IPv4 and IPv6 are addressing schemes to direct traffic across the Internet. IPv6 is the next generation in the Internet Protocol. Currently, almost all of the Internet traffic is directed using IPv4 address. It provides 2^32 (4,294,967,296) possible addresses. However, the increase in demand has lead to a shortage in the IP addresses. A solution for this shortage is the IPv6 scheme, which provides upto 2^128 addresses. It will also improve performance of the network by providing features like built in support for virtual private network protocols, multicast groups etc.

Unfortunately, cPanel haven’t incorporated IPv6 support till their current release i.e, 11.32. As per cPanel sources, IPv6 support will be officially included in cPanel from 11.36. Currently, IPv6 support is available with Plesk control panel.

The IPv6 assignment to the server can be done manually. On a Red-Hat machine, you will have to enable IPv6 support by modifying the file “/etc/sysconfig/network“.

The next step is to edit the network interface file, say “/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1” and specify the IPv6 parameters.

Restarting the network service is required for this change to be in effect.
IPv6 virtual hosts cannot be added from cPanel. You will have to manually edit the Apache configuration file to add IPv6 addresses. Initially you will have add a “Listen” directive in the Apache configuration file, so that it listen to a particular IPv6 address or all IP6 addresses.

To bind to a specific IP address :

Listen [2001:db8::a00:20ff:fea7:ccea]:80

To bind to a all available IP addresses:

Listen [::]:80

Once this change is made, you can add virtual hosts with IPV6 IP addresses. This can be added in the same way as virtual hosts with IPv4 addresses. IPv6 addresses must be specified in square brackets. In the similar way, we can switch all services to be IPv6 compatible.
Since version 11.32, all daemons in cPanel supports IPv6. But the required modifications in GUI are not yet implemented. We will have to wait till the release of cPanel 11.36 to manage IPv6 from the cPanel/WHM interface. Until then IPv6 addresses and their settings have to be managed via the command line.

The above is a very rough outline of the IPV6 , if you have any questions, we would be happy to talk to you! 🙂

About the Author :

Dipin D works as a Software Engineer in Bobcares. He joined Bobcares in September 2010. He loves reading books and listening to music in his free time.

Blog edited by :

Appu Joseph Xavier works as a Software Engineer in Bobcares. He joined Bobcares in April 2012. He loves to watch movies in his free time.