4 and DHCP-PD (for IPv6) are both supported
„ Can emulate up to 32K subscribers per port
„ Can emulate up to 4 million subscribers per chassis
„ Provides detailed analysis for upstream, downstream and peer-to-peer analysis; per
subscriber or port
„ Interactive feature allows functional and negative testing including binding and
releasing groups of subscribers
„ Integrated protocol counters allows you to track protocol messaging
„ Real-time results and charting
„ Custom DHCP option editor
„ The Command Sequencer provides integrated DHCP control plane and data plane
events
„ Supports capture and decode DHCP control plane and data plane events
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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
Technology Selector
„ The Technology Selector is used to filter protocols seen in the Spirent
TestCenter Application.
„ The tool automatically opens each time the Application is launched.
„ Users can add unselected protocols to a test at any time by clicking the
Technology Selector button from the main toolbar.

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Host Setup Options
„ The Host Wizard can be invoked from either at the System Level (All
Hosts) or Individual Port Level.
„ At the Port Level, we can either Add a Single Host or Add Multiple Hosts,
whereas at System Level we can only add Multiple Hosts.

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Using the Host Wizard
„ Allows intuitive step-by-step configuration
„ Provides direct access to most DHCP parameters
„ It can also launch Traffic Wizard automatically

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Hosts Wizard – Ports
„ Allows you to Select the Ports for the DHCP Test.
„ The ‘Reset’ button to put the Wizard back to the default
values.

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Hosts Wizard – Protocols
„ Select the ‘Access/Multicast’ button and then select one or
more protocols for the Host(s) to Emulate.

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Host Wizard – Select Encapsulation

„ None is for layer 2 only (i.e., no IP header)

„ You can also add one or more (i.e., a stack) of 802.1Q tags
by checking the “Number of VLAN Headers” option.
‹ When this is selected, the Configure VLANs step will appear.

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Host Wizard – Configure VLANs

„ The following slide describes some stuff about this.

Ethernet
Ethernet 802.1Q Service Provider Tag
Frame 802.1Q Customer Tag
Frame (S-Tag) (C-Tag)
D S TPID CoS VLAN TPID CoS C VLAN Ether-
Priority
D
ID F Data FCS
A A E Priority I ID Type

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Configure VLANs continued
„ The example on the previous slide had 2 VLAN headers configured (i.e.,
Q-n-Q)
„ VLAN #1 is always the first (top) tag
‹ It is the only tag if only 1 VLAN header is configured
‹ If only 1 tag is configured, its TPID must be 0x8100 per IEEE 802.1Q
‹ Spirent TestCenter only counts it as a VLAN frame when its TPID is 0x8100
„ The TPID identifies the frame as 802.1Q.
„ The S-Tag TPID is vendor proprietary.
‹ Some vendors use a unique TPID for the S-Tag to identify the frame as
Q-in-Q.
‹ Some common S-Tag TPID values: 0x9100, 0x9200, 0x88a8
„ The C-Tag TPID is always 0x8100.
„ For the S-Tag, the Canonical Format Identifier (CFI) has been redefined
to be used for Discard Eligible (DE), similar to Frame Relay DE.
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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
Hosts Wizard – Configure Hosts
„ Configure the number of Emulated Clients per Host Block and per Port
„ Set the MAC addresses, IP gateway*, and IP ToS/Diffserv bits
„ You could use DHCP Option 3 to resolve the gateway instead

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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
Host Block Mode

„ There is a relationship between the Host Block Mode, Hosts

Per Port, Prefix Length, and the IP Step Per Host.
„ The Host Blocks Per Port, Total Hosts, and Total Host
Blocks will be filled in automatically accordingly.
„ This only applies when the Hosts Per Port is > 1

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Hosts Wizard – Step Settings
„ Option to Change/Step MAC Addresses per Host/Client or per port.
„ Option to Change/Step Gateway IP Address per host or per port.

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Hosts Wizard – Traffic Wizard

„ Option to Launch Traffic Wizard after completing Host

Wizard Configuration.

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Hosts Wizard – Configure Protocols
„ You can configure most DHCP Host Block parameters here

More on
More on this later
this later

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Hosts Wizard – Preview
„ Gives a preview of what will be the end configuration, for verification.
„ This gives you a chance of going back and changing the configuration if
it doesn’t match what was intended while still in the Wizard.
„ If we have large number of Hosts, we can reduce the number of hosts to
preview using the Preview Mode option. Default is Full.

Preview Mode can be

set to Partial to reduce
the number of Emulated
Clients/Hosts preview

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Host Interface tab

„ Host Block/Host level changes can be made via the Host

Interface Tab.

Editable Editable Host

Host Block Count field
Name

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Edit Interface

„ Actually with DHCP there is no additional parameters to

manipulate as DHCP doesn’t add any header to the frame.

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View Encapsulation

„ From the Hosts Interface tab, you can view/change the

Encapsulation of the Host Block

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DHCP Host Parameters
„ Configure the Host Block DHCP Parameters/Options from
the DHCP tab.

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 Session Host Name Setup
„ Request Unique Session Host Name using Wildcard Masks per Host Block
„ Preview shows all the iterative values after applying Wildcard Masks

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Option Request List

„ List of Options that will be requested from the DHCP Server

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Option Request List Custom Options

„ For Options Not Available in the List, Define Custom Options

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Custom Option 82 Example 1 of 3
„ Let's say you wanted to iterate 3 values for both the circuit-id and
remote-id equally; also, your number of Hosts should be 3 too.
„ The wildcard format for that is as follows:
@$(e39,a,b,c,d)= @$(<seed pattern>, numValues, step, wildcard type, repeat count)
‹ @ = wildcard to follow
‹ $ = hex iterater (aka undocumented wildcard)
‹ <seed pattern> = e39 was selected by me randomly
„ Here is a sample string which you would paste into the Wildcard String
Editor:
01060004@$(0e39,3,1,1,0)062b0208000600109400@$(0001,3,1,1,0)
‹ Continued on next slide

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Custom Option 82 Example 2 of 3
„ circuit-id
01060004@$(0e39,3,1,1,0)062b
suboption (1 byte) = 0x01
length (1 byte) = 0x06
circuit id value (# of bytes = length = 6) = 0004@$(0e39,3,1,1,0)062b
That would yield 3 Circuit IDs:
00040e39062b, 00040e3a062b, 00040e3b062b
„ remote-id
0208000600109400@$(0001,3,1,1,0)
suboption (1 byte) = 0x02
length (1 byte) = 0x08
circuit id value (# of bytes = length = 8) = 000600109400@$(0001,3,1,1,0)
That would yield Remote IDs:
0006001094000001, 0006001094000002, 0006001094000003
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Custom Option 82 Example 3 of 3
„ circuit-id
0004@$(0e39,3,1,1,0)062b
„ remote-id
000600109400@$(0001,3,1,1,0)
„ This is the result of the first iteration:

Wildcard values

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Layer 3 Relay Agent Setup
„ Relay Agent Emulation is per Host Block
„ Unique Circuit IDs/Remote IDs per Emulated Host/Client can
be configured using Wildcards

Click Here to Enter Wildcard Values

for Circuit IDs/Remote IDs
NOTE: for Layer 2 Relay Agent Emulation just send Option 82 as a
Custom Option without “Enabling” the Relay Agent as depicted above.
DHCP messages will then be “broadcast” and will include Option 82.
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Other DHCP Host Parameters
„ Enable Router Option selected - the client will use the IP address of a
router supplied by the server as the gateway. To include a request for a
list of routers in DHCPDISCOVER messages, also enable Option 3 in
the Option Request List.
„ Enable Auto Retry selected - the client automatically retry to connect
failed DHCP sessions.
„ Auto Retry Attempts - enter the number of retry attempts.
„ Broadcast Flag selected - indicates to the server or relay agent that the
client wishes them to use the broadcast IP address in the replies (as
opposed to unicasting the responses)

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DHCP Port Settings
„ View the DHCP Client Emulation Details
„ Configure the DHCP Client Port Settings (defaults depicted)

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DHCP Test Settings

„ Set the Traffic behavior

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Traffic Wizard – DHCP End Points
„ Use the Traffic Wizard to create Bound Stream Blocks with
the DHCP clients and the source an/or destination of traffic.

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Bind/Release DHCP
„ Two ways to invoke DHCP:
‹ Interactively (Apply and Right-click)
‹ Batch Tests using Command Sequencer
„ Interactive Tests gives us more flexibility
and Control.
‹ Parameters, Hosts, Traffic can be changed
on the fly without having to stop the current
test/configuration.
„ Batch Tests are helpful when doing
Scaled tests as well as Soak Tests.
‹ Cannot Change Parameters once the
Test has started.

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Interactive Mode
„ Select the tool-bar icon or right-click on a Host Block(s)

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Command Sequencer

„ Various DHCP Commands are available

„ Use the Start button to kick things off
„ Of course DHCP Events can be mixed in with others

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General Information on Batch Mode
„ As the Command Sequencer gives
you the flexibility of choosing ANY
Command, you should be careful
in the Event choosing and
sequencing.
„ Apart from the Protocol Specific
Commands, you would need the
Generator/Analyzer and Results
specific commands as well.
„ Each Event in the Command
Sequencer may require Specific
Configuration for itself; double-click
it to see.
„ End of Test (EOT) Results can be
viewed via the Results Reporter.
„ Iterative Events can be run to
support RFC 2544-like tests with
dynamic DHCP Hosts. 36
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Results Views

„ The Results Browser can be set to view DHCP Port Results

„ Use Change Results View to see what you require

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DHCP Results

„ Following are the counters available under DHCP Port

Results.

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Viewing Session Information
„ After DHCP Binding, you can View DHCP Session
Information for Assigned IP Address, Lease Time etc.

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Viewing Session Information Continued

„ Following is the Session Info Available.

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Starting Traffic
„ Right-click to start the Traffic either on a particular Port or on ALL Ports.
„ Analyzer is ON by default on ALL Spirent TestCenter Ports.

Start/Stop Traffic
for ALL ports

Start/Stop Traffic
on a port

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Viewing Stream Block Results
„ StreamBlock/Stream Results can be Viewed via the Results Browser
„ Change the Results View to any of the desired Stream Results views

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Host Wizard – Enabling IGMP
„ Add IGMP Emulation along with DHCP in the Host Wizard
„ This adds the IGMP configuration screen to the Wizard

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Host Wizard – IGMP Configuration
„ What version of IGMP will the Hosts use, and what group will
they join.

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Host Wizard – IGMP Configuration Preview

„ Preview will have IGMP Group Information per Host

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IGMP Configuration – Port versus Host
„ IGMP Specific Parameters are configured both per Host
Block and per Port

Port Settings

Host Block Settings

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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
View Multicast Groups

„ Multicast can be viewed from the All Multicast Groups grid

„ Attributes can be edited directly from there
„ Notice that they can be defined as Group Blocks too (# > 1)

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Multicast Traffic Sources
„ Can be any Host and is Selected in the Traffic Wizard
„ It is inherently Unidirectional
„ Add a UDP header for more realism

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Multicast Group Memberships
„ Host Block Group Membership can be Managed from the
Edit Group Memberships window

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Sending Join/Leaves Interactively

„ Rick-click on a Host with the IGMP tab selected

Send/Leave Buttons too

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IGMP Specific Batch Mode Commands
„ The Command Sequencer has IGMP commands too

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IGMP and IGMP Host Group Results

„ IGMP and IGMP Host-Group Results are Available through

the Results Browser.

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DHCPv4 Server Features
„ Spirent TestCenter can now emulate both sides of an
Access Concentrator for testing DHCP
„ It provides the ability to test Access Concentrators without
the need for a real DHCP Server
„ Spirent TestCenter has a fully implemented DHCP Server
„ It provides the ability to have Pools on subnet or Pools for
Relay Agent subnets
„ It allows the user to easily set up a test with thousands of
pools and servers
„ It provides the ability to add
custom options with an easy
to use Custom Option Editor

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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing
DHCPv4 Server – Where is it?
„ Create DHCP Servers
by using the “Add…”
host button and
selecting “DHCP Server”

„ “DHCP Server” tab in

the Host configuration
table

„ “DHCP Server Results”

for Host under the Host
Protocols results view
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DHCP Server - Features

„ Create Hosts and Pools are automatically created to match

the Hosts subnets
„ Encapsulations supported
‹ Ethernet II / IPv4
‹ Ethernet II / VLAN / IPv4
‹ Ethernet II / VLAN / VLAN / IPv4

„ Ability to add additional Pools for Relay Agent support

„ Custom Option Editor
‹ Create options to send in any combination of Offer, ACK or NAK

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End of Topic

www.spirentcampus.com
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Spirent TestCenter DHCP Testing