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IPv6

This guide details the architecture, implementation, benefits, and steps for IPv6 support in Assure1. IPv6 is more important than ever to support with the up and coming Internet of Things (IoT), mobile networks, and cloud computing. It plays a big role in the increasing demand of IPv6 address support when monitoring and managing networks, devices, and services. IPv6 allow better support for mobile and cloud networks and it provides more efficient network configuration, packet processing, routing, and increased security capabilities. Using Assure1's seamless and unified support for IPv6 enables customers to grow and enhance services and make more efficient use of available resources.

IPv6 Implementation

IPv6 support in Assure1 is throughout the product. Areas that support IPv6 are:

  • Broker communication

  • Database communication

  • Web server

  • Applications

  • Inventory Management

Assure1 continues to support IPv4-only systems as well as transitional systems with IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack with no extra configuration to the product.

Accepting Connections

Applications accepting connections or listening for data such as aggregators also have the capability to listen for both IPv4 and IPv6 incoming data. By default these applications listen on IPv4 only, but with a simple config change, they can listen to both or only IPv6 if needed.

When specifying the Host application configuration for the listening socket in applications:

  • Listen on all interfaces IPv4-only: use 0.0.0.0. This is the default.

  • Listen on all interfaces for either IPv4 or IPv6: use '*'.

  • Listen on specific IPv4 address example: 192.0.2.10.

  • Listen on specific IPv6 address example: 2001:DB8::10.

Refer to the specific application's documentation for more information and to verify support for listening host.

Initiating Connections

Assure1 determines if a server has IPv4 or IPv6 capabilities based on the server's device entry. Assure1 requires the appropriate address family info to be entered in the server's device entry in order to initiate connections. For example, if there is IPv6 information entered in the collector's device entry but not IPv4, that collector can only make connections over IPv6 even if the system itself has an IPv4 address. If an application attempts to initiate a connection to an IP without the corresponding capability an error will be thrown and the device skipped (e.g. a server without IPv6 capability cannot initiate an IPv6 connection). If the server device entry has both IPv4 and IPv6 it can initiate either one.

Determining Target

Assure1 pollers and collection applications use the appropriate target based on the discovered device information and server capabilities using the following criteria:

  • If the DNSName is present on the device entry, the application uses the first IP it resolves to (either IPv4 or IPv6).

  • If no DNSName is present the application will use the IPv6 address.

  • If no DNSName or IPv6 address is present on the device, the application will use the IPv4 address.

  • Each device must have either a DNS, IPv6 or IPv4 in order to be used as a valid target for polling or collection.

  • The server will prefer the IP family based on its capability (e.g. if IPv6 and IPv4 are present for target but server has capability only for IPv4 it will use the IPv4 regardless or other criteria). Application will warn and skip if it can't find a common IP family between server and target.

There are two additional application configuration options that may be available for applications which affect the target IP as described:

  • PreferIPv4 - If there is no DNS and device has both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to choose from, enabling this option will prefer the IPv4 instead of the IPv6. The default is enabled.

  • PollByIP - If there is a DNS and the device has either IPv4 or IPv6 address, enabling this option will ignore the DNS resolution and use the appropriate IP and will take into account PreferIPv4 state.

Refer to the specific application's documentation for more information and to verify support of the above configuration options.

Configuration

  1. Navigate to Devices and update all Assure1 server entries to add IPv6 information. Server device entries will match the HostFQDN given for licensing and are usually, but not always lower IDs.

  2. Navigate to Includes or Excludes and create any IPv6 include or exclude ranges.

  3. Navigate to Scheduled Jobs and run Device Auto Discovery to incorporate IPv6 addresses into existing devices. If testing a few devices, the device entries can be manually updated to include the IPv6 information

  4. Navigate to Services:

    • Update the application configuration of listening services such as aggregators. Set the Host to the specific IP address or '*' to support both IPv4 and IPv6. Any services changed must be restarted because the Reload Config action does not support a change to the listening socket.

    • Update the application configuration of any initiating connection services such as pollers and collectors. Enable PollByIP if DNS should be ignored as needed and disable PreferIPv4 if IPv6 should be preferred during polling. Restart or reload services changed.