Prime Cable Provisioning automatically generates FQDNs using the MAC address of a device or using the DHCP Unique Identifier (DUID) of an IPv6 device.

An automatically generated FQDN using a MAC address follows this format:

prefix{htype-hlen-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff | 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00}suffix.domain

• prefix, suffix, and domain—Identify the information that you set from the Prime Cable Provisioning administrator user interface or the provisioning API.

• htype, hlen, and aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff—Identify the device MAC address. For example, 1,6,aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff.

• 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00—Identifies the DUID of an IPv6 device.

The entry of a prefix and suffix property is optional. If you do not specify these properties, and a hostname is not specified during PacketCable MTA provisioning and, if neither the prefix nor suffix property is defined in the Prime Cable Provisioning property hierarchy, the device MAC address or the device DUID followed by the domain name is used as the generated FQDN.

The FQDN format changes if you specify only the:

• Prefix and the device ID: 


  prefix{htype-hlen-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff | 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00}.domain

• Suffix and the device ID:


  {htype-hlen-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff | 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00}suffix.domain

For example:

• A device with prefix aaa, suffix bbb, and MAC address 1,6,aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff will have this FQDN generated:

  
  aaa1-6-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ffbbb.domain
  

• A device with only MAC address (1,6,aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff) will have this FQDN generated:

  
  1-6-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff.domain
  

• A device with prefix aaa, suffix bbb, and DUID 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 will have this FQDN generated:

  
  aaa00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00bbb.domain
  

• A device with only DUID 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 will have this FQDN generated:

  
  00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-aa.domain
  

• A device with prefix aaa and MAC address 1,6,aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff will have this FQDN generated:

  
  aaa1-6-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff.domain
  

• A device with suffix bbb and MAC address 1,6,aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff will have this FQDN generated:

  
  1-6-aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ffbbb.domain
  

When configuring for PacketCable and other technologies, the domain name property must also be configured. If you do not specify a domain name while provisioning a PacketCable MTA, the Prime Cable Provisioning property hierarchy is searched and, if it is not found, the MTA is not provisioned.

If you do specify the domain name during MTA provisioning, that domain name is used regardless of the domain name property that is specified in the Prime Cable Provisioning property hierarchy.

Properties can be defined at any acceptable point in the Prime Cable Provisioning property hierarchy. You can use the System Defaults, Technology Defaults, DHCP Criteria, or Class of Service to accomplish this, and you can also do this at the device level.

There are a few things to consider when entering the information that is used to generate an FQDN. These include:

• Use only valid alphanumeric characters in the generated FQDN.

• Keep the length of each label (characters between the dots in the generated FQDN) to fewer than 63 characters.

• Do not allow the overall length of the generated FQDN to exceed 254 characters.

Note	The FQDN supports host and domain names as per RFC1035.