10. Database Connectivity

Kea servers (kea-dhcp4 and kea-dhcp6) can be configured to use a variety of database backends for leases, hosts, and configuration. All of them may be configured to support automatic recovery when connectivity is lost (see max-reconnect-tries and reconnect-wait-time).

It is important to understand how and when automatic recovery comes into play. Automatic recovery, when configured, only operates after a successful startup or reconfiguration during which connectivity to all backends has been successfully established.

During server startup, the inability to connect to any of the configured backends is always considered fatal. A fatal error is logged and the server exits, based on the idea that the configuration should be valid at startup. Exiting to the operating system allows nanny scripts to detect the problem.

During dynamic reconfiguration, all backends are disconnected and then reconnected using the new configuration. If connectivity to any of the backends cannot be established, the server logs a fatal error but remains up. It is able to process commands but does not serve clients. This allows the configuration to be corrected via command, if required.

During normal operations, if connectivity to any of the backends is lost and automatic recovery for that backend is enabled, the server disconnects from the respective backend and then attempts to reconnect. During the recovery process, the server ceases to serve clients but continues to respond to commands. If connectivity to all backends is restored, the server returns to normal operations. If connectivity cannot be restored after max-reconnect-tries, the server issues a fatal error and exits.