Stork 2.2 adds DNS zone viewer
Stork 2.2 adds DNS support Since the last stable version of Stork we have begun adding support for monitoring DNS alongside DHCP.
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Stork 2.2 adds DNS support
Since the last stable version of Stork we have begun adding support for monitoring DNS alongside DHCP. You will now see any discovered BIND servers in the Stork machines view.
After authorizing some BIND servers to share information with Stork, you will see a DNS dashboard appear (below the DHCP dashboard). Both DNS and DHCP dashboards are collapsible. The dashboard pictured illustrates Stork’s “dark mode” setting.
Stork 2.2 DNS zone viewer
Stork is now able to retrieve the list of DNS zones from all detected BIND 9 servers.
- This includes details about the zone (zone type, serial number, the associated server or servers). Note that Stork is aware of views and associates the zones with the appropriate view.
- The resource records (RRs) of each non-built-in zone can be retrieved using AXFR and displayed.
- It is easy to filter out built-in zones, which makes it more obvious which are authoritative servers and which are resolvers.
- The zone list compares serial numbers between servers and highlights any discrepancies, as shown in the screenshot below. We are working towards a solution for monitoring and troubleshooting zone transfers. This is an example of an operational detail that is difficult to observe from looking at a single DNS server, and is one way we hope Stork can facilitate DNS management.
Zone details
The zone details show the records included in the zone.
Host reservation migration to a database
Kea allows storage of host reservations in a configuration file or in a database; the former is usually preferred in smaller deployments.
As the network grows, administrators may want to adopt a database solution. Starting with this release, Stork is now able to migrate hosts from a file to a database backend. This is the first time data migration from the Kea configuration to a database backend is supported by Stork. In the future, we may implement a similar feature for subnets, for example. We would appreciate any feedback regarding the migration feature’s usability and experience in real deployments.
Read-only administrator group
When you use LDAP groups to authorize users, you can assign privileges based on LDAP groups.
A new read-only group was added to the previously available admin and super-admin groups. This is a step towards more granular access permissions, which will enable teams to use Stork for help desk functions by less-privileged users.
New Kea classification features
Stork is now able to handle the new client classification parameters (evaluate-additional-classes, client-classes) added in the Kea 2.7.4 release.
Prometheus and Grafana
The statistics exporter now adds the shared network name as a label in the metrics exported to Prometheus, which can be used to generate more descriptive charts in Grafana. Pool statistics are now exported to Prometheus.
New Stork demonstration system
Still not sure?
Recently, we have launched an online Stork demo system and we invite you to try it out at https://demo.stork.isc.org/login. This demo version resets every hour. If you would prefer a more extended trial, you can install our packaged demo version, which includes a DHCP traffic generator, a handful of virtual Kea servers, and of course the Stork agents and server. One of our QA engineers has recorded a short video that walks you through the entire installation process for the demo.
Stork 2.0 is now approaching EOL; please upgrade
Stork has stable (even-numbered minor version, e.g. 2.0.1) and development (odd-numbered minor version, e.g. 2.1.2) releases; development releases are issued bi-monthly with some exceptions. New stable releases, such as Stork 2.2.0, are expected roughly every six months. When we release a new stable version, we plan to end support for the prior stable version after a 3-month transition period. For ISC’s detailed software support policy, see https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-00896#stork.
We recommend using stable versions in production if possible. We encourage users to test development releases and report back their findings on the stork-users mailing list (available at https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/stork-users) or open GitLab issues. ISC professional support customers may also report issues via our support portal.
Download and installation
To download Stork sources, go to ISC’s Downloads page. Release notes are posted beside the tarball download link. Most users prefer to install our packages for Debian, Alpine, or RPM-based systems from ISC’s Cloudsmith repo.
The Stork Quickstart Guide will get you up and running quickly. The Stork Administrator Reference Manual (ARM) may also be helpful.
Stork professional technical support available
ISC is now offering professional technical support for Stork, as a line item on a Kea DHCP support contract. Support for Kea is available as an annual subscription, with several levels:
- Bronze - Subscriber hooks (Role-Based Access Control and Configuration Backend); Advance Security Notifications (ASNs); email support during business hours
- Silver - Subscriber hooks (RBAC and Configuration Backend); ASNs; 24x7 email and phone support with SLAs
- Gold - Subscriber hooks (RBAC and Configuration Backend); ASNs; 24x7 email and phone support with faster response times
The annual cost of our Kea support subscriptions is based on deployment size, as measured by the number of simultaneous leases provided. For more information on the support options, please see our Support page and our Kea Support Subscription datasheet. Please feel free to contact us for more information.
