DHCP SNOOPING，ruckus DHCP Option 43

Would someone please kindly outline what Ruckus ‘DHCP option 43’ enables me to do.
I have tried to research this on the net but the general return I get is:

DHCP Option 43 = vendor-specific information (which can include subfields)

DHCP SNOOPING。Thanks!

When Ruckus Zone Flex Access Points are in the same IP subnet and VLAN as the Zone Director, the AP’s automatically discover and request to join the Zone Director using a Layer 2 LWAPP protocol.

When Ruckus Zone Director controlled ZoneFlex Access Points are to be connected in a different IP subnets then one of several Layer three discovery protocols needs to be used to “teach” the Access Points the IP address of the Zone Director so that the AP can discover and join and become controlled by the Zone Director.

dhcp option、The easiest way to provision an AP with the Zone Director’s IP address is to first connect the AP in the same IP subnet/VLAN as the Zone Director, allow it to join, get provisioned and connect. This provisions the AP with the IP of the ZD, and now the AP can be moved to the final IP subnet/vlan (this assumes a DHCP server providing IP addresses, otherwise a static IP will have to be changed when the subnet is changed).

One of the automated methods for full plug and play AP installation is to configure the DHCP server that provides IP address to the Access Points with option 43, this teaches the AP’s with the Zone Director IP upon request of the AP’s management IP address. You can restrict this DHCP option 43 to only Ruckus devices by including the Ruckus CPE code of 3. The DHCP server can also use this feature to teach Ruckus Access Points the correct URL for connecting to the Ruckus Flex Master Network Management System. By using the CPE codes both Zone Director and Flex Master auto configuration can be supported by a single DHCP option 43 setting. The details are described in the Zone Director Users Guide: http://support.ruckuswireless.com/documents/132…

The other automated method is to define a local DNS server with the IP addrsss of the Zone Director responding to zonedirector.localdomain.lan where localdomain.lan is included in the standard DHCP responce.

dhcp option 60、You can manually configure the Zone Director IP address from the AP CLI using the command:
set director ip <primary> <secondary>

Here’s a cisco example

ip dhcp pool AP
network 10.X.X.0 255.255.255.128
default-router 10.X.X.1
dns-server 205.215.X.X 205.215.X.X
domain-name portnetworks.net
option 43 ascii “10.X.X.X”

Obviously you would replace the Xs.

Lets say I have a network connected to a router. I put 5 APs on this network but I want them to be controlled by a Zone director back at my data center. Option 43 would be the IP address of the Zone Director. When an AP gets this info, it then registers with the ZD at the ip it learned through option 43. This way one can have a central ZD controlling multiple areas, networks, etc.

You could also specify information for a particular AP. This would be a modifier for a pool so that only this client would get the extra information. (use the mac address format like below starting with 01)

ip dhcp pool REMOTE-RUCKUS-BLAH
client-identifier 0100.2482.xxxx.xx
option 43 ascii “10.X.X.X”

This would be useful if for some reason you had other traffic on vlan1 and only wanted to send option 43 to a particular device. Also useful if you want to tell an AP to connect to a different ZD for testing.

If you have questions feel free to ask.

Carl Peterson
Port Networks