IPv6
So as IPv6 is looming on the horizon I decided it was about time I started implementing it at home to see what works.
Having an ISP that doesn't provide IP6 addresses means I can't test anything on the Internet, but I have enough gumph internally to make a start.
I started by assigning my openSUSE server an IPv6 address. For some reason YaST only has one box for an IP address, but you can assign additional extra addresses. This bit happily took an IPv6 address.
If you're on an internal LAN then you can use "site-local" addresses, which start with FEC, FED, FEE or FEF. You can also use "link-local", but as I have multiple networks that will want to communicate, I opted for the more flexible site-local. As I only have a handful of devices connected I have little interest in the zillions of addresses that can be used, so I opted for a simple "FEF0::1000", it seemed like a good random place to start, and fairly easy to remember.
I then setup "dhcpd6", but editing /etc/dhcpd6.conf and set it to allocate on the subnet fef0::/64, dishing out addresses from fef0::2000 up to some other large number.
Powering on a Windows 7 client, it picked up the address fine, no fuss here.
The next step is DNS. I have an internal zone, so I need to register my server's hostname against DNS with an AAAA record (IPv6 equivalent of an A record). Having DHCP update DNS automatically when a new device registers means I don't have to worry about adding anything else in by hand. A reverse lookup zone is also required, this is a bit messy because you have to write out the subnet in dotted format: 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.f.e.f.ip6.arpa. I lopped 4 of the 32 digits off the front so the zone will cover the same subnet as my DHCP server (I think).
YaST takes care of updating reverse lookup entries based on the forward lookups, so no more effort required here.
Next I will be making sure all the name resolution and such is working properly, and seeing what devices work (printers, phones and such). Then I will be moving onto VPN and my other networks to see if I can the whole thing working in a similar fashion to my IPv4 world.
Things won't get really interesting until my ISP starts dishing out IPv6 addresses.