Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client

[bchan]

I just upgraded to CE 2.7.1. When I switched to Kea DHCP, in the STATUS page of "DHCP Leases", I saw only entries for static DHCP clients.

There weren't any lease entries for DHCP clients whose IPs are dynamically assigned. Although I can still ping to those clients using there historical IP, missing leases in the STATUS page really worries me.

Is it normal for Kea DHCP? What else can I check in the setting?

[bmeeks]

Somebody appears to not have read the 23.09 Release Notes carefully before enabling Kea .

Have a look here: https://www.netgate.com/blog/netgate-adds-kea-dhcp-to-pfsense-plus-software-version-23.09-1.

And there is also this thread appearing just a few threads under yours: https://forum.netgate.com/topic/183902/kea-dhcp-lacking-features.

Kea is very feature-incomplete at this point. For some users it is unwise to switch to Kea at this point in time because several features are not yet implemented.

[bchan]

This post is deleted!

[bchan]

@bmeeks I know Kea is handicapped. But I don't expect it can't assign a lease to a DHCP client. That is basic for what a DHCP server is meant for.

[johnpoz]

@bchan said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

missing leases in the STATUS page really worries me.

Did the client update its lease, or get a new one.. Your saying a dhcp client can not get a lease?

The status page only can read whats in the leases file.. If no client has actually gotten or renewed its old lease from before it wouldn't be in a clean leases file - only the static ones that are preloaded would be listed.

[bmeeks]

@bchan said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

@bmeeks I know Kea is handicapped. But I don't expect it can't assign a lease to a DHCP client. That is basic for what a DHCP server is meant for.

I'm sorry, I misread your post as not assigning dynamic DNS registrations.

I agree that Kea should do basic DHCP leases.

[bchan]

@johnpoz After the pfSense upgrade and switch over to Kea, I switched on some 10 Win10/11 PCs.
I did not see any leases in the status page except those clients that have static assignment. Those PC had been turned off 1 day ago and their leases had expired. When I switched back to ISC DHCP, all leases came back.

I am not sure whether the Kea DHCP uses different udp ports or additional configuration is required beside checking it at "System/Advanced/Networking".

[Gertjan]

@bchan said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

I am not sure whether the Kea DHCP uses different udp ports or additional configuration

Now you can :

[23.09-RELEASE][root@pfSense.bhf.tld]/root: sockstat -4l | grep ':67'
root     kea-dhcp4  23282 19  udp4   192.168.1.1:67        *:*
root     kea-dhcp4  23282 21  udp4   192.168.2.1:67        *:*
root     kea-dhcp4  23282 23  udp4   192.168.100.1:67      *:*

where 192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1 192.168.100.1 are all my pfSense LAN interfaces.

[johnpoz]

@bchan said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

I am not sure whether the Kea DHCP uses different udp ports

How would that work.. dhcp is dhcp - the ports don't change because you use a different dhcpd software.

[laser22]

Where would I find a direct 1 to 1 comparison between ISC DHCP and Kea: as it relates to pfsense implementation?

[johnpoz]

@laser22 I am not aware of anything like that shows feature XYZ in isc and what is currently active in Kea?

There is this listing..

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/23-09.html#rn-23-09-kea

Here is my take, if you are very basic dhcp user - ie you hand out IPs from your range you set.. and don't use any sort of dhcp options, are not in a HA setup, or use IPv6 delegation to some downstream router.. And don't care about graphs of your leases, etc. You could prob just switch over and never miss a beat.

But as this is "preview" its more than likely if you are doing anything out of the typical, you might run into some speed bumps. My playing with it - click over to kea, my clients still get IPs works fine. But as I use options and to be honest the logging in kea going to take a bit to get use to compared to the logging in isc.. And since there is no real "need" to move to kea at this time.. I see no point in not just continue to use ISC..

Just because isc is retiring dhcp as they move to kea doesn't mean you have to stop using the isc dhcpd.. There are no security issues that I am aware of using it on your own local network.. At this time kea in pfsense isn't bringing anything new that users might have need for.. I would hope that will change as its integration matures in pfsense..

But at this time other than users seeing the warning, there is little reason not to just continue to use isc. Especially if you have run into any sort of speed bump with kea, just switch back.. Try it again when next pfsense version drops..

[SteveITS]

@johnpoz said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

little reason not to just continue to use isc

Agree in general, though early adopters of 23.09 may want to read https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/15011 for a problem affecting logging, and some client devices. Note the last entry:

"The fix will be included in 23.09/2.7.1 in the next ports build, after which running pfSense-repoc; pkg upgrade will pick it up (after updating, restart the service or reboot)."

...and/or note it's targeted for 23.09.1/2.7.2. Given the above I'm guessing anyone upgrading to 23.09 going forward will pick up the new binary.

[johnpoz]

@SteveITS that issue with the binary in 23.09 was more than just logging..

There was a work around as well just using the binary from 23.05 until they came out with that fix.. Still see no reason to move to kea..

until such time that kea is at least provides everything that isc does, you would hope more there is little reason not to just continue to use isc.. But yeah it would behoove users to run the update..

[SteveITS]

@johnpoz said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

more than just logging

"and some client devices"...yes some people had devices that couldn't get IPs.

[miro_ivanovic]

you can check this article: https://www.netgate.com/blog/netgate-adds-kea-dhcp-to-pfsense-plus-software-version-23.09-1 and there is one sentence saying:

Note: If you have assigned hostnames to devices on your network using static leases, or rely on dynamic lease registration in DNS, switching to Kea DHCP results in those hostnames being ignored. The static lease configuration is kept, so switching back to ISC DHCP will restore the functionality.

[Gertjan]

@miro_ivanovic said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

switching to Kea DHCP results in those hostnames being ignored. ....

I know. That's what being written.
As said above, I switched to Kea weeks ago.
My "DHCP Static Mappings" settings :

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Look :

C:\Users\Gauche>ping TL-SG108E

Envoi d’une requête 'ping' sur TL-SG108E.brit-hotel-fumel.net [192.168.1.3] avec 32 octets de données :
Réponse de 192.168.1.3 : octets=32 temps=4 ms TTL=64
Réponse de 192.168.1.3 : octets=32 temps=2 ms TTL=64

and I can pick any "Client ID" from the DHCP Static mappings page, and these host names are known to unbound.
For 'some reason' my /etc/hosts file is still populated with all the IP & host names from the DHCP Static mappings page.
Same thing for the /var/unbound/host_entries.conf file, and this file is read upon startup by unbound ... so my DHCP Static Mappings == LAN network hosts list, are still known ...

This is probably valid under vague condition like "up until the next reboot", but hey, who reboots his phone, or TV, coffee machine, fridge and any other very important devices these days ?
I've all I need with Kea right now, it usable for me.

[fmc-ieee-org]

@bchan I also clicked the KEA choice and discovered that there is on going back, at least within the NetGate software control panel. The ISC choice disappears.

Then the DHCP service wouldn't start. So the belief that the existing DHCP config file would populate the KEA config was wrong in my case.

Turned out that the KEA service wasn't parsing and resolving pool.ntp.org for the external time service. Replacing it with an actual IPv4 dotted quad fixed it. Seems like a URL would be an acceptable argument and it was for ISC.

This might be a bug or might be specific to my circumstance for some reason.

[johnpoz]

@fmc-ieee-org said in Kea DHCP: No leases for dynamic DHCP client:

there is on going back, at least within the NetGate software control panel

What is this?

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