Support for IPv6

The following BMC Atrium Orchestrator base adapters support Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) for directing internet traffic and for routing:

• Command Line and Session-based CLI
• FTP
• HTTP
• IMAP
• POP
• SCP
• SFTP
• SMTP
• SNMP
• SQL
• SSH
• Telnet
• Web Services

The IPv6 support applies to Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. The preceding adapters support both an IPv6 address with a zone identifier (zone ID) and a string literal representation of an IPv6 address. To use an IPv6 address in an adapter request, you must include the zone ID of the peer or the computer on which the adapter is enabled. A zone ID specifies the zone of the destination for the ICMPv6 Echo Request messages. For details about zone IDs, see Zone IDs for an IPv6 addresses.

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 operating systems are IPv6-enabled by default. You can switch off IPv6 on these systems, but you cannot uninstall it. Windows XP and Windows 2003 operating systems require you to install IPv6. For instructions, see IPv6 installation. For detailed information about installing and configuring IPv6 on a particular operating system, see the documentation for that operating system.

The following figure is an example of the SFTP adapter request XML with an IPv6 address specified for the <host> element:

XML sample of the SFTP adapter request with an IPv6 address specified for the <host> element

<sftp-request>
  <prompts>
   <prompt>$</prompt>
  </prompts>
  <targets>
    <target>
      <host>fe80::20c:29ff:fe5d:38f0%eth0</host>
      <user-name>name</user-name>
      <password>pwd</password>
      <prompt>$</prompt>
      <allow-unknown-hosts>true</allow-unknown-hosts>
    </target>
  </targets>
  <commands><pwd/></commands>
</sftp-request>

The following figure illustrates an XML sample of the SFTP adapter response with an IPv6 address specified for the <host> element.

XML sample of the SFTP adapter response with an IPv6 address specified for the <host> element

<sftp-command-output>
  <response-metadata>
    <status>success</status>
  </response-metadata>
  <targets-output>
    <target-output host="fe80::20c:29ff:fe5d:38f0%eth0">
      <target-metadata>
        <status>success</status>
      </target-metadata>
      <commands-output>
        <command-output>
          <metadata>
            <id>1</id>
            <command>pwd</command>
            <execution-milliseconds>1</execution-milliseconds>
            <status>success</status>
          </metadata>
          <output>
            <directory>/home/name</directory>
          </output>
        </command-output>
      </commands-output>
    </target-output>
  </targets-output>
</sftp-command-output>

To install IPv6 on Windows

You can install IPv6 on Windows by using the following methods:

From the Command prompt

At the command prompt, enter netsh interface ipv6 install.

From the GUI

1. Log on to the computer with a user account that has privileges to change the network configuration.
2. Select Start > Control Panel.
3. Double-click Network Connections.
4. Right-click any local area connection, and select Properties.
5. Click Install.
6. In the Select Network Component Type dialog box, select Protocol, and then click Add.
7. In the Select Network Protocol dialog box, select Microsoft TCP/IP version 6, and then click OK.
8. To save the changes to your network connection, click Close.

Zone IDs for IPv6 addresses

The IPv6 protocol for a Windows server includes an IPv6-capable Ping.exe tool. When you use the Ping.exe tool to send an ICMPv6 Echo Request message to a specified destination, the tool displays the round-trip time statistics on the corresponding Echo Reply messages.

To ping a computer with an IPv6 address, use the following ping syntax at the command prompt:
ping <IPv6Address>[baob201402:%<zoneID>]

To find and display the zone ID of a computer, use the following commands:

• For link-local addresses, the zone ID is the interface index. Use the netsh interface ipv6 show interface command.
• For site-local addresses, the zone ID is the site number. Use the netsh interface ipv6 show interface level=verbose command. If multiple sites are used, a zone ID for site-local addresses is not required.
• Use the ipconfig command at the command prompt. The number after the percentage (%) character in an IP address indicates the zone ID.

For example, to send an Echo Request message to the FE80::260:97FF:FE02:6EA5 link-local address with a zone ID of 4, you would use the following command:
ping fe80::260:97ff:fe02:6ea5%4

Because the zone ID is defined locally, the zone ID of the sending host might not be the same as the zone ID of the destination host for the same zone. For example, for Host A and Host B connected using the same network link, Host A's zone ID for the link is 4 and Host B's zone ID for the link is 3. When Host A pings Host B, the zone ID used in the ping command is 4. However, when Host B pings Host A, the zone ID used in the ping command is 3.

The base adapters support IPv6 in the following formats:

• A string literal format (for a Windows to Windows environment and Windows to Linux environment)
  For example, <target>fe80--20c-29ff-fe5d-38f0seth0.ipv6-literal.net</target>
• A colon-separated string of octets (for a Linux to Windows environment and a Windows to Linux environment)
  For example, <target>fe80::20c:29ff:fe5d:38f0%eth0</target>

To convert an IPv6 address to string literal format:

• Replace all colon (:) characters with hyphens (-).
• Replace the percentage (%) character with 's'.
• Append '.ipv6-litral.net' to the end of an IP address.