[MX] Error while configuring DHCP and BOOTP relay agents

Summary:

When the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) relay agents are configured on the same router, a configuration error is expected because the protocols are mutually exclusive. To resolve this error and commit your configuration, only one protocol must be used, as explained by this article.

Symptoms:

When configuring BOOTP and DHCP relay agents on the same router, the following error is encountered:

[edit forwarding-options dhcp-relay]
  'group'
    'group' statement cannot be included along with 'forwarding-options helpers bootp' statement

Cause:

The reason for the error is that the DHCP and BOOTP protocols are mutually exclusive.

If the requirement is for a basic deployment for a relay agent, BOOTP can be used, which is the same as DHCP but with fewer configuration options. If the requirement is to have a relay agent on multiple routing instances, it is more efficient to configure DHCP because BOOTP is more limited.

Solution:

The only way to make the relay agent to work is by deleting one of the two protocols. When one of the protocols is deleted, the commit will be successful:

TEST@R1# show forwarding-options
helpers {
    bootp {
        interface {
            ge-0/0/3.251 {
                server 172.16.1.6;
            }
        }
    }
}
dhcp-relay {
    relay-option;
    ##
    ## Warning: 'relay-option-82' statement cannot be included along with 'forwarding-options helpers bootp' statement
    ##
    relay-option-82;
    ##
    ## Warning: 'server-group' statement cannot be included along with 'forwarding-options helpers bootp' statement
    ##
    server-group {
        dhcp-server {
            172.16.1.7;
        }
    }
    ##
    ## Warning: 'group' statement cannot be included along with 'forwarding-options helpers bootp' statement
    ##
    group dhcp-clients {
        active-server-group dhcp-server;
        interface ge-0/0/3.250;
    }
}
TEST@R1# delete forwarding-options helpers bootp

TEST@R1# show forwarding-options
dhcp-relay {
    relay-option;
    relay-option-82;
    server-group {
        dhcp-server {
            172.16.1.7;
        }
    }
    group dhcp-clients {
        active-server-group dhcp-server;
        interface ge-0/0/3.250;
    }
}

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