Purpose Of The Tftp Server - Cisco Catalyst 2960 series Configuration Manual

Information About Performing Switch Setup Configuration
• If you want the switch to receive the configuration file from a TFTP server, you must configure the
DHCP server with these lease options:
• Depending on the settings of the DHCP server, the switch can receive IP address information, the
configuration file, or both.
• If you do not configure the DHCP server with the lease options described previously, it replies to client
requests with only those parameters that are configured. If the IP address and the subnet mask are not
in the reply, the switch is not configured. If the router IP address or the TFTP server name are not found,
the switch might send broadcast, instead of unicast, TFTP requests. Unavailability of other lease options
does not affect autoconfiguration.
• The switch can act as a DHCP server. By default, the Cisco IOS DHCP server and relay agent features
are enabled on your switch but are not configured. (These features are not operational.)

Purpose of the TFTP Server

Based on the DHCP server configuration, the switch attempts to download one or more configuration files
from the TFTP server. If you configured the DHCP server to respond to the switch with all the options required
for IP connectivity to the TFTP server, and if you configured the DHCP server with a TFTP server name,
address, and configuration filename, the switch attempts to download the specified configuration file from
the specified TFTP server.
If you did not specify the configuration filename, the TFTP server, or if the configuration file could not be
downloaded, the switch attempts to download a configuration file by using various combinations of filenames
and TFTP server addresses. The files include the specified configuration filename (if any) and these files:
network-config, cisconet.cfg, hostname.config, or hostname.cfg, where hostname is the switch's current
hostname. The TFTP server addresses used include the specified TFTP server address (if any) and the broadcast
address (255.255.255.255).
For the switch to successfully download a configuration file, the TFTP server must contain one or more
configuration files in its base directory. The files can include these files:
• The configuration file named in the DHCP reply (the actual switch configuration file).
• The network-confg or the cisconet.cfg file (known as the default configuration files).
• The router-confg or the ciscortr.cfg file (These files contain commands common to all switches. Normally,
if the DHCP and TFTP servers are properly configured, these files are not accessed.)
If you specify the TFTP server name in the DHCP server-lease database, you must also configure the TFTP
server name-to-IP-address mapping in the DNS-server database.
If the TFTP server to be used is on a different LAN from the switch, or if it is to be accessed by the switch
through the broadcast address (which occurs if the DHCP server response does not contain all the required
information described previously), a relay must be configured to forward the TFTP packets to the TFTP server.
The preferred solution is to configure the DHCP server with all the required information.
Consolidated Platform Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 15.2(4)E (Catalyst 2960-X Switches)
1564
◦ TFTP server name (required)
◦ Boot filename (the name of the configuration file that the client needs) (recommended)
◦ Hostname (optional)