With the popularity of the new set of IPv6, it has become a necessity to support them in most of the web applications. And, for this to work, we need to enable IPv6 in DigitalOcean Droplets too.

Unfortunately, any bad step while enabling IPv6 can affect the server connectivity as such.

At Bobcares, we help cloud server owners to configure their Droplet with IPv6 support as part of our Managed Cloud Services.

Today, we’ll see how our Cloud Specialist Engineers enable IPv6 on DigitalOcean droplets without losing server connectivity.

Why IPv6 ?

First of all, let’s see why we need to use IPv6.

The major advantages include :

1. Larger number of IP addresses
2. Greater security for applications and network
3. Better connectivity

However, IPv6 still faces couple of usability issues. IPv6 uses 8 set of numbers, unlike normal IP addresses. Thus they create problems like difficulty to remember the IP address, tough transition from old format, etc.

What can go wrong when enabling IPv6 in Droplet

Now, let’s see the things that can go wrong when server owners try to enable IPv6 in Droplets and how our Cloud Engineers fix them.

1. New Droplet creation

By default, when you create a new Droplet from DigitalOcean Dashboard, IPv6 is not enabled. This option should be chosen manually. Often, this step is missed.

That’s why, our Support Engineers make it a point to add it from the “Select additional options” in the Create Droplet page of DigitalOcean panel. This look like as shown in the picture.

2. Enabling IPv6 in existing Droplets

Fortunately, it is possible to enable IPv6 support in the live Droplets too. But, this requires couple of steps which need accuracy. There is a possibility to lose server connectivity by editing the wrong configuration file or a bad edit.

Let’s see how our Cloud Engineers enable IPv6 on working Droplets.

1. Power Off Droplet

Enabling IPv6 involves changes in the network configuration. Therefore, as the first step to enable IPv6, we always Power off the Droplet. Additionally, we ensure that the Droplet goes to OFF state.

2. “IPv6 : Enable Now” option

To enable IPv6, we select the Droplet and click on the option “IPv6 : Enable now” as shown in the picture.

After successful completion of this task, the new IPv6 address will be show up in the Dashboard of the Droplet with name Ubuntu-s-uno-01.

3. Power ON the Droplet

After enabling IPv6, Droplet will not be automatically switched to ON state. Therefore, we manually turn ON the Droplet.

4. Network Configurations

Enabling IPv6 from the Dashboard is not enough. We need to configure the network to make the new address usable. And, these steps depend largely on the type of server you have.

That’s why, our Cloud Engineers modify the respective files in each server type.

For example, in Ubuntu 18.04, we edit the file /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml and add the new IPv6 address and gateway. Also, we add the IPv6 nameservers.

Similarly, in servers with Debian, Ubuntu 16.04 or earlier, we make changes in the file /etc/network/interfaces. This includes adding new IPv6 address and gateway.

On CentOS and Fedora, we make changes in the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Any errors in the syntax can disrupt the networking setup of the Droplet. Hence, our Support Engineers always take a backup of the file prior to the edit.

After making changes in the respective files, we restart networking with the command:

systemctl restart networking

5. Reboot the Droplet

Finally, to make the changes effective, we do a reboot of the Droplet.

And, when you connect via SSH session, the new IP address shows up in the ‘ifconfig’ command as:

root@ubuntu-s-uno-01:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 02:25:e1:17:14:2a
inet addr:1xx.203.1xx.145 Bcast:1xx.203.1xx.255 Mask:255.255.240.0
inet6 addr: fe80::25:e1ff:fe17:142a/64 Scope:Link
inet6 addr: 26x4:ax80:400:d0::f:3001/64 Scope:Global

Here, the highlighted line shows the new IPv6 address on the Ubuntu-bob droplet.

6. Firewall modification

Additionally, we need to configure firewall rules on the Droplet to make services listen on the new IPv6 address. Our Engineers add these rules to make the services listening on IPv6. Similarly, we test and confirm that the new IP is responding to ping6 command too.

[Need help with IPv6 support? We can make your server listening on IPv6 address.]

Conclusion

Enabling IPv6 in DigitalOcean Droplets involves a series of steps. Any bad step can affect the connectivity to the server. Today, we’ve seen how our Cloud Support Engineers enable IPv6 support without losing server connectivity.