Is Broadcast Address required?

[#1]

Running NIOS 8.4.8.  In the Admin Guide, under "Defining IPv4 DHCP Options" it states the following:

Broadcast Address: Enter the broadcast IP address of the network to which the DHCP server is attached.
When configuring this for a template, enter the offset value of the broadcast IP address of the network.

Is the Broadcast address even required to be set on the IPv4 network for DHCP?  Can I leave this setting as inherited and DHCP will still be ok?

[#2]

Regarding the Broadcast Address, in DHCP Templates, it’s advised to leave the “blank” offset value for the broadcast IP alone.  The broadcast address will always be the highest address allowed by the subnet mask, unless you manually change the broadcast address offset.

[#3]

A broadcast address is a network address used to transmit to all devices connected to a ... higher efficiency because network hosts can filter traffic based on multicast address and do not need to process all broadcasts or all-hosts multicasts.

mysainsburys

[#4]

I'm referring to a standard IPv4 network, newly created or existing.  Infoblox recognizes .0 as the network address and it's not something that needs to be specified.  I thought to assume the same for the broadcast address...that Infoblox recognizes "the highest address allowed by the subnet mask."

If creating an IPv4 network--regardless of templating--and not modifying the broadcast, does Infoblox automatically know that in say a 192.168.10.0/22 net that 192.168.13.255 is the broadcast address?

[#5 · Accepted solution]

---

@wrecktangle wrote:

Running NIOS 8.4.8.  In the Admin Guide, under "Defining IPv4 DHCP Options" it states the following:

Broadcast Address: Enter the broadcast IP address of the network to which the DHCP server is attached.
When configuring this for a template, enter the offset value of the broadcast IP address of the network.

Is the Broadcast address even required to be set on the IPv4 network for DHCP?  Can I leave this setting as inherited and DHCP will still be ok?

---

No, you don't need to specify it.