VMware vSphere and IPv6: A Good Match?

Have you ever tried to ping a system based on the name and it did not work? In particular, you get a response to an IPv6 address. You may wonder what you did wrong. While I have been virtualization, I've been getting better with the DNS, but it still seems that sometimes things do not work as expected. This is especially the case when I bring in different client systems (like my Microsoft Surface that I use to work a full schedule when I travel), or perform certain management tasks that you can use the vSphere Web Client.


This made me think about IPv6 in general for data center systems. First, it is important to distinguish between the data center systems and systems connected to the Internet. I thought we would be out of IPv4 Internet addresses, for now, but in my data center that have a lot of private IPv4 addresses. So the question is whether (vCenter Server, ESXi servers and other systems) must be configured IPv6 vSphere.

I would say that you should not have IPv6 enabled systems in the data center where IPv4 is the primary reporting format and protocol. VSphere is not completely ready for IPv6 for all components, but many data centers do not require IPv6 for use. The main reason is the ability to support - I feel comfortable support and IPv4 troubleshooting, but you can not say the same for IPv6.

What worries me is that the vSphere environments may have some traffic intended for the transport of IPv4, but in reality they can travel through IPv6. Because of this problem in the context of troubleshooting, I suggest you can disable IPv6 on the key components of vSphere (unless, of course, is necessary).

Both servers ESXi and vCenter Server appliances have IPv6 enabled by default. If vCenter Server is installed as an application on Windows, the state of the operating system configuration determines whether you use IPv6. Figure 1 shows how you can have a single host stack IPv6 configured.

The IPv6 wildcard factor is some of the techniques of automatic name resolution, so make sure the DNS and broadcast mechanisms are configured or disabled to specific conditions.

This should also affect how the vSphere management systems provide customers and your network configuration and its name resolution. Today, however, things are a little 'different; networks have different types of customers or systems connecting devices, and in many cases these systems and devices perform administrative tasks. Consider the example that I was connecting to the vSphere Web Client from a Surface tablet: it is a device for which I am not so special in my IPv4 vs. IPv6 configuration. At least until I have to solve.

What is your position on IPv6 systems to vSphere? I think this is a good example for configuration management host via vSphere Host Profiles and the host operating system Configuring vCenter Server does not use IPv6. Share your strategies for managing IPv6 below.