Kea is open source, shared under MPL2.0 licensing. Kea is developed in the open on ISC’s GitLab; we welcome you to open issues and submit patches there. Kea runs on most Linux and Unix platforms, as well as MacOS. If you don’t want to build from our source distribution, we also provide a repository of pre-built packages for most popular operating systems.

ISC distributes and maintains TWO open source, standards-based DHCP server distributions: Kea DHCP and ISC DHCP. Kea includes all the most-requested features, is far newer, and is designed for a more modern network environment.

How is the Kea DHCP server different from the older ISC DHCP?

1. Modular Component Design, Extensible with Hooks Modules. The Kea distribution includes separate daemons for a DHCPv4 server, a DHCPv6 server, and a dynamic DNS (DDNS) module. Many optional features are enabled with dynamically-loaded “Hooks Modules,” which you need run only if you are using them. You can write your own hooks modules (in C++) or try some of the hooks we offer.

2. On-line Re-configuration with REST API Kea uses a JSON configuration file that can be modified remotely via set commands and reloaded without stopping and restarting the server, an operation that could take quite a while with ISC DHCP.

3. Designed to Integrate with Your Existing Systems. Kea allows you to separate the data from the execution environment, enabling new deployment options. Your network data - leases, host reservation definitions, and most configuration data - can be located separately from the DHCP server itself, using a Kea “backend.”

4. Web-based graphical dashboard Kea now has a graphical dashboard for monitoring multiple Kea servers. This system, called Stork, uses agents deployed on the Kea servers to relay information to a centralized management platform, providing the administrator with an easy-to-use quick view of system status and activity.

Kea supports two database backends; MySQL and PostgreSQL. Choose to store leases, host reservations, or shared configuration data in a separate database backend. Benefits of this include:

• Integrate it more easily with your other systems - provisioning systems, IPAMS and so on - by storing critical data in a separate database.

• Use the same hosts reservations backend for multiple DHCP servers.

• Administer global options from a centralized configuration backend.

• Manage large address pools in a database rather than a text file.

• ISC gitlab Repository: Kea DHCP Server

• Kea DHCP Server Docs

Broad, standards-compliant support for both DHCPv4 and DHCPv6

• Free-open source, shared under MPL 2.0 licensing

• Direct address assignment (DHCPv4 and DHCPv6) or DHCPv6 prefix delegation

• Dynamic IP addressing and static host reservations

• Dynamic DNS for updating DNS records as leases are renewed or expired

• Tracking of MAC addresses, even in DHCPv6

• Extend and customize Kea through Hooks

• Add and change subnets and pools without restarting Kea

• Store leases and host reservations in a MySQL, PostgreSQL or Cassandra database rather than a text file

• Replace the entire Kea configuration, or separately manage leases, subnets and host reservations through a REST API

• Comprehensive Developer and Administrator documentation.

• ISC offers commercial 7 x 24 support for Kea, as well as consulting and contract development to assist in implementing Kea, including migration from ISC DHCP.

Kea runs on Linux, BSD, and MacOS, like ISC DHCP. The Kea distribution does not yet include a DHCP client or relay, but because both are standards-based, the ISC DHCP client works fine with the Kea DHCP server. Kea is under active development.

The Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) offers a free version of its DHCP and DHCPv6 reference implementation. The following configuration settings are available with the ISC DHCP server, which are configured in the server's dhcpd.conf file.