Introduction To Automatic Configuration; How Automatic Configuration Works - 3Com MSR 50 Series Configuration Manual

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Introduction to
Automatic
Configuration
How Automatic
Configuration Works
A
UTOMATIC
Automatic configuration enables a device to automatically obtain and execute the
configuration files when it starts up without loading the configuration files.
Automatic configuration simplifies network configuration, facilitating centralized
management of devices. Currently, enterprise networks are facing the problems of
large distribution of devices and less administrators, resulting in the huge cost for
administrators to manually configure each device. With the automatic
configuration function, network administrators can save the configuration files on
a specified server and the device can automatically obtain and execute the
configuration files. In this way, automatic configuration can be implemented,
greatly reducing the workload of administrators.
The following figure shows how automatic configuration works. Automatic
configuration of the device is implemented with the cooperation of a DHCP server,
TFTP server and DNS server.
Figure 637 Network diagram for automatic configuration
Device
IP network
TFTP server
Basically, automatic configuration works in the following ways:
1 When a device starts up without loading the configuration files, the system
automatically configures the interface which is UP (for example a virtual interface
corresponding with the default VLAN or a Layer 3 Ethernet interface) of the device
to obtain through DHCP the IP addresses and the information needed for the
C
ONFIGURATION
DHCP server
DNS server