[Kea-users] Need help assigning subnets by class with host reservations

[MRob]

>> When an inbound packet is received things happen in this order:
>> 
>> 1. The packet is classified by evaluating it against the test
>> expression for defined classes
>> 
>> 2. Subnet matching is conducted based on packet content.  This
>> includes comparing the classes matched to the packet in step 1
>> against
>> the classes specified by the subnet's "client-class" list.
>> 
>> 3. Look for host reservations

It might be nice to add a flow diagram to the docs or some explanations 
of the current limitations of host reservations.

>> Now, I read briefly about user-chk. Reading a text file upon each
>> packet arrival doesn't sound efficient, regardless our requirement
>> is using a database. Would it be possible to:
>> 1. remove "client-class" from the subnet so all clients can
>> initially be assigned to the subnet just for purposes of working
>> around the chicken/egg problem you mentioned
>> 2. assign class names to known clients using the existing database
>> reservations system (note, class would be defined in config file
>> with no "test" expression and our reservations have NULL for the IP
>> address)
>> 3. have the user-chk hook library inspect the assigned class and
>> deny or reassign if the class is empty (not having been assigned in
>> step 2)
>> 
>> What
>> you are proposing is doable, but not with 1.0 as it does not support
>> 
>> client-classes in the host reservations.
>> 
>> If you look at the lease4_select hook point arguments:
>> 
>> * ARGUMENTS:
>> 
>> * name: QUERY4, type: isc::dhcp::Pkt4Ptr [1], direction: IN
>> * name: SUBNET4, type: isc::dhcp::Subnet4Ptr [2], direction: IN
>> 
>> * name: FAKE_ALLOCATION, type: bool, direction: IN
>> * name: LEASE4, type: isc::dhcp::Lease4Ptr [3], direction:
>> IN/OUT
> 
> I had looked earlier myself, but was not able to find a list of hook
> points. Can you please provide a link to where that is?

I'm still interested if you could provide a link to a list of hooks and 
hook explanations?

The hook developer guide says "Please consult hook API documentation" 
but doesn't seem to tell me where that is.

> 1. FYI, on a Debian-based system, the include and lib directories for
> compiling the hook library were somewhat different (especially the
> lib) than the example in the docs:
> 
> -I /usr/local/include/kea
> -L /usr/local/lib
> 
>  Our apologies. Could you point us to the specific reference?

https://jenkins.isc.org/job/Kea_doc/doxygen/df/d46/hooksdgDevelopersGuide.html#hooksdgBuild

>> 3. Is using "lease.decline(0)" the best (only) way, at least in this
>> hook point, to turn away unknown clients? That's what I've done and
>> it works, though the lease is still processed and sent to the
>> client, but with what I think is a lease for zero seconds.
> 
>  Declining a lease is intended to be a client initiated action, so I
> don't really think this is direction to go.  If you set the
> lease4_select next step action to SKIP before returning from your
> lease4_select hook:
> 
> "NEXT STEP STATUS: If any callout installed on the "lease4_select"
> hook sets the next step action to SKIP, the server will not assign any
> lease and the callouts become responsible for the lease assignment. If
> the callouts fail to provide a lease, the packet processing will
> continue, but client will not get an address."
> 
> If your callout does not then assign a lease using its own decision
> making,  the server will generate a NAK to your client.

This works much better (though again, would have not needed to bother 
you if I had been able to find the docs you quote here). Thanks again 
for all your help, it's working quite nicely now.