Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...
Dan York
Author's posts
Jun 06
Dhcpy6d – A new tool to help with DHCPv6 (DHCP for IPv6)
We received the following guest post from Henri Wahl in the IT Department of the Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- u.Werkstoffforschung (IFW) in Dresden, Germany.
Getting DHCPv6 to work
We run a network with approximately 1.000 client hosts. To use dualstack we decided to provide hosts with IPv6 addresses via DHCPv6. We wanted to use our existing MAC-based IPv4 address provisioning for IPv6 too and SLAAC gives not enough control regarding different classes of clients and dynamic DNS updates. Sadly we found no working solution, especially because RFC 3315 does not consider MAC addresses as useful. Thus we had to develop our own incarnation of a DHCPv6 server.
The result is dhcpy6d, available as open source at https://dhcpy6d.ifw-dresden.de and written in Python. It retrieves MAC addresses from local neighbor cache and this way allows us to keep our address management solution for IPv4 and IPv6.
Our DHCPv6 server allows to identify clients by MAC address, DUID or hostname. Clients can be organized in different classes. Addresses can be generated randomly, from MAC address, by range or by a given ID. Clients can get multiple addresses. Leases are stored in MySQL or SQLite databases. DNS information might be updated with ISC Bind9.
In practice we found Windows clients from Vista and up to be working perfectly as DHCPv6 clients. They even have no problems to receive multiple addresses per client. Linux and MacOSX desktop clients still fail on this.
Dhcpy6d still is work in progress but already works flawlessly on a daily basis. There are at least some universities which use it.
For details see https://dhcpy6d.ifw-dresden.de/documentation/ .
Jun 06
Great IPv6 Work Happening In Grenada In The Caribbean
Joining in to the celebration of World IPv6 Launchiversary, Brent McIntosh sent us some info about all the great IPv6 work they are doing on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean. You can view the PDF simply by clicking/tapping the image below:
Congratulations to Brent and all the others involved for the excellent IPv6 activity happening there!
Jun 06
Case Study: IPv6 At The U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is one of the leading implementors of IPv6 within the U.S. government. Charles Sun, IPv6 Transition Manager for the U.S. Census Bureau, provided us with information noting:
- On September 28, 2012, U. S. Census Bureau was the first agency – Operating Unit (OU) within U. S. Department of Commerce to be in full compliance of the U.S. OMB mandate for IPv6 transition Phase I (September 30, 2012);
- The U.S. Census Bureau is currently on track to complete the second phase of the U.S. OMB mandate to enable all internal agency users to be able to access Internet related services from our internal enterprise network by September 30, 2014 so as to be in full compliance with the U.S. OMB mandate based on the U.S. federal government initial IPv6 transition initiative.
Charles also pointed to two sources of IPv6 statistics:
- Estimated web statistics for census.govSee the “Links : Referenced Domain Web Statistics” section on the “Background and Methodology” page to fully understand what is being shown here. Essentially the first chart shows the speed at which connections can be made to the main www.census.gov site. The bottom chart shows the connectivity out to various sites that are linked from the main page.
- IPv6 statistics within the larger US Department of Commerce
Charles also wrote a personal opinion article on global IPv6 adoption titled “Stop using Internet Protocol Version 4!” that is available (with registration) at ComputerWorld, CIO.com and other related sites.
Please visit our IPv6 Case Studies page for more examples of IPv6 deployment. If you would like to get started with IPv6, please visit our IPv6 resources or begin with our “Start Here” page to help find resources most appropriate for your type of organization. If you have an IPv6 case study you think we should consider for inclusion on our site, please contact us – we are always looking for more!
Jun 06
Case Study: Facebook Moving To An IPv6-Only Internal Network
At the 2014 v6 World Congress in Paris, Facebook’s Paul Saab outlined how Facebook is well on the path toward moving to an IPv6-only internal network. He makes the point that why should you deal with the headache of maintaining a dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6)? Instead just move your internal network to be IPv6-only and then have dual-stack devices on the edge of the network to interact with the legacy IPv4 Internet. He also walks through the challenges Facebook faced with regard to vendor equipment, software applications and also with the issue that many developers continued to write IPv4-only code. (A clever solution: simply remove IPv4 from the developer’s machines!)
You can download a copy of the slides (and view commentary in the IPv6 Group on Facebook) to read all about the process, but here’s the key summary slide 31:
Those statistics are:
- 100% of hosts they care about respond on IPv6 (Hosts that are not IPv6 ready are going away.)
- 75% of internal traffic is now IPv6 with a goal to be at 100% by Q3 2014 or earlier
- 98% of traffic in and out of HHVM is IPv6
- 100% of our memcache traffic is IPv6
- A goal of being 100% IPv6-only in 2-3 years
Very impressive to see! All in all a great document for anyone seeking to understand the challenges that an online service may face when moving to IPv6 – and how to overcome those challenges!
Please visit our IPv6 Case Studies page for more examples of IPv6 deployment. If you would like to get started with IPv6, please visit our IPv6 resources or begin with our “Start Here” page to help find resources most appropriate for your type of organization. If you have an IPv6 case study you think we should consider for inclusion on our site, please contact us – we are always looking for more!
Jun 06
Facebook Moving To An IPv6-Only Internal Network
In a brilliant presentation by Facebook’s Paul Saab at the recent v6 World Congress in Paris, he outlined how Facebook is well on the path toward moving to an IPv6-only internal network. He makes the point that why should you deal with the headache of maintaining a dual-stack (IPv4/IPv6). Instead just move your internal network to be IPv6-only and then have dual-stack devices on the edge of the network to interact with the legacy IPv4 Internet. You can download a copy of the slides (and view commentary in the IPv6 Group on Facebook) to read all about the process, but here’s the key summary slide 31:
Those statistics are:
- 100% of hosts they care about respond on IPv6 (Hosts that are not IPv6 ready are going away.)
- 75% of internal traffic is now IPv6 with a goal to be at 100% by Q3 2014 or earlier
- 98% of traffic in and out of HHVM is IPv6
- 100% of our memcache traffic is IPv6
- A goal of being 100% IPv6-only in 2-3 years
Very impressive to see! Paul’s presentation is worth viewing because he outlines the challenges that Facebook faced from dealing with vendor equipment to getting developers to use IPv6. It’s a great case study that we’ve added to our IPv6 case studies page. We wrote about this presentation back in March, but it’s worth repeating today on World IPv6 Launchiversary #2.
Facebook very clearly understands the need to move to the production version of the Internet – and they are taking steps to ensure that their site and services will be available to the next 5 billion people who come online! They are going to be out in front of most other companies with having made the transition over to IPv6.
What are you waiting for? Visit our “Start Here” page or check out our IPv6 resources – and let us know if there is anything more we can do to help you!
Jun 06
Verizon Wireless Passes 50% IPv6 Deployment!
To all the doubters out there saying IPv6 ”will never happen”, on this World IPv6 Launchiversary let us just point you to the latest World IPv6 Launch measurements that show Verizon Wireless being the first of the top 10 largest networks to cross over the 50% IPv6 deployment mark!
Over 50% IPv6!
…as measured by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Akamai. That’s a remarkable achievement – and if you look at the rest of the top 10 you’ll see that other networks are not far behind. As our colleague Mat Ford writes, IPv6 measurements are going “up and to the right”!
IPv6 deployment IS happening.
We are moving on from the “experimental” version of the Internet to the “production” version. The smart companies are already making the move. Where are you? If you haven’t already started deploying IPv6, now would be a really good time to start!
Congrats to the team at Verizon Wireless for all the IPv6 they have enabled with their LTE network – we are looking forward to seeing this percentage grow, and to seeing other networks join them in crossing this milestone!
Jun 06
Vint Cerf: We Need To Move To The Production Version Of The Internet (IPv6)
We need to stop running the experimental version of the Internet and move to the production version of the Internet running IPv6! This was one of the key points made by Vint Cerf in a Google+ Hangout back in April 2014. We wrote about the event then, but today on World IPv6 Launchiversary it is definitely worth sharing again. As Vint notes, when the Internet was first being created, it was always a grand experiment. Many of the folks involved thought that at some point we’d leave the “experimental” Internet behind and move to the “production” version… but yet many people haven’t yet made that leap! Vint asked everyone to contact their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and ask when they will be able to get IPv6… and we’d ask you again to please do that today!
The interview with Vint Cerf covers a wide range of topics about the Internet… if you have some time it’s a great video to watch. And then… if you haven’t yet moved to the production version of the Internet, please visit our “Start Here” pages to find out how you can get going with IPv6 today!
Jun 06
Check Out The New 2-Year World IPv6 Launchiversary Infographic!
Today in celebration of the second anniversary of World IPv6 Launch, there is a new infographic available that talks about what has changed with IPv6 since June 6, 2012. You can find it at http://www.worldipv6launch.org/infographic/ or by clicking the image below. Please do share it with people to let them know how millions of people around the world are now able to communicate over IPv6!
UPDATE: You can now also download a PDF version of the 2014 infographic if you would like a version for printing or sharing as a PDF.
Jun 06
Mexico’s AXTEL Provides Excellent IPv6 Lessons Learned And Recommendations
What are the key lessons AXTEL, Mexico’s second-largest telecommunications operator, learned in deploying IPv6 across their network? What did they do? What do they wish they’d known before they got started? In an excellent case study we’ve published from AXTEL this week, they walk through the phases they went through in planning their deployment of IPv6 and then get into their lessons learned and recommendations. Their slides are available for viewing:
As far as the lessons they’ve learned, their “In Retrospective” section states that if they could return to the beginning of their IPv6 project, they wish they could have had:
- More insight regarding how each of our different equipment providers were doing towards their evolution to IPv6.
- The possibility to talk to another provider that had already implemented IPv6 in their network and learn from their experiences.
- Support from our providers with people/team that had hands-on experience in an IPv6 evolution project.
- To have had IPv6 support, even years before the beginning of the project; as a required functionality in all or our network and IT equipment requirements.
The advantage to people starting now is that there are examples of service providers who have implemented IPv6 and there are people who other service providers can speak with. To that point, Cesar Joel Ramirez Garcia, an author of this case study from Axtell, said in a message that he’s glad to receive questions from other network operators about what they’ve done.
In the case study they go on to provide their recommendations for other companies seeking to move to IPv6:
- Communicate to all company levels the urgency and importance of IPv6 evolution.
- IPv6 is a primarily a business continuity case.
- Test in a lab environment all your IPv6 deployment scenarios
- Begin IPv6 training in all the different technical, sales and marketing teams ASAP.
- Evaluate the necessity of running a network audit or assessment to know where your network stands regarding IPv6.
- Join in technology forums and ask other people about their experience in the IPv6 evolution.
- Work closely with your equipment providers.
- Implement double stack wherever possible.
- Avoid NAT techniques wherever possible.
- Don’t be afraid of the IPv6 transition; as with many things the beginning is the toughest part.
These are great recommendations and we certainly commend Cesar and the rest of the AXTEL team on the work they have done so far as well as the work they are continuing to look at about how to expand IPv6 further in their networks. Now that they have business and VPN customers using IPv6 they are now looking at the best ways to get IPv6 connectivity to all their residential customers. All of that will help Mexico move ahead in having an Internet that will work even better in the future as more people and devices come online!
What are you waiting for? If you would like to join AXTEL and many other service providers with moving to the production Internet, please visit our IPv6 resources or begin with our “Start Here” page to help find resources most appropriate for your type of organization.
Congratulations, again, to AXTEL for both their deployment of IPv6 as well as their willingness to share their story so that others may learn! Thank you!
