ansible-role-kea_dhcp

This Ansible role will deploy up to three Docker containers, each running one component of the ISC Kea DHCP server software and configure it to your liking. The services available are:

• kea-dhcp4
• kea-dhcp6
• kea-ctrl-agent

The containers used are jonasal/kea-<service> from here and use the host network in order to function properly.

Installation

This repository does not have any dependencies, so just move into your roles/ folder and run the following:

git clone [email protected]:JonasAlfredsson/ansible-role-kea_dhcp.git kea

If you would like to download any updates for this role in the future, you may use the following command from within the previously cloned folder:

git pull

When the configuration is complete you may then just include this role in your main playbook like this:

- hosts: dhcp_servers
  name: Install Kea DHCP service
  roles:
    - kea

Usage

Kea has quite a lot of configuration possibilities so it is impossible for me to create a role that covers every conceivable usecase with easily accessible variables, but I have tried to make the most common ones easy to achieve and some more advanced stuff possible by just piping a custom variable through the to_nice_json filter in jinja.

I found it a little bit difficult to find a comprehensive list with all the configuration options, but here is the documentation page which list some things. However, I had to look at the example files found here to actually get an understanding on how each setting should be defined.

Example Configuration

To add some kind of structure to the example configuration I will split it into five sections.

1. Container Options
2. DHCP Configuration
   • Subnets
3. Control Agent Configuration
4. Logging
5. Raw Settings

All of the available settings can be viewed in the defaults file, and it is recommended to check it there before you change anything since I will only mention those I think are the most important here.

Container Options

The settings grouped in the Container options section have more of an impact on the host and the actual Docker container than the Kea service. One setting that probably should be changed is the base directory in which the container will find the configuration files and write its logs:

kea_container_base_dir: "/srv/kea"

This is shared between all services, and they will use filenames that differentiate between them instead. Something else that is important to note here is that by default only the IPv4 service is enabled, and you will have to change the rest if you want to include them:

kea_dhcp4_enabled: true
kea_dhcp6_enabled: false
kea_ctrl_agent_enabled: false

DHCP Configuration

These settings are targeted towards the DHCP services, and since these two have very similar configuration files most options look like this:

kea_dhcp_interfaces: [ '*' ]
kea_dhcp4_interfaces: "{{ kea_dhcp_interfaces }}"
kea_dhcp6_interfaces: "{{ kea_dhcp_interfaces }}"

which means that you either can change the setting "globally" or address them individually per service. It is recommended that you explicitly name the interface you want to listen to and don't use *, so this setting should most likely be modified by you.

Subnets

One advanced variable available in this section is the kea_dhcp*_subnets one. This is an empty list by default, but since this will be piped through the to_nice_json filter in the jinja template it allows you to create a super advanced configuration if you want. For example, here we create two subnets with some extra options:

kea_dhcp4_subnets:
  - subnet: "192.168.1.0/24"
    pools:
      - pool: "192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.111"
      - pool: "192.168.1.200 - 192.168.1.222"
    reservations:
      - hw-address: "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:fe"
        ip-address: "192.168.1.98"
      - hw-address: "aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff"
        ip-address: "192.168.1.99"
  - subnet: "192.168.2.0/24"
    hostname-char-replacement: "x"
    hostname-char-set: "[^A-Za-z0-9.-]"
    pools:
      - pool: "192.168.2.100 - 192.168.2.200"
    option-data:
      - always-send: false
        code: 3
        csv-format: true

There exists a plethora of settings here, so I suggest you look at the "all-keys" example and build your own configuration from that.

Control Agent Configuration

There are really only two settings here that are unique for the Control Agent, and those are

kea_ctrl_agent_host: "0.0.0.0"
kea_ctrl_agent_port: 8000

This will expose a RESTful API you can use to communicate with the other services if they are up and running.

Logging

Logging is important, else you do not know if anything goes wrong with the services. You probably want the same settings across all services, so these variables exist to make your life easier:

# Note the space here----▼
kea_logging_pattern: "%D{ %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%q } %-5p [%c/%i.%t] %m\n"
kea_logging_severity: "INFO"
kea_logging_debuglevel: 0
kea_logging_maxsize: 10485760  # 10 MB
kea_logging_maxver: 3

Unless you change the kea_logging_raw_* variable this will set up logging at the INFO level both to stdout and to a log file with automatic rotation when it reaches 10MB in size and it will keep 2 files in history before they are deleted. The only thing to be wary of here is the space in the { % pointed out above. This was necessary to do because {% is a special command in jinja which makes the templating fail. Just be careful with that in case you want to change the pattern.

However, like in the subnet case discussed above we allow you to pipe your own custom settings directly to the templating. Take a look in the defaults file to see how the kea_logging_raw_* variables are set up right now, and then at the logging documentation to see if there is something you would like to change.

Raw Settings

Finally there is the kea_*_raw_options variable. The same principle goes here as in the subnet and kea_logging_raw_* case where you can just add freestyle options:

kea_dhcp4_raw_options:
  authoritative: false
  option-def:
    - name: "vendor-encapsulated-options"
      code: 43
      type: "binary"

Only the sky and your sanity is the limit here, so go wild and use the "all-keys" example as a source of inspiration.