Kea Significant Features Matrix
- 25 Apr 2022
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Kea Significant Features Matrix
- Updated on 25 Apr 2022
- 3 Minutes to read
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Contributors
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This table lists the major feature differences for different releases of Kea. An "X" in the table below indicates that feature is present in that branch. When all currently-supported versions of Kea have the feature, we remove the row (because there is no difference to highlight).
Changes that are not backward-compatible
When we have to make a change in Kea that is not backwards-compatible, we highlight that change in the Changelog file in the Kea sources with an asterisk. The table below shows the more significant of these changes.
Please use the slider underneath each table to scroll left and right.
✔︎
| Feature | Kea 1.6 EOL | Kea 1.8 Stable | Kea 2.0 Stable | Kea 2.1 Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access Control | basic local authentication | ✔︎ | ||
| Cache Threshold - minimize updates to existing leases | X | ✔︎ | ||
| Client Classification - 'drop' class | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Comments are no longer transformed into user context (CL#1758) | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | |
| Congestion Control | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Database - Cassandra backend | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | deprecated, will be removed in 2.2 | ✔︎ |
| Database - Host reservations in MySQL & PostgreSQL | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Database - reconnect | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | updated 1.9.4, see `on-fail` logic for how to handle failures | ✔︎ |
| DDNS Controls | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| DHCPv4-over-DHCPv6 - RFC7341 | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Drop class for clients with reservations | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ||
| High Availability - paged updates | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | now multi-threaded | ✔︎ |
| Host Reservations Mode - Global | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Host Reservation Mode - in-subnet | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | |
| Host Reservations Mode - multiple | separate controls for global, in-subnet or out-of-pool reservation modes | ✔︎ | ||
| IPv6-only option | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ||
| Lease Query (RFCs 4388 and 5007) - requires subscriber-only hook | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | |
| Max/min - lease-lifetime | ✔︎ | preferred and valid lease lifetimes added to client classes | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Multiple MAC reservations for the same IP | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ||
| Multithreading support | ✔︎ (not including HA) | ✔︎ (added MT for HA, bypassing the CA) | ✔︎ | |
| PXE boot and iPXE boot | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Renew/Rebind timers calculated automatically | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Subnet selection order (CL #1778) | in the order configured | by ascending subnet ID | by ascending subnet ID | ✔︎ |
| TLS support | CA can require client identification and can use TLS encryption for client connections | ✔︎ | ||
| YANG model support | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | YANG model updated, Sysrepo 1.4 |
Kea hook libraries extend the base functionality of the open source Kea DHCP server. Kea hook libraries are distributed in source code form, but are not open source. ISC offers several "premium" hooks for purchase on our website at https://www.isc.org/shop/. We also offer support subscriptions, which include both the premium hooks and several subscriber-only Kea hooks (indicated by a + in the table). If you are interested in subscribing to ISC's software support services, please visit https://www.isc.org/contact to request more information.
This table lists the versions of Kea and the Kea hook libraries ISC supports with each version. In general, we recommend updating your hook libraries every time you update Kea. ISC does not test new versions of Kea with older versions of the hook libraries and cannot guarantee they will work as expected.
| Hook Libraries | Kea 1.8 Stable | Kea 2.0 Stable | Kea 2.1 Development | Premium package | Subscriber package |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOOTP (RFC 1497) | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | |||
| Configuration Backend Commands | ✔︎ | support for client-classes added | ✔︎ 2.1.4 added support for PostGreSQL backend |
+ | |
| Client Classification Commands | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | + | |
| DDNS Tuning | 2.1.5 ✔︎ |
+ | + | ||
| Flexible Identifier | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | + | + |
| Flexible Options | ✔︎ | new CSV-format | |||
| Forensic Logging | ✔︎ | configurable with expressions | ✔︎ | + | + |
| GSS-TSIG | perform GSS-TSIG updates via Kerberos | + | |||
| High Availability | ✔︎ | Significantly updated for better performance with MT, CA bypass, added communication-recovery state, delayed updates, improved DHCP enable/disable | ✔︎ | ||
| Host Commands | reservation-get-all, reservation-get-page | lease4(6)-get-by-clientid(duid, hostname, hwaddress) | subnet-id parameter is now optional | + | + |
| Lease Management | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | Lease lifetimes based on client class | ||
| Lease Query (RFCs 4388 and 5007) | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | + | ||
| RADIUS Integration/ Host Cache | cache-size, cache-get-by-id | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | + | |
| Run Script hook | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | |||
| Subnet Management | subnet4-update, subnet6-update | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | + |