# `kea-ctrl-agent` - Control Agent process in Kea

## Synopsis

kea-ctrl-agent [-v] [-V] [-W] [-d] [-c config-file] [-t config-file]

## Description

The `kea-ctrl-agent` provides a REST service for controlling Kea services. The received HTTP requests are decapsulated and forwarded to the respective Kea services in JSON format. Received JSON responses are encapsulated within HTTP responses and returned to the controlling entity. Some commands may be handled by the Control Agent directly, and not forwarded to any Kea service.

## Arguments

The arguments are as follows:

`-v`

  Displays the Kea version.

`-V`

  Displays the extended Kea version.

`-W`

  Displays the configuration report.

`-d`

  Sets the logging level to debug with extra verbosity. This is primarily for development purposes in stand-alone mode.

`-c config-file`

  Specifies the file with the configuration for the Control Agent server. It may also contain configuration entries for other Kea services.

`-t config-file`

  Checks the syntax of the configuration file and reports the first error, if any. Note that not all parameters are completely checked; in particular, service and client sockets are not opened, and hook libraries are not loaded.

## Documentation

Kea comes with an extensive Kea Administrator Reference Manual that covers all aspects of running the Kea software - compilation, installation, configuration, configuration examples, and much more. Kea also features a Kea Messages Manual, which lists all possible messages Kea can print with a brief description for each of them. Both documents are available in various formats (.txt, .html, .pdf) with the Kea distribution. The Kea documentation is available at https://kea.readthedocs.io.

Kea source code is documented in the Kea Developer's Guide, available at https://reports.kea.isc.org/dev_guide/.

The Kea project website is available at https://kea.isc.org.

## Mailing Lists and Support

There are two public mailing lists available for the Kea project. kea-users (kea-users at lists.isc.org) is intended for Kea users, while kea-dev (kea-dev at lists.isc.org) is intended for Kea developers, prospective contributors, and other advanced users. Both lists are available at https://lists.isc.org. The community provides best-effort support on both of those lists.

ISC provides professional support for Kea services. See https://www.isc.org/kea/ for details.

## History

The `kea-ctrl-agent` was first coded in December 2016 by Marcin Siodelski.

## See Also

kea-dhcp4(8), kea-dhcp6(8), kea-dhcp-ddns(8), kea-admin(8), keactrl(8), perfdhcp(8), kea-lfc(8), Kea Administrator Reference Manual.