Enabling IPv6 in the Lab
I have a fairly extensive lab that I built to help me simulate a small business environment. I've rebuilt it so many times that I don't even remember the count. The network lately has been, more or less, stable as far as the systems themselves go, but I have reworked the network a couple of times recently. In fact, as I was trying to rewire the network and migrate to a upgraded firewall platform, I spent about 12 straigt hours (skipped sleep on a work night) trying to get things to work before I backed out. I finished the network redesign, but still pending on the firewall. To provide a perspective on things, here's the system count:
7 Windows 2003 Servers
2 SuSE Linux Servers
2 Windows XP desktops
3 Windows XP laptops
2 Linux based FW managers (one destined to go away soon)
1 Linux based FW (destined to go away soon)
1 IPSO based FW
1 Avaya 4620 IP Phone
1 Cisco 7960 IP Phone
2 Extreme Summit 200 48 port switches
1 Cisco 3500xl 24 port switch
1 Cisco 3750 24 port PoE switch
1 Cisco 3640 router
1 Cisco 3620 router
1 3Com TR Hub (yes, I know it's a museum piece, but it still works - there's a story here too)
1 Netgear 4 port mini switch
All this, plus associated KVM and related items, probably contributes something like $70-$80 to the power bill every month.
I've managed to get IPv6 running on most all of the equipment. The exceptions are:
- The Extreme switches won't do it with the code that's available for them.
- One of the XP laptops needs to be rebuilt as it won't install the v6 stack properly (and has a number of other issues).
- The 3500xl isn't worth the effort to try and do.
- Cisco apparently doesn't support v6 on TR, so I can't get the TR network set w/IPv6.
- Both IP Phones are IPv4 only at this point, not sure when (or if on these models) they will support 6.
- The Netgear switch is unmanaged, so nothing there (a remote drop for the kitchen - haven't had time to do the hardwire bit and don't have wireless rigged yet).
Other than those, everything else has a IPv6 address and works ok. The Windows DNS is a bit of a problem and I've had to figure out quite a bit about how Microsoft did their IPv6 implementation, but I'm getting there.
More on things later, including the Cisco stuff and v6 over v4 tunnels...