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Kea Significant Features Matrix
  • 25 Jan 2023
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Contents

Kea Significant Features Matrix

  • Updated on 25 Jan 2023
  • 4 Minutes to read
  • Contributors
  • Print
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Article Summary

This table lists the major feature differences for different releases of Kea. An "✔︎" 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).

See Release Notes for More Detailed Changes

This list does not include many smaller changes, including changes in existing features or minor new features. For more detail, we recommend checking release notes. Release notes for the first release on a new stable branch (e.g. 2.2.0) will include significant changes since the last stable version.

Please use the slider underneath each table to scroll left and right.
Feature Kea 1.8 Stable Kea 2.0 Stable Kea 2.1 Dev Kea 2.2 Stable Kea 2.3 Dev Kea 2.4 Stable
Access Control (see also TLS support) basic local authentication passwords stored in own files, separate from config new RBAC hook ✔︎ ✔︎
Address allocation iterative iterative iterative iterative iterative, random iterative, random
Bulk Lease Query DHCPv6 only DHCPv6 only
Cache Threshold - minimize updates to existing leases X ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Database - Cassandra backend ✔︎ deprecated, will be removed in 2.2 ✔︎ deprecated REMOVED - -
Database - Configuration backend using PostgreSQL ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Database - reconnect ✔︎ updated 1.9.4, see `on-fail` logic for how to handle failures ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
DDNS Controls ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ new DDNS-Tuning hook ✔︎ ✔︎
Drop class for clients with reservations ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
High Availability paged updates now multi-threaded ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Host Reservations Mode - Global ✔︎ ✔︎ Options/modes changed ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Host Reservations Mode - multiple separate controls for global, in-subnet or out-of-pool reservation modes `reservations-lookup-first`, `early-global-reservations-lookup` options ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
IPv6-only option ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Lease migration between backends ✔ leases can now be exported from one backend and imported into another ✔ ✔︎ ✔︎
Libreload deprecated removed
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) ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Subnet selection order (CL #1778) by ascending subnet ID by ascending subnet ID ✔︎ ✔︎ NB: new random allocation algorithm ✔︎
Template classes ✔ ✔︎
TLS support CA can require client identification and can use TLS encryption for client connections TLS secures connections between Kea and MySQL & PostgreSQL backends ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
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 2.2 Stable Kea 2.4 Stable Premium package Subscriber package Enterprise package
BOOTP (RFC 1497) ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Class Commands ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ + +
Configuration Backend Commands, requires either Configuration Backend for PostgreSQL or Configuration Backend for MySQL ✔︎ support for client-classes added ✔︎
support for PostgreSQL backend, options preserved from client classes in cfg backend		 ✔︎ + +
DDNS Tuning 2.1.5
✔︎		 ✔︎ + + +
Flexible Identifier ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ + + +
Flexible Options ✔︎ new CSV-format, support for sub-options ✔︎ + + +
Forensic Logging ✔︎ configurable with expressions added timestamp format ✔︎ + + +
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 Commands ✔︎ ✔︎ Lease lifetimes based on client class ✔︎
Leasequery ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ + +
Limits new hook limits leases per second, leases per class ✔︎ + +
MySQL Configuration Backend ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ + +
PostgreSQL Configuration Backend ✔︎ ✔︎ + +
RADIUS Integration cache-size, cache-get-by-id ✔︎ RADIUS subnet selection added ✔︎ + +
Role-Based Access Control ✔︎ +
Run Script hook ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Statistics Commands subnet4-update, subnet6-update ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Subnet Commands subnet4-update, subnet6-update ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ + +
User Check (example hook) ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
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