path: root/doc/guide/ctrl-channel.xml

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  <chapter id="ctrl-channel">
    <title>Management API</title>

    <para>A classic approach to daemon configuration assumes that
    the server's configuration is stored in configuration files
    and, when the configuration is changed, the daemon is restarted.
    This approach has the significant disadvantage of introducing periods
    of downtime, when client traffic is not handled. Another risk
    is that if the new configuration is invalid for whatever reason,
    the server may refuse to start, which will further extend the
    downtime period until the issue is resolved.</para>

    <para>To avoid such problems, both the DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 servers
    include support for a mechanism that allows
    on-line reconfiguration without requiring server shutdown.
    Both servers can be instructed to open control sockets, which
    is a communication channel. The server is able to receive
    commands on that channel, act on them and report back status.
    While the set of commands in Kea 1.1.0 is limited,
    the number is expected to grow over time.</para>

    <para>Currently the only supported type of control channel
    is UNIX stream socket. For details how to configure it, see
    <xref linkend="dhcp4-ctrl-channel" /> and <xref
    linkend="dhcp6-ctrl-channel" />. It is likely that support
    for other control channel types will be added in the future.
    </para>

    <section id="ctrl-channel-syntax">
    <title>Data Syntax</title>
    <para>Communication over the control channel is conducted using JSON
    structures. If configured, Kea will open a socket and listen
    for incoming connections. A process connecting to this socket
    is expected to send JSON commands structured as follows:

<screen>
{
    "command": "foo",
    "arguments": {
        "param1": "value1",
        "param2": "value2",
        ...
    }
}
</screen>

    <command>command</command> is the name of command to execute and
    is mandatory. <command>arguments</command> is a map of parameters
    required to carry out the given command.  The exact content and
    format of the map is command specific.</para>

    <para>The server will process the incoming command and then send a
    response of the form:
<screen>
{
    "result": 0|1,
    "text": "textual description",
    "arguments": {
        "argument1": "value1",
        "argument2": "value2",
        ...
    }
}
</screen>
    <command>result</command> indicates the outcome of the command. A value of 0
    means success while any non-zero value designates an error. Currently 1 is
    used as a generic error, but additional error codes may be added in the
    future. The <command>text</command> field typically appears when result is
    non-zero and contains a description of the error encountered, but it may
    also appear for successful results (that is command specific).
    <command>arguments</command> is a map of additional data values returned by
    the server which is specific to the command issued. The map is always present, even
    if it contains no data values.</para>
    </section>

    <section id="ctrl-channel-client">
    <title>Using the Control Channel</title>

    <para>Kea does not currently provide a client for using the control channel.  The primary
    reason for this is the expectation is that the entity using the control channel
    is typically an IPAM or similar network management/monitoring software which
    may have quite varied expectations regarding the client and is even likely to
    be written in languages different than C or C++. Therefore only examples are provided to show
    how one can take advantage of the API.</para>

    <para>The easiest way is to use a tool called <command>socat</command>,
    a tool available from <ulink url="http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/">socat
    homepage</ulink>, but it is also widely available in Linux and BSD
    distributions. Once Kea is started, one could connect to the control
    interface using the following command:
<screen>
$ socat UNIX:/path/to/the/kea/socket -
</screen>
where <command>/path/to/the/kea/socket</command> is the path specified in the
<command>Dhcp4/control-socket/socket-name</command> parameter in the Kea
configuration file. Text passed to <command>socat</command>
will be sent to Kea and the responses received from Kea printed to standard output.</para>

    <para>It is also easy to open UNIX socket programatically. An example of
    such a simplistic client written in C is available in the Kea Developer's
    Guide, chapter Control Channel Overview, section Using Control Channel.</para>

    </section>

    <section id="commands-common">
      <title>Commands Supported by Both the DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 Servers</title>

      <section id="command-config-get">
        <title>config-get</title>

        <para>The <emphasis>config-get</emphasis> command retrieves the current
        configuration used by the server. This command does not take any
        parameters. The configuration returned is roughly equal to the
        configuration that was loaded using -c command line option during server
        start-up or later set using set-config command. However, there may be
        certain differences. Comments are not retained. If the original
        configuration used file inclusion, the returned configuration will
        include all parameters from all the included files.</para>

        <para> Note that returned configuration is not redacted, i.e. it will
        contain database passwords in plain text if those were specified in the
        original configuration. Care should be taken to not expose the command
        channel to unprivileged users.</para>

        <para>
          An example command invocation looks like this:
<screen>
{
    "command": "config-get"
}
</screen>
        </para>
      </section>

      <section id="command-config-write">
        <title>config-write</title>

        <para>The <emphasis>config-write</emphasis> command instructs Kea server
        to write its current configuration to a file on disk. It takes one
        optional argument called <emphasis>filename</emphasis> that specifies
        the name of the file to write configuration to. If not specified, the
        name used when starting Kea (passed as -c argument) will be used. Note
        that the filename specified must not contain .. or backslashes. Kea
        should be able to write its files only in the directory it is running
        and any attempts to step out of that directory will be rejected.</para>
        <para>
          An example command invocation looks like this:
<screen>
{
    "command": "config-write",
    "parameters": {
        "filename": "config-modified-2017-03-15.json"
    }
}
</screen>
        </para>
      </section>

      <section id="command-leases-reclaim">
        <title>leases-reclaim</title>
        <para>
          The <emphasis>leases-reclaim</emphasis> command instructs the server to
          reclaim all expired leases immediately. The command has the following
          JSON syntax:
<screen>
{
    "command": "leases-reclaim",
    "arguments": {
        "remove": true
    }
}
</screen>
        </para>

        <para>The <emphasis>remove</emphasis> boolean parameter is mandatory
        and it indicates whether the reclaimed leases should be removed from
        the lease database (if true), or they should be left in the
        <emphasis>expired-reclaimed</emphasis> state (if false). The latter
        facilitates lease affinity, i.e. ability to re-assign expired lease to
        the same client which used this lease before. See
        <xref linkend="lease-affinity"/> for the details. Also, see
        <xref linkend="lease-reclamation"/> for the general information
        about the processing of expired leases (leases reclamation).</para>
      </section>

      <section id="command-libreload">
        <title>libreload</title>

        <para>
          The <emphasis>libreload</emphasis> command will first unload and then
          load all currently loaded hook libraries.  This is primarily intended
          to allow one or more hook libraries to be replaced with newer versions
          without requiring Kea servers to be reconfigured or restarted.  Note
          the hook libraries will be passed the same parameter values (if any)
          they were passed when originally loaded.
<screen>
{
    "command": "libreload",
    "arguments": { }
}
</screen>
       </para>
       <para>
         The server will respond with a result of 0 indicating success, or 1
         indicating a failure.
       </para>
     </section> <!-- end of command-libreload -->

      <section id="command-list-commands">
      <title>list-commands</title>

      <para>
        The <emphasis>list-commands</emphasis> command retrieves a list of all
        commands supported by the server. It does not take any arguments.
        An example command may look like this:
<screen>
{
    "command": "list-commands",
    "arguments": { }
}
</screen>
      </para>
      <para>
        The server will respond with a list of all supported commands. The
        arguments element will be a list of strings. Each string will convey
        one supported command.
      </para>
    </section> <!-- end of command-list-commands -->

    <section id="command-set-config">
      <title>set-config</title>

      <para>
    The <emphasis>set-config</emphasis> command instructs the server to replace
    its current configuration with the new configuration supplied in the
    command's arguments. The supplied configuration is expected to be the full
    configuration for the target server along with an optional Logger
    configuration.  While optional, the Logger configuration is highly
    recommended as without it the server will revert to its default logging
    configuration. The structure of the command is as follows:
      </para>
<screen>
{
    "command": "set-config",
    "arguments":  {
        "&#60;server&#62;": {
        },
        "Logging": {
        }
     }
}
</screen>
      <para>
    where &#60;server&#62; is the configuration element name for a given server
    such as "Dhcp4" or "Dhcp6".  For example:
      </para>
<screen>
{
    "command": "set-config",
    "arguments":  {
        "Dhcp6": {
            :
        },
        "Logging": {
            :
        }
     }
}
</screen>
      <para>
    If the new configuration proves to be invalid the server will retain
    its current configuration.  Please note that the new configuration is
    retained in memory only.  If the server is restarted or a configuration
    reload is triggered via a signal, the server will use the configuration
    stored in its configuration file.

        The server's response will contain a numeric code, "result" (0 for success,
    non-zero on failure), and  a string, "text", describing the outcome:
<screen>
    {"result": 0, "text": "Configuration successful." }

    or

    {"result": 1, "text": "unsupported parameter: BOGUS (&#60;string&#62;:16:26)" }
</screen>
      </para>
    </section> <!-- end of command-set-config -->

    <section id="command-shutdown">
      <title>shutdown</title>

      <para>
        The <emphasis>shutdown</emphasis> command instructs the server to initiate
        its shutdown procedure. It is the equivalent of sending a SIGTERM signal
        to the process. This command does not take any arguments.  An example
        command may look like this:
<screen>
{
    "command": "shutdown",
    "arguments": { }
}
</screen>
      </para>
      <para>
        The server will respond with a confirmation that the shutdown procedure
        has been initiated.
      </para>
    </section> <!-- end of command-shutdown -->



    </section> <!-- end of commands supported by both servers -->

  </chapter>