[OpenIndiana-discuss] DHCP server for IPV6

[James Carlson]

Gary Gendel wrote:
> On 6/7/12 12:17 PM, James Carlson wrote:
>> Gary Gendel wrote:
>>> Moving from IPV4 to IPV4/IPV6 on my home network is like peeling an
>>> onion, so I'm taking it one step at a time. :(
>>>
>>> Currently I only see the old Solaris dhcp server for OI.  Can this
>>> handle ipv6?
>> No.  DHCPv6 is really a very different protocol from IPv4 DHCP.
>>
>> (Are you really sure you need DHCPv6 ... ?)
> My ISP provides me with both an IPV4 and an IPV6 address. My OI box
> currently does IPV4 firewall/routing/NAT and provides DHCP service for
> my internal network.  I'm trying to replicate this in IPV6 in parallel
> with IPV4.

As I said, things are different with DHCPv6.

In particular, although you *can* distribute global addresses with
DHCPv6, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you do so.  It's a little
annoying to administer, and doesn't really add a whole lot of value over
the standard choices of stateless autoconf (for most clients) or static
(for most servers).

Notably, prefixes (aka "netmasks") are not provided by DHCPv6, but
instead by RAs.  If a DHCPv6 server gives out an address, it's just a
bare address with no prefix length.  That makes it quite a bit different
from IPv4 DHCP, because it means that you have to make sure that the
advertised prefixes (in "the" router's RAs) always line up with the
address pools on the DHCPv6 server.  And there's really no mechanism to
do this other than the administrator's fingers and short-term memory.  ;-}

In a well-managed and large network, I can certainly see a good bit of
value in a DHCPv6 server to make sure that everyone has the right name
server addresses and such, and to centralize the management of "static"
IP addresses.  It's harder to explain why you'd need it on a home
network ...

>> http://www.workingcode.com/dhcpv6/wide-dhcpv6-20061016.small.gdiff
>>
>> I haven't really kept up with it since 2006, so things may well have
>> changed.
>>
> Thanks.  I probably should move to ISC DHCP since that's where Oracle is
> headed as well.  Should I get the sources and build from there or will
> it be available as a package in the near future?

As I said, I haven't kept up.  I've been using IPv6 on my home network
for many years (with a tunnel to Hurricane Electric), and haven't really
had a need yet to set up a DHCP server, so it's not a question I've
tried to answer.

-- 
James Carlson         42.703N 71.076W         <carlsonj at workingcode.com>