Knowledge Base

Supporting IPv6

ESX

• ESX 3.5 supports virtual machines configured for IPv6.
• ESX 4.0 supports IPv6 with the following restrictions:
  • IPv6 Storage (software iSCSI and NFS) is experimental in ESX 4.0.
  • ESX does not support TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) with IPv6.
  • VMware High Availability and Fault Tolerance do not support IPv6.

• Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 fully support IPv6.
• Windows 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2 have the infrastructure for IPv6, but components of the system and applications are not fully compliant. For more information, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc776103.aspx.
• Linux version 2.6 is fully compliant.

Configuring IPv6 on an ESX host

1. Click Host > Configuration tab > Networking > Properties.
2. In the window that displays, select Internet Protocol Version 6.
3. Click OK.
4. Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

To enable IPv6 using a command line:

1. To enable IPv6 for the VMkernel, run the command:
   
   esxcfg-vmknic -6 true
   
   
2. To enable IPv6 for the Service Console, run the command:
   
   esxcfg-vswif -6 true
   
   
3. To verify that IPv6 has been enabled, run the command:
   
   vmkload_mod -l
   
   The output appears similar to:
   
   Name                R/O Addr          Length      R/W Addr          Length        ID Loaded
   tcpip2v6            0x4180225fd000    0xbd000     0x417fe3676f80    0x37000       47 Yes
   
   Note: esxcfg-module -l is the equivalent of vmkload_mod -l and is also available in the vi-cli.

To create or edit a virtual adapter (vswif for the Service Console or vmknic for the VMkernel):

1. Click Host > Configuration tab > Networking > Properties.
2. In the window that displays, select Internet Protocol Version 6.
3. Click OK.
4. There are 3 ways to assign an IPv6 address to an adapter:
   
   • Use DHCPv6. For more information about DHCPv6, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc774828(WS.10).aspx.
   • If you have a host that advertises IPv6 configuration directives (such as an IPv6 router or a host running radvd), use the IPv6 automatic configuration feature.
   • Statically assigned. An automatically generated Link-Local IP address is assigned to communicate with potential routers in the same link.

To edit IPv6 addresses assigned to Service Console or VMkernel adapters:

1. Click Host > Configuration tab > Networking.
2. Select Virtual Switch or Distributed Virtual Switch and edit the interface.