Site Transition Scenarios

Each site and ISP has different issues and requires different steps during the transition phase. This section provides some examples of site transition scenarios.

The first step in transitioning a site is to upgrade the name services to support IPv6 addresses. For DNS, this consists of upgrading to a DNS server that supports the new AAAA (quad-A) records such as BIND 4.9.4 and later. Two new NIS maps and a new NIS+ table have been introduced for storing IPv6 addresses. The new NIS maps and NIS+ table can be created and administered on any Solaris system. See "IPv6 Extensions to Solaris Name Services" for details on the new databases.

After the name service is able to hand out IPv6 addresses, you can start transitioning hosts. You can transition hosts in the following ways:

• Upgrading one host at a time using IPv4 compatible addresses and automatic tunneling. No routers need to be upgraded. This can be used for initial experimental transition and offers only a subset of the IPv6 benefits. It does not offer stateless address autoconfiguration or IP multicast. You can use this scenario to verify that applications work over IPv6 and that the application can use IPv6 IP layer security.

• Upgrading one subnet at a time using configured tunnels between the routers. In this scenario at least one router per subnet is upgraded to dual and the dual routers in the site are tied together using configured tunnels. Then hosts on those subnets can use all the IPv6 features. As more routers become upgraded in this incremental scheme, you can remove the configured tunnels.

• Upgrading all the routers to dual before any host is upgraded. Though this approach appears orderly, it does not provide any IPv6 benefits until all the routers have been upgraded. This scenario constrains the incremental deployment approach.