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netbox-kea-ng

PyPI PyPI - Downloads CI Coverage CodeQL REUSE License Python NetBox

Fork notice: This is netbox-kea-ng, an independently maintained fork of netbox-kea by Devon Mar. It is published to PyPI as netbox-kea-ng and tracked in this repository. Upstream changes are periodically merged where applicable.

NetBox plugin for the Kea DHCP server. Manage your DHCP infrastructure directly from NetBox — view daemon status, search and manage leases, manage host reservations, configure subnets/pools/options, and keep your NetBox IPAM synchronized with live Kea data via a background job.

Features

Core (from upstream)

  • View Kea daemon status (DHCPv4/DHCPv6 daemons — and the Control Agent on Kea < 3.0)
  • Full DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 support
  • Search, view, delete and export DHCP leases
  • Search for NetBox devices/VMs directly from DHCP leases
  • View DHCP subnets from Kea configuration
  • REST API and GraphQL support for Server objects

Additions in this fork

Host Reservations

  • Full CRUD for DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 reservations via host_cmds and subnet_cmds hooks
  • Identifier types: hw-address (v4), DUID (v6), client-id, flex-id, circuit-id, remote-id
  • Reservations that reserve no address — an identifier-only host (hostname, options or client classes only) and a DHCPv6 host that only delegates prefixes. Both are listed, created, edited and deleted by client identifier instead of by IP, and the IPAM sync reports them as skipped: there is no address to record in NetBox. Their Lease column matches the client identifier against the leases of the reservation's own subnet, there being no reserved address to match on
  • Per-reservation DHCP options
  • Journal entries on add/edit/delete
  • Bulk CSV import: columns are matched by header name in any order. Each row needs subnet-id and exactly one identifier column; the address is optional, and DHCPv6 rows may carry a semicolon-separated prefixes column

Subnet Management

  • Add, edit and delete subnets (requires subnet_cmds or config-set)
  • Pool management (add/delete pools per subnet)
  • Shared network management (add/edit/delete)
  • Per-subnet and global DHCP option editing

IPAM Sync

  • Sync active leases → NetBox IPAddress (status active)
  • Sync reservations → NetBox IPAddress (status reserved)
  • Sync button on individual leases and reservations
  • Bulk sync for entire lease tables
  • Pending-change detection: badge on leases where a reservation exists at a different IP
  • MAC address sync → NetBox MACAddress
  • Sets dns_name on IPAddress for automatic DNS sync via netbox-dns IPAMDNSsync

Periodic Background Sync (requires rqworker)

  • Automatic Kea→NetBox IPAM sync on a configurable interval (default 5 minutes)
  • Syncs all leases and reservations from all configured servers
  • Visible in NetBox System → Background Jobs

DHCP Control

  • Enable/disable DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 daemons from the NetBox UI

Dual-URL Server

  • Optional separate URLs for the DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 endpoints
  • Supports Kea 3.0+ (each daemon exposes its own HTTP control socket) and split v4/v6 deployments

Global / Cross-Server Views

  • Combined dashboard, lease, reservation, subnet and shared-network views across all servers

Lease Add / Edit / Bulk Import

  • Add and edit individual leases
  • Bulk import leases from CSV

Requirements

  • NetBox 4.3 – 4.6
  • Kea 3.0+ (recommended) — the plugin connects directly to each daemon's built-in HTTP control socket (kea-dhcp4 / kea-dhcp6). The Kea Control Agent was deprecated in Kea 2.7 and removed in 3.0; on Kea < 3.0, point the server URL at the Control Agent instead.
  • lease_cmds hook library (for lease search and management)
  • host_cmds hook library (optional, for reservation management — also requires subnet_cmds to resolve a reservation's subnet from its CIDR)
  • subnet_cmds hook library (optional, for subnet add/edit/delete, reservation management, and the subnet suggestions on the lease search and reservation forms)

The plugin degrades gracefully when optional hooks are absent — tabs for unavailable features are hidden automatically. Two pages offer the server's configured subnets as suggestions and read them through subnet_cmds; without that hook each says so in a banner rather than silently offering nothing:

  • Lease search keeps working: the Search field offers no subnet suggestions, so type a subnet CIDR or ID.
  • Add reservation cannot save, because resolving the entered CIDR to a Kea subnet ID needs subnet_cmds. Load the hook first.

Compatibility

netbox-kea-ng NetBox Kea
1.x 4.3 – 4.6 3.0+ recommended (2.4+ via Control Agent)

On Kea 3.0+ the plugin talks directly to each DHCP daemon's HTTP control socket; on Kea < 3.0 it connects through the (now-deprecated) Control Agent. CI tests against Kea 3.2.0 using the memfile lease database.

Installation

1. Install the package

Add netbox-kea-ng to your local_requirements.txt (or install with pip):

pip install netbox-kea-ng

2. Enable the plugin

In configuration.py:

PLUGINS = ["netbox_kea"]

Optionally configure plugin settings (see Configuration):

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_kea": {
        "kea_timeout": 30,
        "sync_interval_minutes": 5,
        "sync_leases_enabled": True,
        "sync_reservations_enabled": True,
        "sync_prefixes_enabled": True,
        "sync_ip_ranges_enabled": True,
        "sync_max_leases_per_server": 50000,
        "stale_ip_cleanup": "remove",
    }
}

3. Run migrations

./manage.py migrate

4. Start the background worker (required for periodic sync)

The periodic IPAM sync job runs via NetBox's built-in rqworker. If you're not already running it:

./manage.py rqworker

The Kea IPAM Sync job will appear under System → Background Jobs and runs on the configured interval.

Configuration

All settings are under PLUGINS_CONFIG["netbox_kea"]:

Setting Default Description
kea_timeout 30 HTTP request timeout in seconds for Kea API calls
stale_ip_cleanup "remove" What to do with stale IPs after sync: "remove" (delete), "deprecate" (set status=deprecated), "none" (skip)
sync_interval_minutes 5 How often the background sync job runs (minutes). Also editable via NetBox admin → Jobs
sync_leases_enabled True Sync active DHCP leases to NetBox IPAM
sync_reservations_enabled True Sync Kea reservations to NetBox IPAM
sync_prefixes_enabled True Sync Kea subnets to NetBox IPAM as IP Prefixes
sync_ip_ranges_enabled True Sync Kea pools to NetBox IPAM as IP Ranges
sync_max_leases_per_server 50000 Hard cap on leases fetched per server per sync run. Set to 0 for no limit

Server Configuration

Single-URL (Control Agent, or a single-protocol daemon)

Point one Server URL at a Kea endpoint that serves every enabled protocol — a Control Agent (Kea < 3.0, which fronts both DHCPv4 and DHCPv6), or a single DHCP daemon's HTTP control socket (Kea 3.0+) when the server runs only DHCPv4 or only DHCPv6. A dual-stack Kea 3.0+ deployment needs one URL per daemon — see Dual-URL below.

Field Description
CA / Server URL (ca_url) URL of the Kea HTTP endpoint — a DHCP daemon control socket (Kea 3.0+) or the Control Agent (Kea < 3.0), e.g. https://kea.example.com:8000
DHCPv4 Enable DHCPv4 lease/reservation/subnet management
DHCPv6 Enable DHCPv6 lease/reservation/subnet management
CA Username (ca_username) / CA Password (ca_password) HTTP Basic Auth credentials (if required)
CA File Path Path to a custom CA certificate file for TLS verification
SSL Verification Enable/disable TLS certificate verification (enabled by default)

Dual-URL (separate v4/v6 processes)

When DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 have separate endpoints — the norm on Kea 3.0+, where each daemon exposes its own HTTP control socket:

Field Description
DHCPv4 URL URL of the DHCPv4 daemon's HTTP control socket (or its Control Agent on Kea < 3.0)
DHCPv6 URL URL of the DHCPv6 daemon's HTTP control socket (or its Control Agent on Kea < 3.0)

The main CA URL (ca_url) is required and acts as a fallback for any protocol without a dedicated URL. By default, both DHCPv4 URL and DHCPv6 URL use CA-level credentials; see Per-protocol credentials below for optional overrides.

Per-protocol credentials

When connecting directly to DHCP daemons (bypassing the Control Agent), you can configure separate credentials per protocol:

Field Description
dhcp4_username Username for the DHCPv4 daemon (overrides ca_username for DHCPv4)
dhcp4_password Password for the DHCPv4 daemon (overrides ca_password for DHCPv4)
dhcp6_username Username for the DHCPv6 daemon (overrides ca_username for DHCPv6)
dhcp6_password Password for the DHCPv6 daemon (overrides ca_password for DHCPv6)

If per-protocol credentials are not set, the CA-level credentials (ca_username/ca_password) are used as the default for all connections.

Per-server IPAM sync settings

Each server has optional overrides for the IPAM sync job:

Field Default Description
IPAM Sync Enabled (sync_enabled) True Include this server in the periodic sync job
Sync Leases (sync_leases_enabled) True Sync active DHCP leases as NetBox IP Addresses
Sync Reservations (sync_reservations_enabled) True Sync DHCP reservations as NetBox IP Addresses
Sync Prefixes (sync_prefixes_enabled) True Sync Kea subnets as NetBox IP Prefixes
Sync IP Ranges (sync_ip_ranges_enabled) True Sync Kea pools as NetBox IP Ranges
Sync VRF (sync_vrf) None (global routing table) VRF to assign when syncing Prefixes and IP Ranges. There is no global fallback — leave blank to use the global routing table (no VRF)
Persist configuration (persist_config) True Automatically save Kea config after each change via config-write. Disable when Kea config is managed externally (e.g. Ansible)

These fields override the global PLUGINS_CONFIG values for that specific server.

Background IPAM Sync

The Kea IPAM Sync job runs automatically when rqworker is active:

  1. Iterates all configured Server objects
  2. For each server: fetches all active leases (v4 + v6) and all reservations
  3. Creates or updates NetBox IPAddress objects:
    • Leases → status=active, dns_name set from Kea hostname
    • Reservations → status=reserved, dns_name set from Kea hostname
  4. Cleans up stale IPs (configurable via stale_ip_cleanup)
  5. One server failing does not block others
  6. Summary logged per server and in total

Each server's summary reports created, updated, errors, prefix_errors, conflicts and skipped:

  • skipped — rows the sync deliberately did not write, chiefly reservations that reserve no address. They are not errors and do not fail the job.
  • errors — rows that failed to sync. Any error fails the job; the per-row reason is logged at warning level with the server, IP version, subnet id and identifier type (never the identifier value, which can carry operator data).
  • conflicts — addresses already held in NetBox by something other than this Kea server, deduplicated per server across the lease and reservation phases. Up to 20 of them are named in the summary and the log, so the addresses to look at are visible without trawling debug output.

View job history, next scheduled time and logs under System → Background Jobs → Kea IPAM Sync.

The sync interval can be changed live via the NetBox admin without restarting the worker — edit the interval field on the job object.

DNS Integration

When netbox-dns with IPAMDNSsync is installed:

  1. The IPAM sync sets dns_name on IPAddress objects from the Kea hostname
  2. IPAMDNSsync picks up dns_name changes via Django signals
  3. A/AAAA/PTR records are created automatically (provided matching DNS views + zones exist)

No additional configuration is required — the integration is automatic when both plugins are present.

Custom Links

Add custom links to NetBox models to navigate directly to Kea lease searches.

Replace <Kea Server ID> with your server's object ID (visible in the top-right corner of the server detail page as netbox_kea.server:<ID>).

Show DHCP leases for a prefix

Content type: IPAM > Prefix

URL: https://netbox.example.com/plugins/kea/servers/<Kea Server ID>/leases{{ object.prefix.version }}/?q={{ object.prefix }}&by=subnet

Show DHCP leases for a device/VM interface (by MAC)

Content types: DCIM > Interface, Virtualization > Interface

DHCPv4 URL: https://netbox.example.com/plugins/kea/servers/<Kea Server ID>/leases4/?q={{ object.mac_address }}&by=hw

DHCPv6 URL: https://netbox.example.com/plugins/kea/servers/<Kea Server ID>/leases6/?q={{ object.mac_address }}&by=hw

Show DHCP leases for a device/VM (by hostname)

Content types: DCIM > Device, Virtualization > Virtual Machine

DHCPv4 URL: https://netbox.example.com/plugins/kea/servers/<Kea Server ID>/leases4/?q={{ object.name|lower }}&by=hostname

DHCPv6 URL: https://netbox.example.com/plugins/kea/servers/<Kea Server ID>/leases6/?q={{ object.name|lower }}&by=hostname

You can substitute {{ object.name|lower }} with a custom field: {{ object.cf.<your_field>|lower }}.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync

# Lint
uv run ruff check netbox_kea/
uv run ruff format --check netbox_kea/

# REUSE compliance check
uv run reuse lint

# Format
uv run ruff format netbox_kea/

# Install pre-commit hooks
uv run pre-commit install

# Build wheel (required before integration tests)
uv build

# Run unit tests inside the devcontainer with a dedicated test Redis host
TEST_DB_NAME=test_netbox_kea_review TEST_REDIS_HOST=netbox-kea-review-redis \
  uv run --native-tls pytest --reuse-db -n auto --maxschedchunk=1 -q

# Run integration tests (requires Docker — see tests/test_setup.sh)
./tests/test_setup.sh
uv run --native-tls pytest -p no:django tests/ --tracing=retain-on-failure -v --cov=netbox_kea --cov-report=xml

See CHANGELOG for version history.

License

Apache-2.0 — original code by Devon Mar, fork maintained by Marcin Zieba.

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Manage Kea DHCP leases in NetBox.

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