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Using IPv6 on vSphere

Note

BOSH supports IPv6 on vSphere since version bosh-release v264+, stemcell 3468.11+ and CLI v2.0.45+.

In this guide we explore how to configure BOSH in an IPv6-enabled environment.

Two possible deployment options:

  • hybrid IPv6 configuration: Director is on IPv4 and deployed VMs use IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

  • pure IPv6 configuration: both Director and deployed VMs use IPv6 addresses exclusively (currently being worked on)


Hybrid IPv6 configuration

In this example, we use the BOSH CLI and bosh-deployment to deploy a Director with an IPv4 address and then deploy VMs with IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Prerequisites

  • All IPv6 address must be specified in expanded format, leading zeroes, no double-colons. This applies to all variables, deployment manifests, cloud config, etc.

  • Use Simple DNS's generator to obtain a private IPv6 address range.

Steps

  1. To deploy the Director use bosh create-env command with additional IPv6-specific ops files. See Creating environment on vSphere for more details on initializing Director on vSphere.

    # Create directory to keep state
    mkdir ipv6 && cd ipv6
    
    # Clone Director templates
    git clone https://github.com/cloudfoundry/bosh-deployment
    
    bosh create-env bosh-deployment/bosh.yml \
        --state=state.json \
        --vars-store=creds.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/vsphere/cpi.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/vsphere/resource-pool.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/jumpbox-user.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/uaa.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/credhub.yml \
        -v director_name=ipv6 \
        -v internal_cidr=10.0.9.0/24 \
        -v internal_gw=10.0.9.1 \
        -v internal_ip=10.0.9.111 \
        -v network_name="VM Network" \
        -v vcenter_dc=dc \
        -v vcenter_cluster=cl \
        -v vcenter_rp=IPv6 \
        -v vcenter_ds=SSD-0 \
        -v vcenter_ip=10.0.9.105 \
        -v vcenter_user=administrator@vsphere.local \
        -v vcenter_password=TheClothesMakethTheMan \
        -v vcenter_templates=bosh-ipv6-templates \
        -v vcenter_vms=bosh-ipv6-vms \
        -v vcenter_disks=bosh-ipv6-disks
    
  2. Connect to the Director:

    bosh alias-env ipv6 -e 10.0.9.111 --ca-cert <(bosh int ./creds.yml --path /director_ssl/ca)
    export BOSH_CLIENT=admin
    export BOSH_CLIENT_SECRET=`bosh int ./creds.yml --path /admin_password`
    
  3. Confirm that it works:

    bosh -e ipv6 env
    
    Using environment '10.0.9.111' as '?'
    
    Name: ...
    User: admin
    
    Succeeded
    

Deploy example Zookeeper deployment

Follow steps below or the deploy workflow that goes through the same steps but with more explanation.

  1. Update configs

    # ipv6-net.yml
    
    networks:
    - name: ipv6
      type: manual
      subnets:
      - azs: [z1, z2, z3]
        cloud_properties:
          name: VM Network
        dns:
        - 2001:4860:4860:0000:0000:0000:0000:8888
        - 2001:4860:4860:0000:0000:0000:0000:8844
        gateway: 2601:646:100:69f0:20d:b9ff:fe48:9249
        range: 2601:0646:0100:69f0:0000:0000:0000:0000/64
        reserved:
        - 2601:0646:0100:69f0:0000:0000:0000:0000-2601:0646:0100:69f0:0000:0000:0000:0020
    
    bosh -e ipv6 update-cloud-config ~/workspace/bosh-deployment/vsphere/cloud-config.yml \
        -v vcenter_cluster=cl \
        -v internal_cidr=10.0.9.0/24 \
        -v internal_gw=10.0.9.1 \
        -v network_name="VM Network" \
    
    bosh -e ipv6 update-config --type cloud --name ipv6 ipv6-net.yml
    
    bosh -e ipv6 update-runtime-config ~/workspace/bosh-deployment/runtime-configs/dns.yml
    
  2. Upload stemcell

    bosh -e ipv6 upload-stemcell --sha1 0d927b9c5f79b369e646f5c835e33496bf7356c5 \
    https://bosh.io/d/stemcells/bosh-vsphere-esxi-ubuntu-xenial-go_agent?v=621.74
    

    Note that IPv6 is currently only available for Ubuntu Xenial and Ubuntu Trusty stemcells.

  3. Deploy example deployment and see IPv6 addresses

    # ipv6-net-use.yml
    
    - type: replace
      path: /features?/use_dns_addresses
      value: true
    
    - type: replace
      path: /instance_groups/name=zookeeper/networks/0/default?
      value: [dns, gateway]
    
    - type: replace
      path: /instance_groups/name=zookeeper/networks/-
      value:
        name: ipv6
    
    - type: replace
      path: /instance_groups/name=smoke-tests/jobs/name=smoke-tests/consumes?/conn/network
      value: ipv6
    
    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper deploy <(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppforlife/zookeeper-release/master/manifests/zookeeper.yml) \
      -o ipv6-net-use.yml
    
    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper instances
    
  4. Run Zookeeper smoke tests

    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper run-errand smoke-tests
    

Pure IPv6 Configuration

Note

Pure IPv6 has not been fully merged into the latest BOSH versions.

In this example, we use the BOSH CLI and bosh-deployment to deploy a Director with an IPv6 address and then deploy VMs with IPv6 addresses.

Prerequisites

  • vCenter Server is accessible via IPv6 address

  • ESXi servers (that will be used for stemcell uploading) are accessible via IPv6 addresses

  • The workstation where bosh create-env command is executed must be able to reach the Director's assigned IPv6 address (the workstation must also have an IPv6 address).

  • All IPv6 address must be specified in expanded format, leading zeroes, no double-colons. This applies to all variables, deployment manifests, cloud config, etc.

  • The internal_gw (gateway) must be in the same IPv6 subnet as the Director. If the gateway is a link-local (it starts with fe80:) you can strip the modified EUI-64 so that gateway IP is within your chosen subnet. For example, if the default IPv6 gateway is fe80::20d:b9ff:fe48:9249, the gateway IP in the BOSH manifest would be fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:20d:b9ff:fe48:9249.

  • Use Simple DNS's generator to obtain a private IPv6 address range.

Steps

  1. To deploy the Director use bosh create-env command with additional IPv6-specific ops files. See Creating environment on vSphere for more details on initializing Director on vSphere.

    # Create directory to keep state
    mkdir ipv6 && cd ipv6
    
    # Clone Director templates
    git clone https://github.com/cloudfoundry/bosh-deployment
    
    bosh create-env bosh-deployment/bosh.yml \
        --state=state.json \
        --vars-store=creds.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/vsphere/cpi.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/vsphere/resource-pool.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/jumpbox-user.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/uaa.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/credhub.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/misc/ipv6/bosh.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/misc/ipv6/uaa.yml \
        -o bosh-deployment/misc/ipv6/credhub.yml \
        -v director_name=ipv6 \
        -v internal_cidr=fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0000/64 \
        -v internal_gw=fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0001 \
        -v internal_ip=fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0108 \
        -v network_name="VM Network" \
        -v vcenter_dc=dc \
        -v vcenter_cluster=cl \
        -v vcenter_rp=IPv6 \
        -v vcenter_ds=SSD-0 \
        -v vcenter_ip=\"[fd36:c71a:6f0c:2d1e:0000:0000:0000:0105]\" \
        -v vcenter_user=administrator@vsphere.local \
        -v vcenter_password=TheClothesMakethTheMan \
        -v vcenter_templates=bosh-ipv6-templates \
        -v vcenter_vms=bosh-ipv6-vms \
        -v vcenter_disks=bosh-ipv6-disks
    
  2. Connect to the Director:

    bosh alias-env ipv6 -e https://[fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0108]:25555 --ca-cert <(bosh int ./creds.yml --path /director_ssl/ca)
    export BOSH_CLIENT=admin
    export BOSH_CLIENT_SECRET=`bosh int ./creds.yml --path /admin_password`
    
  3. Confirm that it works:

    bosh -e ipv6 env
    
    Using environment 'fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0108' as '?'
    
    Name: ...
    User: admin
    
    Succeeded
    

Deploy example Zookeeper deployment

Follow steps below or the deploy workflow that goes through the same steps but with more explanation.

  1. Update configs

    bosh -e ipv6 update-cloud-config ~/workspace/bosh-deployment/vsphere/cloud-config.yml \
        -v vcenter_cluster=cl \
        -v internal_cidr=fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0000/64 \
        -v internal_gw=fddf:9b0b:7aac:ac45:0000:0000:0000:0001 \
        -v network_name="VM Network"
    
    bosh -e ipv6 update-runtime-config ~/workspace/bosh-deployment/runtime-configs/dns.yml
    
  2. Upload stemcell

    bosh -e ipv6 upload-stemcell --sha1 0d927b9c5f79b369e646f5c835e33496bf7356c5 \
    https://bosh.io/d/stemcells/bosh-vsphere-esxi-ubuntu-xenial-go_agent?v=621.74
    

    Note that IPv6 is currently only available for Ubuntu Xenial and Ubuntu Trusty stemcells.

  3. Deploy example deployment and see IPv6 addresses

    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper deploy <(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cppforlife/zookeeper-release/master/manifests/zookeeper.yml)
    # todo use_dns_addresses update
    
    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper instances
    
  4. Run Zookeeper smoke tests

    bosh -e ipv6 -d zookeeper run-errand smoke-tests