[Kea-users] DHCPv6 Reconfigure?

[Tomek Mrugalski]

On 17.12.2018 22:59, Templin (US), Fred L wrote:
> Hi Tomek,
> 
> Thanks for the response. It sounds like there are no technical issues that would
> prevent the implementation of Reconfigure in kea - rather, it is a prioritization
> and resource question which is always the case for any large software distribution.
> Do I have that right?
Correct. There are no technical objections. On the contrary - this is a
feature we'd very much love to get. Unfortunately, our resources are
limited, so we are try to focus on features that are requested most
frequently.

And reconfigure is rarely requested, which is a shame. It's a good
mechanism. IMHO the fundamental mistake was made years ago when support
for this feature was made optional while defining RFC3315. Since clients
can chose to not implement (and most implementors go that way), network
administrators can't rely on the feature. This in turn made server
implementors to not implement it, because few people ask for it. There
are some deployment environments, such as cable networks, where docsis
3.0 mandates reconfigure implementation.

I proposed to make it mandatory when DHC was working on RFC3315bis, but
sadly my proposal was rejected.

> I do not have a pressing need for the functionality at the moment, but that may
> change as we get further down the road in 2019. For now, I just wanted to
> verify that there are no technical issues that are preventing the implementation
> and I think I have my answer.
Again, this is correct. We'd love to get this feature. There are some
undecided aspects, such as how to define management interface for it,
but overall the feature is sound and we want it.

Speaking of the interface, there are many ways how a reconfigure could
be implemented. The easiest will be to send reconfigure to a single
client, triggered by a command, say, client-reconfig. We'll surely get
some form of reconfigure all clients and it looks like something in
between those two. Perhaps a mechanism to say "all clients in subnet X"
 or maybe "clients having an address from pool Y" are to be reconfigured.
Anyway, that's something to think about.

Thanks for asking about this feature. I really hope we'll get it
implemented soon.

Tomek