"ipv6 equivalent" of 192.168.x.x (configuring a static ipv6 address)

Background: I have a windows 2008 machine and I want to make it a Domain Controller in a test domain made of two virtual machines. dcpromo pops up a warning if IP addresses for the machine are not statically configured. Disabling IPv6 is not an option since it's required by Exchange, which in turn is a prerequisite for the software I must test.

The question: How should I configure the IPv6 properties of the network adapter to use a static ipv6 address? what is the "ipv6 equivalent" of a static 192.168.x.x ipv4 address?

Solution 1:

I used this page: http://www.simpledns.com/private-ipv6.aspx. it explained what the others are saying about it not really being required, but helped me "make something up".

I needed to supply a static IPv6 address to my IPv6-enabled DHCP server in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Solution 2:

Since IPv6 will become the main growth protocol on the Internet around 2011, it is a good idea to keep IPv6 enabled and to learn how to do these things right.

The address that you mentioned, 192.168.x.x is an RFC1918 private address in IPv4. It is intended for traffic which is private to one network (or organization) and does not normally cross the organization's network boundaries. RFC 1918 cause people a lot of grief when companies are aquired because people often discover that two or more networks are using the same addresses. In some large companies, they have run out of RFC 1918 address space and have had to supplement it with registered addresses.

In IPv6, the equivalent type of address is called ULA. However, the block set aside for this usage is almost inconcievably vast. There is no way that anyone could ever use it up, and to avoid the possibility of collisions as much as possible, the IETF has asked people to pick their ULA block randomly. The easiest way to do this is to use the generator tool at SixXS. Type in a MAC address from your network card, click generate, and you have a ULA block. You can then use this block to assign IPv6 static addresses and subnets to all devices at your site. You can use any MAC address, it is just there to seed the random number generator.

If you want to, you can also register your use of that ULA prefix at the SixXS page, but you don't have to do this.

Note that the /48 gives you 16 bits of space to break out /64 subnets, so if you are just setting up one server on one network, then pick one /64 subnet and use one address. People often reserve low addresses for various things such as ::1 for a router.

Assuming that you choose the ULA fdec:c0bb:c329::/48, then you could pick fdec:c0bb:c329:0001::7 for your lucky new mail server on fdec:c0bb:c329:0001::/64

Solution 3:

The replacement for private IP addresses in IPv6 is the Unique Local Address.

Solution 4:

It's only a warning. You can ignore it. It won't affect the promotion or operation of the DC if you're not using IPv6 addresses.

Solution 5:

You shouldn't configure a static. IPv6 should come up with just the link-local address automatically.