ShoreTel: DHCP config options need for IP phones

I sometimes forget the DHCP configuration options needed for the ShoreTel IP phones to boot and get the correct info. So I figured I would post it here. If the phones use a different VLAN than your normal data traffic and you are using tagging then I put these options in the Default VLAN as well as the Voice VLAN that the phones will be sitting in. ShoreTel phones use DHVP option 156 to get the IP address of their configuration and FTP servers, it can tell them to enable layer 2 tagging and tell them what VLAN ID to use as well as tell them what country and language to use.  Below is a image of how i have configured DHCP on one of our servers. It shows the default data network (192.168.1.0) where the phones first boot into and then the Voice network where the phone VLAN hop over to and will actually reside.

ftpservers=ip_address, country=n, language=n, layer2tagging=n, vlanid=x

ip_address is the IP address of the Headquarters server
n in county=n corresponds to the country number found in the ShoreTel Planning and Install Guide
n in language=n corresponds to the language number found in the ShoreTel Planning and Install Guide
n in layer2tagging=n is 0 (to disable 802.1Q) or 1 (to enable 802.1Q) the default is 0
x in vlanid=x corresponds to a VLAN ID number between 0 and 4094 when 802.1Q is enabled the default is0

A filled out option 156 string looks like this:

configServers=192.168.1.10, ftpservers=192.168.1.10, country=1, language=1, layer2tagging=1, vlanid=10


It is possible to add two FTP servers for option 156, just place a comma between them:

ftpservers=192.168.1.10, 192.168.1.15

Default Data network DHCP

Voice Network DHCP

We sometimes have users that work from home that run voice across their VPN back to the office. So here is what the DHCP configuration looks like on a Cisco router. Here we do not have separate networks for data and voice so it is just a single DHCP scope.

ip dhcp pool LAN
   import all
   network 192.168.9.0 255.255.255.0
   default-router 192.168.9.1
   domain-name ABC.local
   option 4 ip 192.168.1.5
   dns-server 192.168.1.12 8.8.8.8
   option 156 ascii "ftpservers=192.168.1.10"
   option 66 ip 192.168.1.10
   lease 0 8


Sometimes you need to add Option 156 to your DHCP server. Here are the steps to do that.

1. Open DHCP manager on your DHCP server
2. Right-click the DHCP server and select set pre-defined options
3. Click add
4. Set Name to IP Phone Boot Server
5. Set Data Type to String
6. Set Code to 156 and add a description if you like
7. Navigate to the scope options and add option 156