Why add an IPv6 address as /64?

Solution 1:

The IPv6 addressing architecture (RFC4291) requires all unicast addresses always have a prefix length of 64 bits. Using something other than a /64 will break a number of IPv6 features such as neighbor discovery, secure neighbor discovery (SEND), privacy extensions, mobile IPv6, embedded-RP (multicast), etc.

The current IPv6 address assignment guidelines call for allocating a /64 only when it is known that one and only one subnet is needed, otherwise a /56 should be allocated to small sites that are "expected to need only a few subnets over the next 5 years", or a /48 for larger sites. (ARIN policy 6.5.4.1)

A number of free tunnel brokers currently offer /48s. You could easily set up 65,536 globally routed /64s at home right now if you wanted to. (e.g. Hurricane Electric will give anyone a /48)

If that seems wasteful, consider that there are over 16 million times as many /48s possible as IPv4 /24s. And twice as many /48s as there are square centimeters of landmass on the earth. (2.8✕10¹⁴ versus 1.4✕10¹⁴ cm²).

Solution 2:

64 is the subnet mask. In IPv6 /64 is the "default" subnet mask. In most *nix OSes you can specify the subnet mask by specifying the IP in CIDR notation.

See Evan's Subnetting answer for a lot more info on Subnets.

Solution 3:

Most tunnel brokers (or native ipv6 delegations) give you a /64 and then route the whole /64 to your endpoint. Since the two endpoints (the one on the broker/ISP side and the one on your side) are part of this /64, you need to configure the /64 prefix.

It's basically the same as getting an ipv4 range from an ISP. If you get a /24, you add the netmask 255.255.255.0 (or /24) to your IP address. Otherwise, your host doesn't know how big the subnet is.