The IPocalypse Cometh – Are You Ready?

Maybe not in the fall out bunker sense ready, this isn’t Y2K all over again… not yet anyways.

Before the hysteria engine cranks up to full speed, I figured it was time to give you some tips to make sure you are ready. Note, I’m only going to cover making sure your ESX hosts are ready. There are plenty of resources out there for the remainder of your infrastructure.

Check your hypervisors to see if IPv6 is enabled:

Single Host – VI Client

1. Log into the VI Client
2. Select the host, then “Configuration”
3. Select “Networking”
4. Finally “Properties…”
   
5. In the resulting window lies your answer:
   

Single Host – CLI

1. esxcfg-vmknic -l
   

Single Host – PowerCLI

1. Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter | Select IPv6Enabled
   

Multiple Hosts – PowerCLI

# Generic e-mail script
#vCenters
$hosts = @(
    ""
);

$user = ""
$password = ""

# Connect to each vCenter & Check for hosts without IPv6
Connect-VIServer -Server $hosts -User $user -Password $password
$vmHosts = Get-VMhost
foreach ($vmhost in $vmhosts){
    if ( $vmhost | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter -VMKernel | Where-Object {$_.IPv6Enabled -eq $false} ) {
        $effectedVMHosts += $vmhost.Name
    }
}
Disconnect-VIServer -Server $hosts -Confirm:$false   

Write-Host $effectedVMHosts

Before Going Forward:

There are a few critical bits to understand before going forward:

• IPv6 is “TEH Awesome” do not fear it.
• You will want to test this in a LAB First
• Before enabling it, you should realize the following:
• Enabling IPv6 will require a reboot, plan accordingly
• VMware HA and FT are not supported
• TSO (TCP Segment Offload) is not supported on IPv6
• IPv6 for IP Storage is “Experimental” for 4.0
• ESX 3.5 supports IPv6 for Guests

Enabling IPv6

Single Host – VI Client

1. Same steps as above.
2. Tick the box.
3. Reboot

Single Host – CLI

ESX

1. esxcfg-vswif -6 true
2. esxcfg-vmknic -6 true

ESXi

1. esxcfg-vmknic -6 true

Single Host – PowerCLI

Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter | where { $_.PortGroupName -eq "Service Console 1" } | Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -IPv6Enabled $true

Multiple Hosts – PowerCLI

Get-VMHost | Get-VMHostNetworkAdapter | where { $_.PortGroupName -eq "Service Console 1" } | Set-VMHostNetworkAdapter -IPv6Enabled $true

Summary

The IPocalypse is coming, and it’s bringing it’s friends fear and hysteria with it. Wll you be ready? Hopefully with the above, you will have one less thing to worry about. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or generally want to tell me to bugger off, drop a line in the comments, or follow me on Twitter here.