Network Interface Configuration Files

System Administration Guide, Volume 3
		Chapter 1. Managing IPv6 Concepts

IPv6 uses the file /etc/hostname6.interface at start-up to automatically define network interfaces in the same way IPv4 uses /etc/hostname.interface. At least one /etc/hostname. or /etc/hostname6. file should exist on the local machine. The Solaris installation program creates these files for you. In the file name, replace interface with the device name of the primary network interface.

Dev
A network interface device. The device can be a physical network interface, such as le, qe, and so on, or a logical interface, such as a tunnel (see Solaris Tunneling Interfaces for IPv6 for more details).
Module
The list of one or more streams modules to be pushed onto the device when it is plumbed
PPA
The Physical Point of Attachment

Examples of valid hostnames include:

hostname6.le0
hostname6.ip.tun0
hostname.ip.tun0

IPv6 Interface Configuration File Entry

Since autoconfiguration of interfaces in IPv6 allows a node to compute its own link-local address based on its link-layer address, the IPv6 interface configuration file might not have an entry. In this case the startup scripts configure an interface. The node then learns of other addresses and prefixes through the neighbor discovery daemon in.ndpd. If it is required for an interface to have static addresses (which will be less common in IPv6), you can still add them using the command interface of the ifconfig utility. Consequently, the address or hostname is stored in /etc/hostname6.interface (or /etc/hostname.interface) and the content is passed to ifconfig for configuring an interface.

In this case, the file contains only one entry: the host name or IP address associated with the network interface. For example, suppose smc0 is the primary network interface for a machine called ahaggar. Its /etc/hostname6. file would have the name /etc/hostname6.smc0 and the file would contain the entry ahaggar.

The networking start-up script examines the number of interfaces and the existence of the /etc/inet/ndpd.conf file to start routing daemons and packet forwarding. See How to Configure a Solaris IPv6 Router in Chapter 2.

Extensions to the ifconfig Utility

The ifconfig utility was changed to allow for plumbing IPv6 interfaces as well as the tunneling module. The ifconfig utility uses an extended set of ioctls to configure both IPv4 and IPv6 network interfaces. Table 1-1 shows the set of options added to this utility. See How to Display Interface Address Assignments in Chapter 2 for a description of useful diagnostic procedures using this utility.

Table 1-1. New Ifconfig Utility Options
Option
Description
index
Set the interface index.
tsrc/tdst
Set tunnel source/destination.
addif
Create the next available logical interface.
removeif
Delete a logical interface with a given IP address.
destination
Set the point-to-point destination address for an interface.
set
Set an address, netmask, or both for an interface.
subnet
Set the subnet address of an interface.
xmit/-xmit
Enable/disable packet transmission on an interface.

Option	Description
`index`	Set the interface index.
`tsrc`/`tdst`	Set tunnel source/destination.
`addif`	Create the next available logical interface.
`removeif`	Delete a logical interface with a given IP address.
`destination`	Set the point-to-point destination address for an interface.
`set`	Set an address, netmask, or both for an interface.
`subnet`	Set the subnet address of an interface.
`xmit`/`-xmit`	Enable/disable packet transmission on an interface.

Examples--New ifconfig Utility Options

Example 1-1. Examples--Using addif and removeif
# ifconfig hme0 inet6 addif 1234::5678/64 up Created new logical interface hme0:3 # ifconfig hme0:3 inet6 hme0:3: flags=2000841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 2 inet6 1234::5678/64 # ifconfig hme0:3 inet6 down # ifconfig hme0 inet6 removeif 1234::5678

Example 1-2. Examples--Using tsrc/tdst and index
# ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 plumb index 13 # ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 ip.tun0: flags=2200850<POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST,NONUD,IPv6> mtu 1480 index 13 inet tunnel src 0.0.0.0 inet6 fe80::/10 --> :: # ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 tsrc 129.146.86.158 tdst 129.146.86.122 # ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 ip.tun0: flags=2200850<POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST,NONUD,IPv6> mtu 1480 index 13 inet tunnel src 129.146.86.158 tunnel dst 129.146.86.122 inet6 fe80::8192:569e/10 --> fe80::8192:567a

Dev	A network interface device. The device can be a physical network interface, such as le, qe, and so on, or a logical interface, such as a tunnel (see Solaris Tunneling Interfaces for IPv6 for more details).
Module	The list of one or more streams modules to be pushed onto the device when it is plumbed
PPA	The Physical Point of Attachment


Overview of the Solaris IPv6 Implementation		Nodes With Multiple Network Interfaces