How to configure IPv6 on CentOS 6

Introduction

Below we have described how you can configure an IPv6 address on your Cloud VPS or Dedicated Server with CentOS 6. Please make sure that you follow the steps of this tutorial for a successful configuration. 

Prerequisites

If you do not have an IPv6 address assigned, the first step is to send an email to [email protected] in order the get the required information.

Step 1: Log in to your server

Open a terminal and log in to your server using SSH.

$ ssh root@ip_address_or_domain

Step 2: Open your network interface

Open your network interface file with your favorite editor. We have used nano in our example. The command below will open an empty file to create the eth1 interface.

$ sudo /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Step 3: Add the IPv6 to your network configuration

Use the information from step 1. Add a new block to the end of the file for the IPv6 interface. It should look like the configuration below. Replace the text with your own configuration. Save it once you have added the IPv6 block.

DEVICE="eth1"
ONBOOT="yes"
BOOTPROTO="static"
IPV6INIT="yes"
IPV6ADDR="2a00:7b80:451:1::XXX/48"

451

:1::

XXX

/48"

The red marked number is the VLAN id which is used. The VLAN of this IPv6 is VLAN 451.

Step 4: Restart the network service

You have a few options to enable IPv6. The easiest way is to restart the networking service. You can use the commands below to restart the network service.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Step 5: Test IPv6

The final step is to check whether the configured IPv6 is working. If your own working station is supporting IPv6 you can test it through your terminal. You can find the commands below per Operating System

Windows:

$ ping -6 2a00:7b80:451:1::8

Linux:

$ ping6 2a00:7b80:451:1::8

MacOS:

$ ping6 2a00:7b80:451:1::8

Conlusion

Congratulations! You have now successfully configured your IPv6 address on CentOS 6.