Skip to content

IPv6

Jump to bottom
dck edited this page Apr 1, 2022 · 7 revisions

Micro-Colocation.com - Your green colocation for Raspberry, Jetson Nano and similar SBCs.


The network of our green Micro Colocation is based on the modern IPv6 technology. After booking, you will receive an IPv6 and other related addresses which you need to configure in your operating system. The following are the necessary steps for Debian (Raspberry Pi OS).


Static IPv6 Configuration

We need to use a static IP configuration, so you must first disable a perhaps running but unneeded dhcpcd service:

pi$ sudo systemctl stop dhcpcd
pi$ systemctl status dhcpcd
  ...
  Active: inactive (dead)                # dhcpcd is stopped       
  ...
pi$ sudo systemctl disable dhcpcd
pi$ systemctl is-enabled dhcpcd          # dhcpcd will not start after system reboot
disabled

Ensure that /etc/network/interfaces reads /etc/network/interfaces.d/* files (this should be the default):

pi$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
  ...
  # system will read interfaces.d/ files during network setup
  source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d
  ...

Create the following file and replace the IP values with the settings listed on your account page:

pi$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth0      # open the editor and enter the following lines...
# Pi RJ45 on-board NIC
# see "man 5 interfaces" for details

auto eth0                          
iface eth0 inet6 static
  accept_ra 0
  autoconf 0
  # replace with your ip address:
  address 2001:db8:abcd::dcba/64
  # replace with your gateway address:
  gateway 2001:db8:abcd::1

After writing the file and closing the editor, the IP address configuration is ready. Please reboot now. But don't forget: You will lost a perhaps existing SSH connection because you have changed your network settings. So, please switch to the local console if not already done.

pi$ sudo reboot

After reboot, check your settings:

pi$ ps ax | grep dhcp | grep -v grep           # should be a blank output and NOT list a dhcp process
pi$ ip addr show eth0                          # check ip address
  ...
  inet6 2001:db8:abcd:dcba/64 scope global     # eth0 has the expected global ip
  ...
pi$ ip -6 route list                           # check default gateway
  ...
  default via 2001:db8:abcd::1 dev eth0 ...    # default route points to expected gateway

And now the final steps: We need to configure the DNS64 nameserver and the NTP server. Please note that their IP addresses due to firewall rules are only accessible from the colocation, so you cannot test the connections from your home network.

The DNS64 nameserver:

pi$ sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf                # open the editor and adjust the following lines...
...
# only these lines are needed, please comment out the rest
# replace with your nameserver address:
nameserver 2001:db8:abcd::1
...

And finally the NTP server:

pi$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf     # open the editor and adjust the following lines...
...
# only these lines are needed, please comment out the rest
[Time]
# replace with your NTP server address:
NTP=2001:db8:abcd::1          
...

Hardening

Because your Micro Colocation is part of the wild Internet, your operating system and applications must be secured accordingly. So please take a look at our Linux Hardening documentation.

Clone this wiki locally