switch over from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP

[johnpoz]

@netboy with a sense of entitlement as well.. You come here and ask questions, when the info is .3 seconds away with a simple google..

https://kea.readthedocs.io/en/latest/arm/dhcp4-srv.html#host-reservations-in-dhcpv4

So for example - here is some sample config

{
"subnet4": [
    {
        "id": 1,
        "pools": [ { "pool":  "192.0.2.1 - 192.0.2.200" } ],
        "subnet": "192.0.2.0/24",
        "interface": "eth0",
        "reservations": [
            {
                "hw-address": "1a:1b:1c:1d:1e:1f",
                "ip-address": "192.0.2.202"
            },
            {
                "duid": "0a:0b:0c:0d:0e:0f",
                "ip-address": "192.0.2.100",
                "hostname": "alice-laptop"
            },
            {
                "circuit-id": "'charter950'",
                "ip-address": "192.0.2.203"
            },
            {
                "client-id": "01:11:22:33:44:55:66",
                "ip-address": "192.0.2.204"
            }
        ]
    }
],
}

Why the kea integration into pfsense is "preview" is all the work that takes for your pretty gui and writes it for you into the kea configuration has not been done yet..

Not sure why I am surprised to be honest - I am an enabler it seems, where the correct answer to many of these questions should just be go RTFM you lazy F ;)

[netboy]

@johnpoz said in switch over from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP:

Kea has support for this feature and others.. it has just not been integrated into pfsense as of yet.

The "current:" message

ISC DHCP has reached end-of-life and will be removed in a future version of Netgate pfSense Plus. Visit System > Advanced > Networking to switch DHCP backend.

does not make it "explicit:" that pfsense kia has lmited functionality.

Pfsenes must change the above message to something meaningful to say something to the effect "pfsense kea is in experimental stage and fully not implemented " - You need to look at the GUI and messages with a GENERAL USER hat not a NETWORK USER imho

[johnpoz]

@netboy dude pretty sure everyone agrees the wording could of been done a bit better.. Move on already.. This horse was dead long time ago - its time to stop kicking it.

[Wylbur]

@Gertjan -- Just commenting on your post relative to my questions on what changes -- Not asking for help just commenting relative to what you said.

Lease statistics/graphs  I refer to these from time to time.

"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."

Since I do have assigned hostnames with static leases, such as our file server, our HP printer/scanner, etc. [These devices are expected to be at the IP address manually assigned (from prior LAN software I used prior to PFSense going back to NT 4.0 days)].

As a result, I am interested in what is happening with Kea DHCP and when it will support prior functions I use or provides an equivalent that we can migrate to "automatically" if possible. I've tried to avoid becoming a network person. Unfortunately, the Peter Principle is prevailing despite all attemps to avoid it.

[pulsartiger]

I came across this topic when seeing the notice on my pfsense instance. Rather than create a new topic, I figure I continue the discussion to see if things have changed.

I've been using pfsense for several years now and I typically do not change any settings unless necessary.

If I change from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP, is there any that needs to be done beforehand besides making a backup?
Are there any other settings to change besides clicking the KEA DHCP radio button and clicking Save?
If I choose to keep using ISC DHCP, is there any harm in doing so? (security issues?)

[johnpoz]

@pulsartiger I wouldn't switch to kea yet.. Just turn off the warning if it bugs you. Kea is not at feature parity yet.. And no there are no real security issues with just continuing to use ISC..

[SteveITS]

@pulsartiger re: updates:
https://www.netgate.com/blog/improvements-to-kea-dhcp

[Gertjan]

@SteveITS said in switch over from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP:

@pulsartiger re: updates:
https://www.netgate.com/blog/improvements-to-kea-dhcp

Yep. That info is still hiding in plain site.

login-to-view

( Just an idea : put the RSS at the top, and you stat auto-informed )

[kuchenmann]

After I tried to switch to KEA, no ip address for my pc over LAN and WLAN.
For some reason my laptop still worked, so I could take a look into my pfsense.
No leases shown under "status - DHCP leases".
After switching back to ISC everything works fine again.
DO NOT USE KEA!

[WN1X]

@kuchenmann I have been using Kea since it was added to pfSense 24.03 without any issues at all on my 4200. YMMV.

[kuchenmann]

@kuchenmann

problem is, that if ISC is configured with NTP-servers using names,
KEA fails to start, because it only accepts IP-addresses as NTP-servers.
WTF?
Never heard about pool.ntp.org?

[johnpoz]

@kuchenmann dhcp has never accepted fqdn for ntp.. Before pfsense would resolve that to put the IP into the dhcp server.

Pretty sure that is one of the things added in the 24.11 release.

[WN1X]

@kuchenmann The NTP servers provided via DHCP option 42 must be IP addresses, per RFC2132.

[WN1X]

@kuchenmann Why don't you set pfSense to use pool.ntp.org and set DHCP to provide the IP address of your LAN as the NTP server?