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 following table in order that is shown to configure the IPv6 network. The table includes a description of what each task accomplishes and the section in the current documentation where the specific steps to perform the task are detailed.

How to Configure an IPv6-Enabled Router

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

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

   # ipadm show-addr

   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 ipadm show-addr shows the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that were configured for the router's interfaces.

   ADDROBJ   TYPE       STATE   ADDR
   lo0/v4    static     ok      127.0.0.1/8
   bge0/v4   static     ok      172.16.27.74/24
   bge1/v4   static     ok      172.16.27.84/24
   bge0/v6   addrconf   ok      fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10
   lo0/v6    static     ok      ::1/128
   bge1/v6   addrconf   ok      fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10

   The output also shows an IPv6 address object each for the bge0 and bge1 network interfaces, namely, fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10 and fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10.

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

   # ipadm set-prop -p forwarding ipv6

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 bge0 and bge1.

   ifdefault AdvSendAdvertisements true
   prefixdefault AdvOnLinkFlag on AdvAutonomousFlag on
   
   if bge0 AdvSendAdvertisements 1 prefix 2001:0db8:3c4d:15::0/64 bge0 if bge1 AdvSendAdvertisements 1 prefix 2001:0db8:3c4d:16::0/64 bge1

7. Reboot the system.

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

Example 5-2 ipadm show-addr Output Showing IPv6 Interfaces

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

ADDROBJ      TYPE       STATE   ADDR
lo0/v4       static     ok      127.0.0.1/8
bge0/v4      static     ok      172.16.15.232/24
bge1/v4      static     ok      172.16.16.220/24
bge0/v6      addrconf   ok      fe80::203:baff:fe11:b115/10
lo0/v6       static     ok      ::1/128
bge0/v6add   static     ok      2001:db8:3c4d:15:203:baff:fe11:b115/64
bge1/v6      addrconf   ok      fe80::203:baff:fe11:b116/10
bge1/v6add   static     ok      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 address object name such as interface/v6 shows the link-local address for that interface. The entry with the address object name such as interface/v6add 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. Note that the designation v6add is a randomly defined string. You can define other strings to constitute the second part of the address object name, provided that the interface reflects the interface over which you are creating the IPv6 addresses, for example bge0/mystring, bge0/ipv6addr, and so on.

See Also

• To configure any tunnels from the routers that you have identified in your IPv6 network topology, refer to Tunnel Configuration and Administration With the dladm Command.

• 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 Oracle Solaris IPv6 Implementation.