IPv6 Support in CloudStack

CloudStack has limited IPv6 support. It supports IPv6 for shared and isolated networks. It also supports IPv6 for VPC Network Tiers.

Shared network

When IPv6 is enabled, Instances deployed in a Shared Network can obtain both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. CloudStack supports the following deployment models:

• IPv4-only networks

• Dual-stack networks (IPv4 + IPv6)

In an IPv6-enabled network:

• The Instance automatically generates a link-local IPv6 address.

• A stateful IPv6 address is assigned through a DHCPv6 server when configured.

Note

IPv6-only Shared Networks are not supported when using the Virtual Router provider. In such environments, IPv6 must be deployed in a dual-stack configuration.

IPv6 Address Assignment and Routing

In Shared Networks, IPv6 address assignment and routing are provided by the upstream network infrastructure, not by the CloudStack Virtual Router.

When IPv6 is enabled on a Shared Network:

• Instances automatically generate a link-local IPv6 address.

• IPv6 global or ULA addresses are typically assigned via:

  • SLAAC (Router Advertisements) from the upstream router, or

  • An external DHCPv6 server (if present in the upstream network).

• CloudStack does not provide DHCPv6 services in Shared Networks via the Virtual Router.

In shared networks with IPv6 enabled:

• CloudStack allocates instance NICs with SLAAC-based IPv6 addresses calculated from the IPv6 CIDR and the MAC address of the NIC.

• This calculated SLAAC address matches the IPv6 address that the guest OS automatically assigns to the instance.

• When creating or configuring IPv6 ranges for shared networks, the IPv6 Start IP and IPv6 End IP parameters are optional in both the UI and API (e.g., createVlanIpRange) and are not used for SLAAC-based address allocation in shared networks.

• If provided, these parameters should be filled with dummy IP addresses within the same IPv6 subnet (for example, any two valid addresses from your IPv6 CIDR).

• These optional parameters are reserved for potential future use.

• In Shared Networks, the Virtual Router does not act as the IPv6 gateway.

• IPv6 default routing is determined entirely by upstream infrastructure.

• CloudStack does not control IPv6 Router Advertisements in Shared Networks.

• IPv6-only Shared Networks using the Virtual Router provider are not supported.

For IPv6 to function correctly in a Shared Network:

• The upstream network must advertise the IPv6 prefix using Router Advertisements (SLAAC), or

• An external DHCPv6 server must be present.

• The upstream router must provide the IPv6 default gateway.

• CloudStack will not automatically generate or manage IPv6 gateway functionality in this mode.

IPv6 is supported only on KVM and XenServer hypervisors. The IPv6 support is only an experimental feature.

Here’s the sequence of events when IPv6 is used:

1. The administrator creates an IPv6 shared network in an advanced zone.

2. The user deploys an Instance in an IPv6 shared network.

3. The user Instance generates an IPv6 link local address by itself, and gets an IPv6 global or site local address through DHCPv6.

Consider the following:

• CIDR size must be 64 for IPv6 networks.

• The DHCP client of the Guest Instances should support generating DUID based on Link-layer Address (DUID- LL). DUID-LL derives from the MAC address of Guest Instances, and therefore the user Instance can be identified by using DUID. See Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6for more information.

• The gateway of the guest network generates Router Advisement and Response messages to Router Solicitation. The M (Managed Address Configuration) flag of Router Advisement should enable stateful IP address configuration. Set the M flag to where the end nodes receive their IPv6 addresses from the DHCPv6 server as opposed to the router or switch.

  Note

  The M flag is the 1-bit Managed Address Configuration flag for Router Advisement. When set, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv6) is available for address configuration in addition to any IPs set by using stateless address auto-configuration.

• Use the System VM Template exclusively designed to support IPv6. Download the System VM Template from http://download.cloudstack.org/systemvm/.

• The concept of Default Network applies to IPv6 networks. However, unlike IPv4 CloudStack does not control the routing information of IPv6 in shared network; the choice of Default Network will not affect the routing in the user Instance.

• A shared network cannot be IPv6 only. Therefore, it is necessary to configure the IPv4 address range for the shared network with IPv6 addresses. The IPv4 range can be of a public or internal IPv4 network.

• In a multiple shared network, the default route is set by the rack router, rather than the DHCP server, which is out of CloudStack control. Therefore, in order for the user Instance to get only the default route from the default NIC, modify the configuration of the user Instance, and set non-default NIC’s accept_ra to 0 explicitly. The accept_ra parameter accepts Router Advertisements and auto-configure /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/interface with received data.

The following are not yet supported:

1. User Data and metadata

2. Passwords

For the Guest Instances to get IPv6 address, run dhclient command manually on each of the Instances. Use DUID-LL to set up dhclient.

Note

The IPv6 address is lost when an Instance is stopped and started. Therefore, use the same procedure to get an IPv6 address when an Instance is stopped and started.

1. Set up dhclient by using DUID-LL.

   Perform the following for DHCP Client 4.2 and above:

   1. Run the following command on the selected Instance to get the dhcpv6 offer from VR:

      dhclient -6 -D LL <dev>
      

   Perform the following for DHCP Client 4.1:

   1. Open the following to the dhclient configuration file:

      vi /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf
      

   2. Add the following to the dhclient configuration file:

      send dhcp6.client-id = concat(00:03:00, hardware);
      

2. Get IPv6 address from DHCP server as part of the system or network restart.

   Based on the operating systems, perform the following:

   On CentOS 6.2:

   1. Open the Ethernet interface configuration file:

      vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
      

      The ifcfg-eth0 file controls the first NIC in a system.

   2. Make the necessary configuration changes, as given below:

      DEVICE=eth0
      HWADDR=06:A0:F0:00:00:38
      NM_CONTROLLED=no
      ONBOOT=yes
      BOOTPROTO=dhcp6
      TYPE=Ethernet
      USERCTL=no
      PEERDNS=yes
      IPV6INIT=yes
      DHCPV6C=yes
      

   3. Open the following:

      vi /etc/sysconfig/network
      

   4. Make the necessary configuration changes, as given below:

      NETWORKING=yes
      HOSTNAME=centos62mgmt.lab.vmops.com
      NETWORKING_IPV6=yes
      IPV6_AUTOCONF=no
      

   On Ubuntu 12.10

   1. Open the following:

      etc/network/interfaces:
      

   2. Make the necessary configuration changes, as given below:

      iface eth0 inet6 dhcp
      autoconf 0
      accept_ra 1
      

Isolated network and VPC Network Tier

Note

• The IPv6 support for isolated networks and VPC Network Tiers is available from version 4.17.0.

• The IPv6 isolated networks and VPC Network Tiers only supports Static routing, i.e, the administrator will need to add upstream routes for routing to work inside the networks.

• IPv6 only isolated networks and VPC Network Tiers are not supported currently. Public network for IPv6 supported isolated networks and VPC Network Tiers must be on the same VLAN for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Guest Instances in an isolated network or VPC Network Tier can obtain both IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses by using a supported network offering and appropriate configurations for IPv6 support by the administrator. Both VR for such networks and the Guest Instances using these networks obtain a SLAAC based IPv6 address. While VR is assigned an IPv6 address from the public IPv6 range, Guest Instances get their IPv6 addresses from the IPv6 subnet assigned to the network.

Here’s the sequence of events when IPv6 is used:

1. The administrator sets global configuration - ipv6.offering.enabled to true.

2. The administrator adds a public IPv6 range in an advanced zone.

3. The administrator adds an IPv6 prefix for guest traffic type for the zone.

4. The administrator creates a network or VPC offering with IPv4 + IPv6 (Dual stack) support.

5. The user deploys an isolated network with the IPv6 supported network offering. For VPC, user creates a VPC with IPv6 supported VPC offering and then deploys a Network Tier with IPv6 supported network offering.

6. CloudStack assigns a SLAAC based public IPv6 address to the network from the public IPv6 range of the zone. It also assigns an IPv6 subnet to the network from the guest IPv6 prefix for the zone. See SLAACfor more information.

7. The user deploys a Guest Instance in the network. The Instance is assigned a SLAAC based IPv6 address from the guest IPv6 subnet of the network.

Prerequisites and Guidelines

Consider the following:

• CIDR size for the public IPv6 range for a zone must be 64.

• CIDR size for the guest IPv6 prefix for the zone must be lesser than 64. Each guest network is assigned a subnet from this prefix with CIDR size 64 therefore only as many IPv6 supporting guest networks can be deployed from the guest prefix as the number of subnets with CIDR size 64.

• Currently, a guest network cannot be IPv6 only and it can only be either IPv4 only or Dual Stack (both IPv4 + IPv6).

• Once a public IPv6 address and guest subnet are assigned to the network or the network is successfully, the operator must update routing in the upstream router. For this, CloudStack returns the gateway and subnet for the network with listNetworks API response.

Adding a Public IPv6 Range

The administrator can use both UI and API to add a public IPv6 range. UI is the preferable option. Option to add a new public IPv6 range in the UI can be found in Infrastructure > Zones > Zone details > Physical Network tab > Physical network details > Traffic Types tab > Public > Add IP range. In the Add IP range form, IPv6 can be selected as the IP Range Type. IPv6 Gateway and CIDR must be provided and optionally a VLAN/VNI can be provided.

Alternatively, createVlanIpRange API can be used to add a new public IPv6 range.

Note

• The public IPv6 address range or CIDR must be added with same VLAN as that of public IPv4 address range.

• As SLAAC based public IPv6 addresses will be assigned to the networks therefore public IPv6 range must be added without specifying start and end IP addresses.

Adding Guest IPv6 Prefix

Again, both UI and API to add a guest IPv6 prefix. UI is the preferable option. Option to add a new public Ipv6 range in the UI can be found in Infrastructure > Zones > Zone details > Physical Network tab > Physical network details > Traffic Types tab > Guest > Add IPv6 prefix. In the Add IPv6 prefix form, an IPv6 prefix with CIDR size lesser than 64 must be provided.

Alternatively, createGuestNetworkIpv6Prefix API can be used to add a new guest IPv6 prefix.

Adding Network or VPC Offering with IPv6 Support

To create an IPv6 supported network or VPC offering, global configuration - ipv6.offering.enabled must be set to true.

With 4.17.0, a new parameter - internetprotocol has been added to:

• the createNetworkOffering API which can be used to create a network offering with IPv6 support by using the value dualstack.

• the createVPCOffering API which can be used to create a VPC offering with IPv6 support by using the value dualstack.

Corresponding option has also been provided in the UI form creating network/VPC offering:

Adding Upstream Route

Currently, CloudStack supports IPv6 isolated networks and VPC Network Tiers only with static routes and therefore the administrator needs to add upstream IPv6 routes once a network is successfully deployed. To facilitate the automation, CloudStack Event Notification can be used. CloudStack will generate appropriate events on network creation or deletion and while assigning or releasing a public IPv6 address for a network. Based on the events the corresponding network can be queried for the IPv6 routes that it needs configured in upstream network. Upstream IPv6 routes required by an IPv6 supported isolated network or VPC Network Tier are also shown in the UI in the network details.

IPv6 Firewall

For using and managing firewall rules with an IPv6 supported isolated network, CloudStack provides following APIs:

• listIpv6FirewallRules - To list existing IPv6 firewall rules for a network.

• createIpv6FirewallRule - To create a new IPv6 firewall rules for a network.

• updateIpv6FirewallRule - To update an existing IPv6 firewall rules for a network.

• deleteIpv6FirewallRule - To delete an existing IPv6 firewall rules for a network.

These operations are also available using UI in the network details view of an IPv6 supported network.

IPv6 ACL

IPv6 ACL rules for an IPv6 supported VPC Network Tier can be managed using Network ACLs for the VPC. IPv6 CIDRs can be specified while adding or updating an ACL rule.