IPv6

Resources

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) resources:

IPv6 - Wikipedia

Information about IPv6 maintained at the Wikipedia web site.

Usage Notes

Determine IPv6 Address

Use the ifconfig command to show the IPv6 address associated with a particular interface (look for the line labeled: "inet6 addr:").

Using ifconfig to Find the inet6 addr

[root@taco ~]# ifconfig eth0

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:29:C9:D5:1A  
          inet addr:192.168.0.138  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1293164 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1878939 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:151619640 (144.5 MiB)  TX bytes:642030150 (612.2 MiB)
          Interrupt:17 Base address:0x1400 

[root@taco ~]#

In the above example, the IPv6 address is: "fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a". The double colons (::) in the address represent 3 groupings of zeros. Hence, "fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a" is the short hand equivalent of: "fe80:0:0:0:20c:29ff:fec9:d51a".

Ping an IPv6 Address (scope link)

The following demonstrates how one can ping a IPv6 address that has a limited link scope:

Using ping6 to ping a IPv6 Address

[root@taco ~]# ping6 -I eth0 -c 3 fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a

PING fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a(fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a) from fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a eth0: 56 data bytes
64 bytes from fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.361 ms
64 bytes from fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.935 ms
64 bytes from fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.349 ms

--- fe80::20c:29ff:fec9:d51a ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.349/0.548/0.935/0.274 ms

[root@taco ~]#

Ping an IPv6 Address (scope global)

When a IPv6 address is global in scope, it indicates that you will not need to specify the NIC when running commands. The following demonstrates how one can ping a IPv6 address that has a global scope:

Using ping6 to ping a IPv6 Address

[root@taco ~]# ping6 -c 3 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5

PING 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5(2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=4.12 ms
64 bytes from 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=205 ms
64 bytes from 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.73 ms

--- 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2004ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.731/70.369/205.254/95.383 ms

[root@taco ~]#

Router Advertisement Daemon for IPv6 (radvd)

If you are on a network that has not been set up for IPv6 support, it is likely that you will only find IPv6 addresses which are limited in scope to: link.

Listing IPv6 Address Before radvd

[root@taco ~]# ip -6 addr show p2p1

2: p2p1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qlen 1000
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:feec:97c5/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

[root@taco ~]#

It is difficult to work with IPv6 addresses with a scope of: link. To use these addresses you will need to specify the NIC along with the IPv6 address when running commands (and not all commands support the option of specifying a interface).

One easy method to assign global dynamic IPv6 addresses to the machines on your network is to start the radvd service on your NST system:

Starting radvd Service

[root@taco ~]# systemctl start radvd

[root@taco ~]#

Once the radvd service has been started, all machines on the LAN will likely be assigned one or more dynamic IPv6 addresses global in scope.

Listing IPv6 Address After radvd

[root@taco ~]# ip -6 addr show p2p1

2: p2p1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qlen 1000
    inet6 2002:c0a8:12c:1234:a00:27ff:feec:97c5/128 scope global dynamic 
       valid_lft 292sec preferred_lft 292sec
    inet6 2001:db8:1:0:a00:27ff:feec:97c5/128 scope global dynamic 
       valid_lft 86392sec preferred_lft 86392sec
    inet6 fe80::a00:27ff:feec:97c5/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

[root@taco ~]#