How to Create a New DHCP User or Vendor Class

This article discusses how to create new user or vendor-class identifications for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service in Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 provides two option classes an administrator can use to manage configuration details for DHCP clients within a particular DHCP scope. These option classes are vendor-defined and user-defined classes.

Vendor-defined classes are used for managing DHCP options assigned to clients identified by vendor type.

User-defined classes are used for managing DHCP options assigned to clients identified by a common need for a similar DHCP options configuration.

After defining an option class, individual scopes must be configured with any class-related options to be provided to clients.

Create a New User or Vendor Option Class

1. Start DHCP Manager.
2. In the console tree, click the applicable DHCP server branch.
3. Right-click the server, and then click Define User Classes to create a new user class, or click Define Vendor Classes to create a new vendor class.
4. Click Add.
5. In the New Class dialog box, type a descriptive identifying name for the new option in the Display name box. You may also add additional information to the Description box.
6. Type in the data to be used by the DHCP Server service for matching the class ID provided by DHCP clients under ID or ASCII. To enter the data as hexadecimal byte numeric values, click the left side of the text box. To enter data as American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text character values, click the right side of the text box.
7. Click OK, and then click Close.

Configure a DHCP Scope with the New Class ID

1. In DHCP Manager, double-click the appropriate DHCP scope.
2. Right-click Scope Options and then click Configure Options.
3. Click Advanced.
4. Click to select the check box or boxes next to the features you want to use with the new vendor or user class.
5. Click OK.

To Set the Specified DHCP Class ID String for Client Computers

Client computers that connect to a Windows 2000-based DHCP server can use the following command to set the specified DHCP class ID string: For example, to configure an adapter called "Local Area Connection" with a user class ID called "myuserclass", type ipconfig /setclassid Local Area Connection myuserclass at a command prompt, and then press ENTER.

This identifies the "Local Area Connection" interface to receive the DHCP options configured for "myuserclass" on the DHCP server.

NOTE: Class IDs in ASCII are case sensitive, and must match the class identifying data entered in the Edit Class dialog box used to create the new user or vendor option class.

For additional information about DHCP, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: