DNS resolver page not showing DHCP options pfsense 24.03

realtimecat42

My DNS resolver is no longer resolving local IP addresses. In addition, it no longer shows the DHCP options on the page.

The expected DHCP checkboxes are not appearing.

I can only assume that my configuration is somehow messed up, but I cannot figure out what setting is incorrect.

SteveITS

@realtimecat42 Did you happen to change to the Kea DHCP server preview?

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/2-7-1.html#kea-dhcp-server-feature-preview-now-available

realtimecat42

@SteveITS said in DNS resolver page not showing DHCP options pfsense 24.03:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/2-7-1.html#kea-dhcp-server-feature-preview-now-available

Thanks! That was exactly the issue. I reverted back to the ISC DHCP server and was able to enable the features in my DNS resolver.

Now local host resolution is working as expected.

It is concerning that the DHCP server we are using has been unsupported since 2022, and the KEA server is still not ready for primetime. Also the scary notice:

had me change things w/o reading the release notes carefully!

Gertjan

@realtimecat42 said in DNS resolver page not showing DHCP options pfsense 24.03:

is concerning that the DHCP server we are using has been unsupported since 2022

The authors of DHCP and KEA are the same !
They - as its their code - announced years ago the they were pleased that half the planet uses their DHCP code, but that the code has become somewhat a ... how to say ... a nightmare to maintain. Things got added over the last several decades, and a rewrite was needed.
KEA was born.

Btw : big project tend to get messy over a while. Just have a look at the Linux github repository, or the one called 'postfix', or the other "ISC" project that runs more then half the Internet's DNS : bind.
Nice example is also OpenVPN .... just have a look at their official documentation. Its just daunting.

Anyway, KEA was build by the people who know what DHCP is. Most RFCs are stable these days, and don't change overnight anymore, as was the situation in the early days.
KEA is already working well for a long time now.

It's just the GUI pfSense implementation that is somewhat lacking. The next realse will take care of (a lot of) outstanding implementation issues.

realtimecat42

@Gertjan

Did not mean to imply the problem was with KEA as much as pfSense configuration options.

Looking forward to the next release of pfSense, but not enough to start playing with pre-production releases on my production network.