Dual Stack Network Setup

Getting started

This guide will walk you through the steps to create a dual stack network setup on the nSC OpenStack.

Step 1: Create a network and two subnets

Go to Network → Networks.

Click the + CREATE NETWORK button.

On the Network tab, give your new network a name, for this guide we use my-dual-stack-net. This is your local network.

Click on the Subnet tab to define the first subnet. Give your new subnet a name, for this guide we use my-ipv6-only-subnet. Select Allocate Network Address from a pool from the Network Address Source drop down menu, DEFAULT-POOL-IPv6 (2001:780:6009::/48) from the Address Pool drop down menu, 64 (pool default) from the Network Mask drop down menu, and IPv6 from the IP Version drop down menu.

Click on the Subnet Details tab. Make sure Enable DHCP is selected. Select SLAAC: Address discovered from OpenStack Router from the IPv6 Address Configuration Mode drop down menu. Click Create to create the new network and the first IPv6-enabled subnet.

Click on my-dual-stack-net in the list of networks.

Go to the Subnets tab and click the + CREATE SUBNET button to create the second subnet.

Give your new subnet a name, for this guide we use my-ipv4-only-subnet. Select Enter Network Address manually from the Network Address Source drop down menu. Enter an RFC 1918 network address in CIDR format, for this guide we use the prefix 192.168.23.0/24. Select IPv4 from the IP Version drop down menu.

Click on the Subnet Details tab. Make sure Enable DHCP is selected. Click Create to create the second IPv4-enabled subnet.

Step 2: Create two routers

Secondly we will create two routers. The first router will connect your IPv6-enabled subnet to the outside world.

Note

Why two routers? OpenStack allows only a single external gateway network per router. Since IPv4 (external) and IPv6 (NORIS-BGPv6-PUBLIC-NETWORK) are different external networks, a separate router is required for each protocol.

Navigate to Network → Routers.

Click the + CREATE ROUTER button.

Give the first router a name, for this guide we use my-ipv6-only-router. Select NORIS-BGPv6-PUBLIC-NETWORK from the External Network drop down menu. Click CREATE ROUTER.

The new router will now show up. Click on its name.

Navigate to the Interfaces tab and click the + ADD INTERFACE button.

Select the subnet we just created, here: my-ipv6-only-net 2001:780:6009:ff02::/64 (my-ipv6-only-subnet). Click SUBMIT to connect our router to our IPv6-enabled subnet.

The second router will connect your IPv4-enabled subnet to the outside world.

Click the + CREATE ROUTER button.

Give the second router a name, for this guide we use my-ipv4-only-router. Select external from the External Network drop down menu. Click CREATE ROUTER.

The new router will now show up. Click on its name.

Navigate to the Interfaces tab and click the + ADD INTERFACE button.

Select the subnet we just created, here: my-ipv4-only-net 192.168.23.0/24 (my-ipv4-only-subnet). Click SUBMIT to connect our router to our IPv4-enabled subnet.

Check network overview

Now we can visually inspect and verify our network setup in the Network Topology view under Network.

Step 3: Create a security group

By default, inbound traffic is restricted. In order to open up SSH access, we will create and apply a security group.

Navigate to Network → Security Groups.

Click the + CREATE SECURITY GROUP button.

Give the security group an appropriate name (and description, if desired), for this guide we use my-dual-stack-sg. Click CREATE SECURITY GROUP.

Add the following rules via the + ADD RULE button:

Rule	Direction	CIDR
All ICMP	Ingress	::/0
All ICMP	Egress	::/0
SSH	Ingress	::/0
SSH	Ingress	0.0.0.0/0

Create a dual stack instance

Now we can create an instance as described in Step 5 of the OpenStack guide.

Make sure you select my-dual-stack-net under Networks.

Make sure you add my-dual-stack-sg under Security Groups.

Under Compute → Instances you can find the IPv6 Global Unicast Address (GUA) of your newly created instance.

You should now be able to reach your dual stack instance via IPv6:

(local)$ ping -c1 2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef
PING 2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef (2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef: icmp_seq=1 ttl=245 time=225 ms

--- 2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 224.863/224.863/224.863/0.000 ms

You may now access your instance via SSH as well:

(local)$ ssh -i my_ssh_key.pem debian@2001:780:6009:ff02:1234:feed:dead:beef
debian@dual-stack-instance:~$

If you want to reach your instance via IPv4, you can associate a Floating IP as described in Step 6 of the OpenStack guide.

Congratulations, you made it! You successfully set up a dual stack network environment in the nSC OpenStack.