Your server on IPv6?
By Leland Vandervort on Monday 9 November 2009, 11:43 - Hosting - Permalink
Today we are opening the beta-test phase for the implementation of IPv6 on our hosting platform.
As a reminder, IPv6 is the successor to the current IPv4 upon which the internet is based, and given the generous attribution of the early IP addresses, the IPv4 address space is rapidly running out of available adresses.
Its replacement is gently making its appearance across the
internet. An IPv6 address is made up of 128bits as opposed to 32bits
for an IPv4 address. We are moving from 2^32 available addresses to
2^128 (excluding reserved allocations, of course) which gives us a few
decades.. erm.. centuries to breathe! 
If you wish to participate in the beta test phase, you must:
- Have some basic knowledge of IPv6
- Have a Gandi server in expert mode (i.e. with root access)
- Send us a request to participate to ipv6beta@gandi.net and include your gandi handle/user-id. (You will receive an email by return with the procedure to follow).
Initially, we will limit the beta test to approximately 50 servers, so don't wait to send in your request! 
Comments
Note: Some users may be missing the IPv6 modules for the kernel. This can be fixed by obtaining and installing the new modules following the procedure at http://wiki.gandi.net/en/hosting/tr... ...
You may need to do a 'modprobe ipv6' afterwards.
This only really applies to customers who have had their servers for several months and have not yet obtained the new kernel modules.
How many addresses do you plan to offer to each server? Hopefully you plan to route a set of addresses to each server, rather than just one; we certainly have more than enough IPv6 addresses to go around.
Personally, I would be for routing just one IPv6 address (more on demand) to a server, the fact that we have an immense amount of available space does not warrant getting sloppy with it. After all, there's plenty of IPv4 space that is unused, but assigned to big companies, who - in the early days - requested and got /8 blocks assigned to them. (which they hardly use)
@Leland: Any news about NF_CONNTRACK support?
Thanks,
Antonio
@ao2 : we have a 2.6.27 kernel available now available upon request to ipv6beta AT gandi DOT net. We haven't put it in the list of available kernels as we will have a 2.6.30 kernel available in the next couple of weeks. I have 2.6.27 running on my own VM and NF_CONNTRACK works fine. Let us know if you want to test the kernel version, or if you prefer to wait for the updated release kernel to be provided shortly.
Leland
@Leland: this is a very good news.
I think I'll wait for 2.6.30, thanks.
All the best,
Antonio
All,
We are now at the point of launching IPv6 across the entire hosting platform in Paris. (Our Baltimore datacenter is already IPv6 enabled). Upon activation, all servers which are ipv6 capable (ipv6 kernel module installed) will automatically be enabled.
For those who participated in the Beta test, the beta addressing will remain deployed until the end of January 2011 in parallel to the real/final addressing plan to facilitate any transitions you may need to do. At the end of January, the beta network prefixes will no longer be usable.
Customers using ip6tables should ensure that their filters are updated to reflect the new IPv6 addressing.