[Planetlab-devel] IPv6 support for MyPLC

[Marc E. Fiuczynski]

Hi Jim,

Today all PlanetLab nodes are configured by the hosting site. Currently
there is just one global IPv4 address per host. The technical contact at the
hosting site assigns a static IPv4 address (either manually or via DHCP).
It is not clear we can assume that sites will bring up DHCPv6 servers on our
behalf (especially since we strongly request to be in a DMZ outside of their
firewall).  Maybe they will, but a big concern is the convergence timeframe
+ the sheer amount of email we might have to send/receive when asking sites
to turn on IPv6 support on our behalf.  For this reason, I'd like to arrive
at a solution that factors out most (ideally all) human interaction with
sites.  The basic assumption is that a site supports IPv6 on their router
and advertise global IPv6 prefixes to the nodes.

The challenge is to also assign global IPv6 addresses to each "virtual
machine" (sliver) on each node.  Where do those addresses come from,
considering we wont have DHCPv6? Hence the discussion of trying to come up
with an autoconf scheme that assigns a EUI per sliver.

> I believe stateless autoconfig will work ...

Which one?

> ... the problem is that
> any IP architecture view assumes some entity absorbs the IP
> address ...

I don't understand the problem you are stating.  Please rephrase this.

> I had indirectly suggested a software VLAN switch to
> multiple vservers on a single node for IPv6 with use
> of prefix bits and same EUI.

I think I understood this suggestion, but maybe I did not.  Please give an
explicit example.  Also, what would we need to ask each site to make such a
solution work?  Do they have to give us a set of prefixes?  Is it reasonable
to ask for dozens or hundreds of those prefixes per node?  How would one
coordinate the prefix assignment amongst hosts at a site?

> IPv6 has done its job the tools exist.

No doubt!  I am just trying to figure how to make it work in the real world
when faced with ~100 "virtual machiens" per phyiscal host and the lack of a
DHCPv6 server.

Thank you for your feedback!

Best regards,
Marc