How to configure a flexible IPv6 on an Elastic Metal server

Reviewed on 05 August 2024 • Published on 30 March 2022

The configuration of a flexible IPv6 depends on the Linux distribution running on your Elastic Metal server. This guide covers the steps for configuring your flexible IPv6 on machines running Debian, Ubuntu, or CentOS.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
An installed Elastic Metal server

Note

Ensure your flexible IPv6 is attached to your Elastic Metal server before configuring it.

Tip

Information about the DNS resolver to use in each data center is available in the network reference documentation.

How to configure IPv6 on Debian

Open the network configuration file /etc/network/interfaces in a text editor and edit it as follows:

auto eno1
iface eno1 inet6 static
    address IPV6_ADDRESS
    netmask 64

Replace eno1 with the correct internet interface name.

Restart the network:

sudo systemctl restart networking.service

Tip

On Debian 9, the network interface is initialized with the command allow-hotplug by default. If the network restart fails with this configuration, initialize the network with auto to avoid the problem.

How to configure IPv6 on Ubuntu

Ubuntu uses netplan for network configuration since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Netplan configuration files are written in YAML and located in the /etc/netplan directory. Refer to the official netplan documentation for more information.

Open the default configuration file /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml in a text editor and edit it as follows:
```
# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  ethernets:
    eno1:
      critical: true
      dhcp-identifier: mac
      dhcp4: true
      addresses: [ "IPV6_ADDRESS/64" ]
      nameservers:
        addresses:
          - "2001:bc8:1008:1::16"
          - "2001:bc8:1008:1::16"
        search:
          - online.net
  version: 2
```
- Replace eno1 with the correct name of your internet interface.
- Replace the IP addresses of the resolving DNS servers (nameservers) with the ones located in the same geographical location as your machine for best perfomances.
Note
The configuration example above is valid for the main IP address of your Dedibox server. For IPv6 on a virtual machine, use the unique gateway for the failover IPv4.

Check and validate your configuration file:

sudo netplan try

Apply the new configuration:

sudo netplan apply

Test the connection with a ping to an external host:

ping6 google.com

How to configure IPv6 on CentOS

Open the automatically generated configuration file for your internet interface in a text editor, for example /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and edit it as follows:

# Generated by parse-kickstart
UUID=xxxxx
DNS1="51.159.47.28"
IPADDR="DEDIBOX_MAIN_IP"
GATEWAY="DEDIBOX_MAIN_IP_1" # The IPv4 gateway is your server's main IP address ending in .1 (e.g., if your server's IP is 62.210.16.123, the gateway is 61.210.16.1)
NETMASK="255.255.255.0"
IPV6ADDR="IPV6_ADDRESS/64"
IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
BOOTPROTO="static"
DEVICE="eth0"
ONBOOT="yes"
IPV6INIT="yes"

Restart the networking service:

sudo systemctl restart network.service

Test the IPv6 connection with a ping to an external host:

ping6 google.com