Some devices not assigned DHCP IP Address after ISC changed to Kea

richardsago

Good day. Please let me know what I did wrong so that some devices no longer received IP Address after DHCP Server was changed from ISC to Kea, even after pfsense was restarted. This is the sequence of what was done to pfsense:

Update from 2.8 to 2.8.1 - no problem encountered even after restart of pfsense
Update DHCP Server from ISC to Kea - some devices do not get assigned IP Address. This happens even after pfsense was restarted many times
After DHCP Server was returned to ISC - all devices received IP Address

pfsense System: VMware Virtual Machine

pfsense version:
2.8.1-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Tue Dec 16 1:31:00 PST 2025
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT

I forgot to make a screenshot of the memory usage when under Kea but this is the memory usage now (after return to ISC):

This is the Services Status now:

This is the 1st crash report:

Crash report begins. Anonymous machine information:

amd64
15.0-CURRENT
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT #1 RELENG_2_8_0-n256081-401ec5f685b9: Wed May 21 23:53:51 UTC 2025 root@freebsd:/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-snapshots-2_8_0-main/obj/amd64/0q9vjGjc/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-snapshots-2_8_0-main/sources/FreeBSD-src-RE

Crash report details:

PHP Errors:
[02-Jan-2026 08:16:53 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528

No FreeBSD crash data found.

This is the 2nd crash report:
Crash report begins. Anonymous machine information:

amd64
15.0-CURRENT
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT #21 RELENG_2_8_1-n256095-47c932dcc0e9: Thu Aug 28 16:27:48 UTC 2025 root@pfsense-build-release-amd64-1.eng.atx.netgate.com:/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-snapshots-2_8_1-main/obj/amd64/AupY3aTL/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-

Crash report details:

PHP Errors:
[02-Jan-2026 08:55:51 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528

No FreeBSD crash data found.

This is the 3rd crash report:
Crash report begins. Anonymous machine information:

amd64
15.0-CURRENT
FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT #21 RELENG_2_8_1-n256095-47c932dcc0e9: Thu Aug 28 16:27:48 UTC 2025 root@pfsense-build-release-amd64-1.eng.atx.netgate.com:/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-snapshots-2_8_1-main/obj/amd64/AupY3aTL/var/jenkins/workspace/pfSense-CE-

Crash report details:

PHP Errors:
[02-Jan-2026 08:55:51 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 09:54:59 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 09:57:53 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:00:24 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:02:44 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:06:04 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:08:25 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:11:13 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:13:56 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:16:31 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:19:34 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:22:08 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:24:40 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:27:27 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:29:45 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:32:16 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:35:00 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:37:20 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:39:54 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:42:10 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:45:29 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:50:36 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528
[02-Jan-2026 10:54:33 <TZ>] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528

No FreeBSD crash data found.

Edited to add the DHCP Settings of a VLAN below:

Gertjan

@richardsago

This :

@richardsago said in Some devices not assigned DHCP IP Address after ISC changed to Kea:

Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /usr/local/bin/kea2unbound on line 528

has been seen a lot on the forum, so I'm pretty confident that this will do it ;

Select "Unbound python mode".
Save.
Then pfBlockerng update and do a "reload all".

richardsago

Thank you @Gertjan for the reply. Will schedule these in the next available time for update:

System > Advanced > Networking
change from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP
Firewall > pfBlockerNG > DNSBL
change from "Unbound mode" to "Unbound python mode"
Firewall > pfBlockerNG > Update
Force option = "Reload"
Reload option = "All"

Gertjan

@richardsago

Reverse step 1 and 2 :
Step one : create a 'sane' environment for kea.
Then step 2 : switch to kea.

richardsago

Thank you @Gertjan for the reply. Ok will do in this sequence:

Firewall > pfBlockerNG > DNSBL
change from "Unbound mode" to "Unbound python mode"
Firewall > pfBlockerNG > Update
Force option = "Reload"
Reload option = "All"
System > Advanced > Networking
change from ISC DHCP to Kea DHCP

SteveITS

@richardsago For a bit of context, PHP has its own memory limit, default 512MB for most installs. But "python mode" is the solution for your error message.

richardsago

Thank you @SteveITS for the reply.