Configure IPv6 on virtual machines with ESXi
- compute
- dedibox
- esxi
- vm
- virtual-machine
- ubuntu
This tutorial explains how to configure IPv6 on virtual machines on ESXi hypervisors.
- You have an account and are logged into the Scaleway console
- You have configured your SSH Key
- You have a Dedibox running ESXi 6.5 or later
- You have enabled SLAAC for your Dedibox
- You have requested an IPv6 prefix
- You have installed a virtual machine running Ubuntu 20.04 or later and configured a failover IPv4 on it
Log into your virtual machine using SSH.
Run the command
ip a
to display your current network configuration. The command returns an output as follows:1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: ens160: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 00:50:56:01:fa:b9 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
altname enp3s0
inet your.fail.over.ip/32 scope global ens160
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 fe80::250:56ff:fe01:fab9/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft foreverTake note of the following information from the output above:
- The name of the network interface (here
ens160
) - The local IPv6 of your VM (here
fe80::250:56ff:fe01:fab9/64
)
- The name of the network interface (here
Open the file
/etc/dhcp/dhclient6.conf
in a text editor and edit it as shown below. Then save the file and quit the text editor.interface "ens160" {
send dhcp6.client-id DUID;
}Important:Edit the name of the Internet interface to the one of your VM and replace
DUID
with the DUID of your prefix.Open the file
/etc/systemd/system/dhclient.service
in a text editor and edit it as shown below. Then save and exit the editor.[Unit]
Description=dhclient for sending DUID IPv6
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
Type=forking
ExecStart=/sbin/dhclient -cf /etc/dhcp/dhclient6.conf -6 -P -v eno1
ExecStop=/sbin/dhclient -x -pf /var/run/dhclient6.pid
[Install]
WantedBy=network.targetEnable the service to start automatically after each reboot of the machine. Then start the service manually for the first time.
systemctl enable dhclient.service
systemctl start dhclient.serviceVerify that the service is running with the following command:
systemctl status dhclient.service
The command above returns an output as follows:
● dhclient.service - dhclient for sending DUID IPv6
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dhclient.service; enabled; vendor pres>
Active: active (running) since Thu 2022-02-24 12:18:03 UTC; 27min ago
Main PID: 5342 (dhclient)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 4627)
Memory: 1.6M
CPU: 23ms
CGroup: /system.slice/dhclient.service
└─5342 /sbin/dhclient -cf /etc/dhcp/dhclient6.conf -6 -P -v ens160Edit your Netplan configuration file (probably located at
/etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
) and edit it as follows:network:
version: 2
renderer: networkd
ethernets:
ens160:
dhcp4: false
dhcp6: false
addresses:
- FAILOVER_IP/32
- IP_FROM_YOUR_PREFIX/SUBNET
gateway4: 62.210.0.1
gateway6: LOCAL_IPv6
nameservers:
addresses: [62.210.16.6, 62.210.16.7]
routes:
- to: 0.0.0.0/0
via: 62.210.0.1
on-link: true
- to: "::/0"
via: "LOCAL_IPv6"
on-link: trueApply the new network configuration with the following command:
netplan apply
You now have configured the IP address, but the IPv6 connectivity is not working yet.
Find the gateway for your prefix by running the following command:
ip -6 route
The command returns an output as follows:
::1 dev lo proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
YOUR_IPv6_PREFIX/SUBNETMASK dev ens160 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev ens160 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
default via fe80::7a0c:f0ff:fedf:254d dev ens160 proto static metric 1024 onlink pref mediumTake a note of the default gateway (here
fe80::7a0c:f0ff:fedf:254d
).Edit your Netplan configuration file again and modify it as follows:
gateway6: DEFAULT_GATEWAY
- to: "::/0"
via: "DEFAULT_GATEWAY"
on-link: trueNote:Remember to replace
DEFAULT_GATEWAY
with the default gateway found in the previous step.Reload your network configuration for the last time:
netplan apply
You have now IPv6 connectivity for your virtual machine. You can test it by running a ping6: ping ipv6.google.com
.