[Kea-users] HA Kea with config replication

[Darren Ankney]

Hi Sam,

You won't need the configuration backend to manage reservations.  You
can store the reservations in the database using hosts-database and
host_cmds hook.  See thee two sections of the ARM for more info:

https://kea.readthedocs.io/en/stable/arm/dhcp4-srv.html#hosts-storage
https://kea.readthedocs.io/en/stable/arm/hooks.html#libdhcp-host-cmds-so-host-commands

Kea needs to be setup this way to use Stork if you are interested in
managing reservations in the UI.  For more information about Stork
see:

https://www.isc.org/stork/
https://kb.isc.org/docs/stork-quickstart-guide?highlight=stork

And since you mentioned HA, you may want to visit these links:

https://kb.isc.org/docs/kea-ha-strategies-comparison
https://kb.isc.org/docs/kea-shared-lease-database-quickstart
https://kb.isc.org/docs/kea-ha-quickstart-guide

Thank you,
Darren Ankney

On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 1:01 PM Sam Pitts <spitts at remc1.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Our org is interested in setting up Kea HA setup on hot-standby. Lease sync will not be a problem but I am concerned with how to manage host reservations without using the paid configuration backend hooks. We heavily utilize host reservations and would be consistently adding/removing old reservations from the configuration file which would in turn require making the same edits on both HA servers. Has anyone else done a similar setup or know a better way without making use of a DB backend?
>
> Thank you,
>
> --
>
> Sam Pitts
> Systems Engineer
> REMC1 SupportNet | (906) 487-7624
> support at remc1.net | support.remc1.net
>
>
> --
> ISC funds the development of this software with paid support subscriptions. Contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact/ for more information.
>
> To unsubscribe visit https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/kea-users.
> Kea-users at lists.isc.org