How to Enable Persistent IPv6 Interfaces

This procedure explains how to enable IPv6 interfaces with autoconfigured IPv6 addresses that persist across subsequent reboots.

Note - If the interface is on the same link as a router that currently advertises an IPv6 prefix, the interface obtains that site prefix as part of its autoconfigured addresses. For more information, refer to How to Configure an IPv6-Enabled Router.

1. Log in to the IPv6 node as Primary Administrator or as superuser.

   The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, "Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks)," in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. Create IPv6 addresses for interfaces that were added after installation.

   # touch /etc/hostname6.interface

   
   

3. (Optional) Create an /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file that defines parameters for interface variables on the node.

   If you need to create temporary addresses for the host's interface, refer to Using Temporary Addresses for an Interface. For details about /etc/inet/ndpd.conf, refer to the ndpd.conf(4) man page and ndpd.conf Configuration File.

4. Reboot the node.

   # reboot -- -r

   
   

   The reboot process sends router discovery packets. If a router responds with a site prefix, the node can configure any interface with a corresponding /etc/hostname6.interface file with a global IPv6 address. Otherwise, the IPv6-enabled interfaces are configured solely with link-local addresses. Rebooting also restarts in.ndpd and other network daemons in IPv6 mode.

Example 7-2   Making an IPv6 Interface Persist Across Reboots

This example shows how to make the IPv6 configuration for the qfe0 interface persist across reboots. In this example, a router on the local link advertises the site prefix and subnet ID 2001:db8:3c4d:15/64.

First, check the status of the system's interfaces.

# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=1000849 <UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 
qfe0: flags=1000863 <UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 
           index 2
        inet 172.16.27.74 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.16.27.255
        ether 0:3:ba:13:14:e1 

# touch /etc/hostname6.qfe0
# reboot -- -r

Verify that the IPv6 address you configured is still applied to the qfe0 interface.

# ifconfig -a6
qfe0: flags=2000841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2
       ether 0:3:ba:13:14:e1 
       inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe13:14e1/10 
 qfe0:1: flags=2180841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ADDRCONF,IPv6> mtu 1500 
          index 2
        inet6 2001:db8:3c4d:15:203:baff:fe13:14e1/64

The output of ifconfig -a6 shows two entries for qfe0. The standard qfe0 entry includes the MAC address and the link-local address. A second entry, qfe0:1, indicates that a pseudo-interface was created for the additional IPv6 address on the qfe0 interface. The new, global IPv6 address, 2001:db8:3c4d:15:203:baff:fe13:14e1/64, includes the site prefix and subnet ID advertised by the local router.

Next Steps

• To configure the new IPv6 node as a router, go to Configuring an IPv6 Router.

• To disable address autoconfiguration on the node, see How to Turn Off IPv6 Address Autoconfiguration.

• To tailor the new node as a server, see the suggestions in Administering IPv6-Enabled Interfaces on Servers.

How to Turn Off IPv6 Address Autoconfiguration

You normally should use address autoconfiguration to generate the IPv6 addresses for the interfaces of hosts and servers. However, sometimes you might want to turn off address autoconfiguration, especially if you want to manually configure a token, as explained in Configuring an IPv6 Token.

1. Log in to the IPv6 node as Primary Administrator or as superuser.

   The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, "Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks)," in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. Create an /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file for the node.

   The /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file defines interface variables for the particular node. This file should have the following contents in order to turn off address autoconfiguration for all of the server's interfaces:

   if-variable-name StatelessAddrConf false

   
   

   For details about /etc/inet/ndpd.conf, refer to the ndpd.conf(4) man page and ndpd.conf Configuration File.

3. Update the IPv6 daemon with your changes.

   # pkill -HUP in.ndpd

   
   

Configuring an IPv6 Router

The first step in configuring IPv6 on a network is configuring IPv6 on a router. Router configuration involves a number of discrete tasks, which are described in this section. You might perform some or all of the tasks, depending on your site requirements.

IPv6 Router Configuration (Task Map)

Perform the next tasks in the order that is shown in the table.

How to Configure an IPv6-Enabled Router

This procedure assumes that all interfaces of the router were configured for IPv6 during Solaris installation.

1. On the system that will become the IPv6 router, assume the Primary Administrator role or become superuser.

   The Primary Administrator role includes the Primary Administrator profile. To create the role and assign the role to a user, see Chapter 2, "Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks)," in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

2. Review which interfaces on the router were configured for IPv6 during installation.

   # ifconfig -a

   
   

   Check the output to ensure that the interfaces that you wanted to configure for IPv6 are now plumbed with link-local addresses. The following sample command output of ifconfig -a shows the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that were configured for the router's interfaces.

   o0: flags=1000849 <UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 dmfe0: flags=1000843 <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2 inet 172.16.26.232 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.16.26.255 ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:15 dmfe1: flags=1000843 <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4 mtu 1500 index 3 inet 172.16.26.220 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.16.26.255 ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:16 lo0: flags=2000849 <UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 8252 index 1 inet6 ::1/128 dmfe0: flags=2000841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2 ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:15 inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10 dmfe1: flags=2000841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 3 ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:16 inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10

   
   

   The output also shows that the primary network interface dmfe0 and the additional interface dmfe1 were configured during installation with the IPv6 link-local addresses fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10 and fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10.

3. Configure IPv6 packet forwarding on all interfaces of the router.

   Use either of the following to enable packet forwarding:

   • Use the routeadm command, as follows:

     # routeadm -e ipv6-forwarding -u

     
     

   • Use the following Service Management Facility (SMF) command, as follows:.

     # svcadm enable ipv6-forwarding

     
     

4. Start the routing daemon.

   The in.ripngd daemon handles IPv6 routing.

   Turn on IPv6 routing in either of the following ways:

   • Use the routeadm command as follows:

     # routeadm -e ipv6-routing -u

     
     

   • Use SMF to enable IPv6 routing:

     # svcadm enable ripng:default

     
     

   For syntax information on the routeadm command, see the routeadm(1M) man page.

5. Create the /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file.

   You specify the site prefix to be advertised by the router and other configuration information in /etc/inet/ndpd.conf. This file is read by the in.ndpd daemon, which implements the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol.

   For a list of variables and allowable values, refer to ndpd.conf Configuration File and the ndpd.conf(4)man page.

6. Type the following text into the /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file:

   ifdefault AdvSendAdvertisements true prefixdefault AdvOnLinkFlag on AdvAutonomousFlag on

   
   

   This text tells the in.ndpd daemon to send out router advertisements over all interfaces of the router that are configured for IPv6.

7. Add additional text to the /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file to configure the site prefix on the various interfaces of the router.

   The text should have the following format:

   prefix global-routing-prefix:subnet ID/64 interface

   
   

   The following sample /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file configures the router to advertise the site prefix 2001:0db8:3c4d::/48 over the interfaces dmfe0 and dmfe1.

   ifdefault AdvSendAdvertisements true prefixdefault AdvOnLinkFlag on AdvAutonomousFlag on if dmfe0 AdvSendAdvertisements 1 prefix 2001:0db8:3c4d:15::0/64 dmfe0 if dmfe1 AdvSendAdvertisements 1 prefix 2001:0db8:3c4d:16::0/64 dmfe1

   
   

8. Reboot the system.

   The IPv6 router begins advertising on the local link any site prefix that is in the ndpd.conf file.

Example 7-3   ifconfig Output Showing IPv6 Interfaces

The following example shows output from the ifconfig -a command such as you would receive after you finish the Configuring an IPv6 Router procedure.

lo0: flags=1000849 <UP LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 
dmfe0: flags=1000843 <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
        inet 172.16.15.232 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.16.26.255
        ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:15 
dmfe1: flags=1000843 <UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4 mtu 1500 index 3
        inet 172.16.16.220 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.16.26.255
        ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:16 
lo0: flags=2000849 <UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 8252 index 1
        inet6 ::1/128 
dmfe0: flags=2100841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ROUTER,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2
        ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:15 
        inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10 
dmfe0:1: flags=2180841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ADDRCONF,ROUTER,IPv6> mtu 1500
          index 2
        inet6 2001:db8:3c4d:15:203:baff:fe11:b115/64
dmfe1: flags=2100841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ROUTER,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 3
        ether 0:3:ba:11:b1:16 
        inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10 
dmfe1:1: flags=2180841 <UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ADDRCONF,ROUTER,IPv6> mtu 1500
           index 3
        inet6 2001:db8:3c4d:16:203:baff:fe11:b116/64

In this example, each interface that was configured for IPv6 now has two addresses. The entry with the name of the interface, such as dmfe0, shows the link-local address for that interface. The entry with the form interface:n, such as dmfe0:1, shows a global IPv6 address. This address includes the site prefix that you configured in the /etc/ndpd.conf file, in addition to the interface ID.

See Also

• To configure any tunnels from the routers that you have identified in your IPv6 network topology, refer to Configuring Tunnels for IPv6 Support.

• For information about configuring switches and hubs on your network, refer to the manufacturer's documentation.

• To configure IPv6 hosts, refer to Modifying an IPv6 Interface Configuration for Hosts and Servers.

• To improve IPv6 support on servers, refer to Administering IPv6-Enabled Interfaces on Servers.

• For detailed information about IPv6 commands, files, and daemons, refer to Solaris 10 IPv6 Implementation.