Dual-Stack IPv4/6 on same Network Interface Controller (NIC)

[chuckk281]

John had an IP address question:

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I have a customer who is testing ipv6 on their Application and come across a situation where they need to dual-stack ipv4/6 on the same nic, They are currently using  VC Flex10 module with BL460G6 & BL620G7 Blade Servers.

They want to provide an "ethernet network"  with two external network references.  Is creating VLan Tags the best way to achieve this or does anybody have a best practice guide available?

Any help or advice you can provide would be much appreciated.

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Chris replied:

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VC Flex-10 does not know about IPv4 or IPv6 – (this is Layer 3 – routing layer).  VC Flex-10 operates in a lower layer (Layer 2) of the networking stack i.e. Ethernet layer.

Ethernet packets will carry whatever payload they are given e.g. IPv4, ICMP, IPv6 etc.  I am pretty sure that some people could carry more exotic protocols too, at least on Linux and Solaris hosts – OSI, DECnet, LAT, etc.

Regards,

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Dan also chimed in:

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Yes, for example if you install a modern version of Windows you’re getting both stacks on the same NIC by default.  You actually have to turn it off if you don’t want it.

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Any other comments or questions?