Using Official ISC Packages for Kea

Overview

ISC offers binary packages of Kea DHCP for our users and customers, hosted on Cloudsmith. They are provided along with the source code tarballs for every release.

The open source packages contain the base Kea software and the following hooks libraries:

• BOOTP
• Flexible Option
• High Availability
• Lease Commands
• MySQL Configuration Backend
• PostgreSQL Configuration Backend
• Run Script
• Statistics Commands

For a full list of hooks provided by the latest development release, please refer to the list of Available Hook Libraries in the ARM.

Why Use ISC's Kea Packages?

1. Update quickly and efficiently directly from our repository, in one step, and skip the added step of downloading and building binaries locally;
2. Get all the latest bug fixes and features immediately, without waiting for your OS distribution to pick up the changes and release them. We provide binary packages along with sources at the time of release (sometimes the binaries are posted a few hours later, but generally the same day).

Supported Operating Systems

ISC has created packages for what we think are the most popular operating systems for production DHCP servers. If your preferred operating system is not packaged, remember you can still build from our published sources.

We provide the following types of packages:

• RPM for RHEL, CentOS, Fedora
• deb for Debian and Ubuntu
• apk for Alpine

ISC-Provided Kea Packages

ISC provides packages for the open source components, as well as the premium, subscriber-only, and enterprise hooks packages.

ISC Packages vs OS Packages

Kea binaries are available in several packages. RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and Alpine all provide their own Kea packages, which may not be packaged the same way as the ISC-provided packages. To avoid confusing ISC packages with those from other distributors, all ISC packages start with the isc- prefix.

Open Source Package Names

The names of the packages can be found below.

Debug images are also available: use the package name above +"-dbgsym". For example, isc-kea-common-dbgsym is an alternative to isc-kea-common.

Premium Package Names (for ISC Support Subscribers)

ISC support subscribers are entitled to additional hooks not included in the open source. Entitlement is based on support level, but the full list of additional hooks available to subscribers is:

For more information about obtaining the subscriber-only and enterprise Kea hooks libraries, please contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact. All of the Kea hook libraries are described fully in the Kea ARM.

Using the Cloudsmith Repositories

All ISC binary packages for Kea are contained in our repositories on Cloudsmith. Note that the source tarballs are also available alongside the binary packages for Kea 2.2.0 and later versions. We have both open source repositories, which are available to anyone, and private repositiories for ISC customers, which require a security token to access.

Open Source Repositories

Packages can be downloaded from our public Cloudsmith repository by following these directions. These instructions are for Kea 2.2, but they can be easily customized for other versions by changing kea-2-2 in the commands to kea-2-3, etc., as appropriate. The current open source repositories on Cloudsmith are:

Setting Up Repos on Debian

To install packages, you can quickly setup the repository automatically (recommended):

curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.deb.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

If you need to force a specific distribution/release, you can also do that (e.g. if your system is compatible but not identical):

curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.deb.sh' \
  | sudo -E distro=some-distro codename=some-codename arch=some-arch bash

or ... you can manually configure it yourself before installing packages:

apt-get install -y debian-keyring  # debian only
apt-get install -y debian-archive-keyring  # debian only
apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
# For Debian Stretch, Ubuntu 16.04 and later
keyring_location=/usr/share/keyrings/isc-kea-2-2-archive-keyring.gpg
# For Debian Jessie, Ubuntu 15.10 and earlier
keyring_location=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/isc-kea-2-2.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/gpg.A8CB727C62565FF8.key' |  gpg --dearmor > ${keyring_location}
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/config.deb.txt?distro=debian&codename=stretch' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/isc-kea-2-2.list
apt-get update

Note: Please replace ubuntu and focal above with your actual operating system, distribution, and distribution version.

If you no longer want to install packages from the repository, you can remove it with:

rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/isc-kea-2-2.list
apt-get clean
rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
apt-get update

Setting Up Repos on Fedora/CentOS/RHEL

To install RPM packages, you can quickly setup the repository automatically (recommended):

curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.rpm.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

If you need to force a specific distribution/release, you can also do that (e.g. if your system is compatible but not identical):

curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.rpm.sh' \
  | sudo -E distro=some-distro codename=some-codename arch=some-arch bash

or... you can manually configure it yourself before installing packages:

yum install yum-utils pygpgme
rpm --import 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/cfg/gpg/gpg.A8CB727C62565FF8.key'
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/config.rpm.txt?distro=el&codename=9' > /tmp/isc-kea-2-2.repo
yum-config-manager --add-repo '/tmp/isc-kea-2-2.repo'
yum -q makecache -y --disablerepo='*' --enablerepo='isc-kea-2-2'

Note: Please replace el and 9 above with your actual distribution/version and use wildcards when enabling multiple repos.

If you no longer want to install packages from the repository, you can remove it with:

rm /etc/yum.repos.d/isc-kea-2-2.repo
rm /etc/yum.repos.d/isc-kea-2-2-source.repo

Setting Up Repos on Alpine

To install packages, you can quickly setup the repository automatically (recommended):

sudo apk add --no-cache bash
curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.alpine.sh' \
  | sudo -E bash

If you need to force a specific distribution/release, you can also do that (e.g. if your system is compatible but not identical):

sudo apk add --no-cache bash
curl -1sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.alpine.sh' \
  | sudo -E distro=some-distro codename=some-codename arch=some-arch bash

or ... you can manually configure it yourself before installing packages:

curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/rsa.C661CE1E55D11F19.key' > /etc/apk/keys/kea-2-2@isc-C661CE1E55D11F19.rsa.pub
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/config.alpine.txt?distro=alpine&codename=v3.15' >> /etc/apk/repositories
apk update

Note: Please replace v3.8 above with your actual distribution version.

If you no longer want to install packages from the repository, you can remove the entries with:

$EDITOR /etc/apk/repositories

Remove /alpine/v3.8/main line, save then execute:

rm -f /etc/apk/keys/kea-2-1@isc-CC39698D5EDFF644.rsa.pub
apk update

Premium Repositories for Support Subscribers

Organizations that purchase professional Kea DHCP support from ISC are encouraged to use the private repositories (designated with a -prv suffix in the repository name). The -prv repositories contain extra software not included in the open source. These repositories will also be updated in case of a security vulnerability, prior to publication of that vulnerability.

These instructions provide information on accessing the private Cloudsmith repositories with a token, indicated with your_token_goes_here in the commands. If you are an ISC Kea support customer and need a token, please open a ticket to request one.

The instructions are very similar to the ones for the open source repositories, given above. They can be easily customized by altering the URLs; the public part should be replaced with the token and kea-2-2 with kea-2-2-prv. For example:

'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/setup.rpm.sh'

should be changed to

'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/your_token_goes_here/isc/kea-2-2-prv/setup.rpm.sh' 

The current private repositories on Cloudsmith are:

Source Tarballs in the Package Repository

As of Kea 2.2.0 we have started adding the source tarballs alongside the binary packages in the Cloudsmith repository. This is a particular convenience for our support subscribers, who can now use the same token to download the source that they have already been using to install the packages.

To download the source tarball and its signatures from Cloudsmith, use the following set of commands, replacing the version string with the current version you wish to download:

version=2.2.0; \
  for file in kea-$version.tar.gz kea-$version.tar.gz.asc kea-$version.tar.gz.sha1.asc kea-$version.tar.gz.sha256.asc kea-$version.tar.gz.sha512.asc Kea-$version-ReleaseNotes.txt;  do \
  curl -O https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/raw/versions/$version/$file; \
done

or just a single file:

curl -O https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/isc/kea-2-2/raw/versions/2.2.0/kea-2.2.0.tar.gz

The tarballs (in contrast to the binary packages) have been signed using ISC's code signing key. To verify signatures, after importing the ISC key from https://www.isc.org/pgpkey/ please run this set of commands:

version=2.2.0; \
for i in .asc .sha1.asc .sha256.asc .sha512.asc; do \
  gpg --verify kea-enterprise-$version.tar.gz$i kea-enterprise-$version.tar.gz; \
done

For ISC subscribers, change to the -prv repository, and insert your token into the query. Change the keyword to specify which hooks to download. The possible values include premium, subscription and enterprise.

version=2.2.0 hooks=premium; \
  for file in kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz.asc kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz.sha1.asc kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz.sha256.asc kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz.sha512.asc;  do \
  curl -O https://dl.cloudsmith.io/<your-customer-token-here>/isc/kea-2-1-prv/raw/versions/$version/$file; \
done

and use a similar script to verify signatures:

version=2.2.0 hooks=premium; \
for i in .asc .sha1.asc .sha256.asc .sha512.asc; do \
  gpg --verify kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz$i kea-$hooks-$version.tar.gz; \
done

Note that in the examples above you will need to replace kea-2-2 with the major version and 2.2.0 with the minor version (this is supported only for Kea 2.2.0 and later versions).

Installing Kea Packages

After configuring the repositories on a host machine, the Kea packages can be installed. As there are several packages, we can choose to install only the parts of Kea that are required. The dependencies between packages are set up so any dependent packages will be pulled in as well.

The following examples will install the main Kea metapackage which depends on (and consequently installs) all of the components in the Open Source bundle.

Deb version:

apt install isc-kea

RPM version:

yum install isc-kea

Alpine version:

apk add isc-kea

If you would only like to install specific components, or subpackages, that is also possible. Please refer to the list of packages above to discover which specific packages you need.

Once Kea is installed, it can be configured; the configuration files are located in the /etc/kea/ folder.

Installing Premium Hooks

After setting up the Premium hooks repository, you should be able to install Kea premium hooks with your platform's package manager.

The following command installs a particular Kea premium hooks library.

Deb version:

apt install isc-kea-premium-flex-id

RPM version:

yum install isc-kea-premium-flex-id

Alpine version:

apk add isc-kea-premium-flex-id

Please refer to the Premium Packages section above to discover names of other premium hooks which you may have access to.

Managing Kea Services

When using the ISC provided packages, Kea services should be managed using your the service manager of your OS.

Service Names

RPM and Alpine systems

Debian systems

Service Management

To start, stop, or restart Kea daemons, systemctl should be used on Debian/Ubuntu and RPM based systems, and OpenRC should be used on Alpine.

In the following examples, the kea-dhcp4 service is being enabled, started, and stopped. Please replace kea-dhcp4 with the service you wish to manage.

Deb version:

systemctl enable isc-kea-dhcp4-server
systemctl start isc-kea-dhcp4-server
systemctl stop isc-kea-dhcp4-server

RPM version:

systemctl enable kea-dhcp4
systemctl start kea-dhcp4
systemctl stop kea-dhcp4

Alpine version:

rc-update add kea-dhcp4
service kea-dhcp4 start
service kea-dhcp4 stop