ipv6 addressing - non-routable equivalents?

[Brad Spencer]

   On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Brian E Carpenter wrote:

   > Huh? What can be simpler than auto-configuration using the MAC address
   > of your NIC? No management required. If you want multiple addresses
   > per interface, you have to do something else of course - but whatever
   > it is will be more complicated than auto-config.

   As I said in another part of this thread - what does this buy you that
   DHCP doesn't already?

I think of autoconfiguration as a companion to the DHCP idea.  We have
routed, gated and whatever, right??  Technically, we wouldn't have to have
all of those either.

There is a minor advantage with it in networks where there is not a
working DHCPv6 server, like the one I have at home.  I had to set up the
router, in any case, and it was very simple to run the advertisement
server on that machine.  All the client has to do is ask for a router
solicitation and the IPv6 parts get configured.


   Configuration may be simple perhaps if you confine analysing the effects
   to just IP configuration on the box itself.  You still have to manage your
   domain name space and the reverse mapping (ie. why should you be required
   to change IP address and update DNS records just because you change the
   ethernet card in your system?).  Then there is the inherent inefficiency
   of the scheme.

In an environment that is more or less stable, say a lab of Sun
workstations, there isn't much churn in the MAC addresses.  I suspect that
it might be a matter of pain...  if the environment has more flux, then a
DHCP server would probably make sense.  It certainly doesn't for things
here at home.

For my Toshiba notebook, I do use a manually set IPv6 address, just in
case I swap out ethernet cards.  It was taken from a router solicitation
run against one ethernet card.





Brad Spencer - brad@anduin.eldar.org
http://anduin.eldar.org  - & -  http://mellon.ipv6.eldar.org [IPv6 only]
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