Using ipv6 in cloud

IPv6 in Arbutus Cloud

IPv6 Link-Local (LLA) and Global Unicast (GUA) addresses are generally available within the Arbutus Cloud environment. GUA can be set up via a separate interface, which in turn also handles only the IPv6 traffic. Addresses are being setup using Stateless Address Auto Configuration (SLAAC), which automatically sets up the IP on the VM interface. By default, the security group rules will allow all outbound traffic from the VM via the IPv6 GUA, but no traffic that originates from outside the VM will be allowed until specific security group rules have been defined. This is the same behaviour as IPv4.

Example configuration openstack cli

Get the ID of the VM to attach the Network interface.

openstack server list
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+-----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+
| ID                                   | Name            | Status  | Networks                                      | Image                            | Flavor   |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+-----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+
| 74be352d-19ca-46cc-9661-7088d2652e34 | test            | ACTIVE  | def-bott-network=192.168.27.140, 206.12.93.29 | Debian-10.9.2-Buster-x64-2021-05 | p1-1.5gb |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+-----------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+

Assign a new network interface to the VM, using IPv6 as network.

openstack server add network 74be352d-19ca-46cc-9661-7088d2652e34  IPv6-GUA

Check the status of the assignment.

openstack server list
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+
| ID                                   | Name            | Status  | Networks                                                                                       | Image                            | Flavor   |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+
| 74be352d-19ca-46cc-9661-7088d2652e34 | test            | ACTIVE  | IPv6-GUA=2607:f8f0:c11:7004:f816:3eff:fef1:8cee; def-bott-network=192.168.27.140, 206.12.93.29 | Debian-10.9.2-Buster-x64-2021-05 | p1-1.5gb |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------+---------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------+----------+

Example configuration Webinterface

Login into the dashboard and go to the Instances menu, click on Attach Interface, which will open a dialog. Use IPv6-GUA (2607:f8f0:c11:7004::/64) from the network menu and click on attach.

• 

  Dashboard showing Instances

• 

  Drop down menu to attach an interface

• 

  Available Networks Menu

• 

  Show the second IPv6 interface

The shown IPv6 address is now available and can be used until the interface is detached. Every time the interface is detached, the GUA is released and put back into the pool and thus, can be used by anyone else. Rebuilding or restarting the VM however, will not release the GUA.

Access from any IPv6 GUA can be granted via the Security Groups in Openstack; the only difference is the CIDR which automatically detects the address type.

Allow icmp from any IPv6 GUA

Example Linux configuration

The Openstack network you configured above will appear in Linux as an additional eth-type interface. In most cases, /dev/eth0 will be your existing interface. In most cases, your new IPv6 enabled interface will be /dev/eth1 . The easiest way to pick-up your new device is to reboot. But first, check to confirm that IPv6 is enabled. Use the command:

sudo sysctl -a | grep ipv6.*disable

The output should all end in zeros. IPv6 enabled is the default in all recent images. Any kernel parameters that need to be changed to zero should be added to /etc/sysctl.conf.

Also, add the following kernel parameters in /etc/sysctl.conf.

net.ipv6.conf.eth1.forwarding=0
net.ipv6.conf.eth1.accept_ra=1

Reboot your system and confirm IPv6 is enabled and that /dev/eth1 exists.

Next, add the following configurations to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=yes
IPV6_DEFROUTE=yes
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL=no

Reboot your system again. This will auto-configure /dev/eth1.

Next, confirm that the IPv6 configuration with the command:

$ ip -6 address

Finally, confirm that IPv6 is working with the command:

$ ping6 -c 1 www.google.com

That's all. Congratulations. Your system is now configured to use IPv6.