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IPv6 and it's finer points

rinkleton
I've read through all the cpanel documentation on getting start, troubleshooting, etc. Are there any other docs that go into some more detail on the current limitations and real world examples of using IPv6 with cpanel/whm? A few questions I have at this time are: 1) our datacenter gave us 1 /64 range. Can this be assigned to both the static address and a range? The docs 'recommend' getting two addresses, not sure if they mean two ranges. 2) Is it possible to check if an account is REALLY using IPv6? the ipv6_range_list command seems to list all accounts that currently and in the past were assigned to the ipv6 range. the accountsummary command has a field for ipv6 list, but it is always blank. 3) The whm Assign IPv6 Address page will give out duplicate addresses. (Wondering if this is related to item 1.) 4) I went through the steps in the getting started guide to a T (on two brand new servers) and everything tested as it says it would. However pinging an ipv6 address takes a lot longer than than ipv4... to the point were some of the pings time out. Is that normal? Also, one of the servers keeps getting an error in WHM in IPv6 pages. It seems like it happens after removing an account from IPv6. The error won't go away until the whole server is rebooted. 5) It seems like IPv6 will only be used for an account when the requester also has IPv6 capabilities? So people on older machines still need ipv4 stuff? Any info on what % of people this affects? 6) In what other ways is IPv6 utilized for accounts that have it enabled? When sending mail? When cURLing? etc.....

Comments

6 comments

Date Votes
  • wswd
    Sadly to say, IPv6 is not ready for primetime on a worldwide level. 1) /64 is a range (subnet, really). From that range, you would assign the static address, as well as the other IPs for cPanel accounts. 2) You can use ping6 or traceroute6 or such to see if everything is working. 3) Have never seen this before. There used to be an issue where it would try assigning the gateway IP and other IPs it shouldn't be assigning to accounts, but I have never seen it assign duplicates. 4) Depends. As I mentioned, the IPv6 network worldwide is not anywhere near robust as what IPv4 is. That said, you might also see the opposite at times. Sometimes the IPv6 networks are not at all congested, so you'll get better pings and transfer speeds. I actually run my server backups via IPv6, because the paths are far less congested. I see a lot better transfer speeds. 5) Correct. Somebody with IPv4 only (on their home Internet, for example) cannot access a website via IPv6. There are ways to do it through CloudFlare, but that's really for a different discussion, because CF is translating the IPv6 to IPv4 for the end user. Wikipedia: As of December 2016, Google's statistics show IPv6 availability of approximately 12% amongst its users. I'd say that's pretty accurate. A lot of Asian countries and European countries are also far more ready for IPv6 than are users in the US. 6) Yes! All of the above.
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  • rinkleton
    Thanks for the reply. I kinda figured it wasn't ready yet even though it's been out for years. For me the only reason to have dedicated IPv6 is for email sending reputation. I just read something that says the reputation is for the entire /64 range. So for me it seems pointless to go to IPv6 right now.
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  • wswd
    I just read something that says the reputation is for the entire /64 range. So for me it seems pointless to go to IPv6 right now.

    That is correct. /64 should really be the smallest block for end users, so the reputation as far as spam is concerned, etc., is based on the /64.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello @rinkleton, The previous responses address most of these questions, but I did want to bring up the following:
    Also, one of the servers keeps getting an error in WHM in IPv6 pages. It seems like it happens after removing an account from IPv6. The error won't go away until the whole server is rebooted.

    Could you let us know the specific error message you are seeing?
    The whm Assign IPv6 Address page will give out duplicate addresses. (Wondering if this is related to item 1.)

    Could you provide more details on this, and provide an example of what you are seeing? Thanks!
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  • rinkleton
    Could you let us know the specific error message you are seeing?

    API failure: The system could not find the CIDR (Classles Inter-Domain Routing) for the entered address: XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:6::. at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/IPv6/Utils.pm line 755.
    Could you provide more details on this, and provide an example of what you are seeing?

    For account test1.com it shows: IPv6 Address: XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:0006:0000:0000:0000:0000 For account test2.com it shows: IPv6 Address: XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:0006:0000:0000:0000:0000 In all examples XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:0006 refers to the same range
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello, Feel free to open a support ticket using the link in my signature so we can take a closer look. You can post the ticket number here and we will update this thread with the outcome. Thank you.
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