It’s now more than three years since we implemented IPv6 for the School’s managed Linux (DICE) desktops and servers, and in that time we have seen very few issues which were specifically related to IPv6.  We were not, unfortunately, able to roll it out to the “self-managed” subnets at that time, for a few reasons, but we now believe it is time to give it a try there too.

So, on Tuesday 19th November we will be enabling IPv6 for the “DHCP” subnet.  (Specifically, we will start sending out Router Advertisements, which will cause any IPv6-aware machine on the subnet to configure itself automatically with at least one IPv6 address.)  If there are significant problems we can easily and quickly back the change out again.  Note that no DNS entries will be added for machines on this subnet.

All being well, we would then propose turning on IPv6 for the self-managed server wires SM164 and SM197 some time in the new year.  There are a couple of reasons for this: it will allow you to gain IPv6 experience with machines on the DHCP subnet in advance; and, more particularly, it will give you time to ensure that any access controls you have in place are correct for IPv6 as well as IPv4.  We’ll post more details nearer the time.

Our IPv6 deployment project’s final report is here, and the project’s home page has links to sundry IPv6 resources.

IPv6 for Forum self-managed subnets / Computing Systems by is licensed under a