Issue with Kea DHCP server

Started by coatmaker618, October 15, 2025, 04:39:08 PM

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I have a new OPNSense install that I am setting up, and one of the new things I'm doing is using Kea as the DHCP server instead of the (apparently now defunct per https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/isc.html#isc-dhcp) ISC.

So far I really like Kea from a GUI perspective, it's much more straightforward and clear than ISC so I'd prefer to keep using it.  However I am not getting DHCP assigned on my LAN.  Interestingly, I am seemingly getting DHCP addresses on the VLANs (at least from a preliminary look).  I know everything is setup correctly as setting a static IP on my desktop (on the LAN) works perfectly.

To confuse things further I went to Kea's logs and did a few searches which seem to indicate that it is seeing a DHCP request from my desktop and trying to issue a DHCP lease to it -- at least per my reading of the logs.  I've attached the results of a search of the desktop MAC (which is not getting an IP via DHCP).

It turns out that while setting up I did unintentionally activate dnsmasq, but that has been stopped and OPNSense has been rebooted so I hope that's now just a red herring.

Post your interface assignments and IPs, Kea settings and subnets.

Quote from: coatmaker618 on October 15, 2025, 04:39:08 PMI have a new OPNSense install that I am setting up, and one of the new things I'm doing is using Kea as the DHCP server instead of the (apparently now defunct per https://docs.opnsense.org/manual/isc.html#isc-dhcp) ISC.

So far I really like Kea from a GUI perspective, it's much more straightforward and clear than ISC so I'd prefer to keep using it.  However I am not getting DHCP assigned on my LAN.  Interestingly, I am seemingly getting DHCP addresses on the VLANs (at least from a preliminary look).  I know everything is setup correctly as setting a static IP on my desktop (on the LAN) works perfectly.

To confuse things further I went to Kea's logs and did a few searches which seem to indicate that it is seeing a DHCP request from my desktop and trying to issue a DHCP lease to it -- at least per my reading of the logs.  I've attached the results of a search of the desktop MAC (which is not getting an IP via DHCP).

It turns out that while setting up I did unintentionally activate dnsmasq, but that has been stopped and OPNSense has been rebooted so I hope that's now just a red herring.

Quote from: pfry on October 15, 2025, 07:20:57 PMPost your interface assignments and IPs, Kea settings and subnets.

Is there any easy way to export those? I only ask as screenshots are kind of tough with the low filesize limit.

Quote from: coatmaker618 on Today at 03:27:00 AMIs there any easy way to export those? I only ask as screenshots are kind of tough with the low filesize limit.

Heh. Not that I know of. I'm not an image-editing wizard, and I have bad eyes to boot. But it's tough to speculate without your config. I didn't see anything in the log that stood out.

Quote from: coatmaker618 on Today at 03:27:00 AMIs there any easy way to export those? I only ask as screenshots are kind of tough with the low filesize limit.

Plenty of screenshots have been posted here without issues around file size. You can reduce size if needed while keeping it screen-viewable.

I use Kea so would try to help if I could see the settings.
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