To better understand how to use permissions, let’s take a step back and get a quick refresher on key components.

You’ll need to remember the three permission types:

r w x: r = read; w = write; x = execute

And the three types of access they can be applied to:

u g o: u = user; g = group; o = other

Permissions are usually displayed in one of two ways – either with letters (rwxrwxrwx) or numbers (777). When the permissions are declared with letters, you should look at it as three sets of three characters. The first set applies to the user, the second applies to the group, and the third applies to other (everyone else). If a file is readable only by the user and cannot be written to or executed by anyone, its permission level would be r--------. If it could be read by anyone but could only be writeable by the user and the group, its permission level would be rw-rw-r--.

The numeric form of chmod uses bits to represent permission levels. Read access is marked by 4 bits, write is 2, and execute is 1. When you want a file to have read and write access, you just add the permission bits: 4 + 2 = 6. When you want a file to have read, write and execute access, you’ll have 4 + 2 + 1, or 7. You’d then apply that numerical permission to a file in the same order as above: user, group, other. If we used the example from the last sentence in the previous paragraph, a file that could be read by anyone, but could only be writeable by the user and the group, would have a numeric permission level of 664 (user: 6, group: 6, other: 4).

Now the “chmod 777” I referenced above should make a little more sense: All users are given all permissions (4 + 2 + 1 = 7).

Applying Permissions

Understanding these components, applying permissions is pretty straightforward with the use of the chmod command. If you want a user (u) to write and execute a file (wx) but not read it (r), you’d use something like this:

In the above terminal image, I added the -v parameter to make it “verbose,” so it displays the related output or results of the command. The permissions set by the command are shown by the number 0300 and the series (-wx------). Nobody but the user can write or execute this file, and as of now, the user can’t even read the file. If you were curious about the leading 0 in “0300,” it simply means that you’re viewing an octal output, so for our purposes, it can be ignored entirely.

In that command, we’re removing the read permission from the user (hence the minus sign between u and r), and we’re giving the user write and execute permissions with the plus sign between u and wx. Want to alter the group or other permissions as well? It works exactly the same way: g+,g-,o+,o- … Getting the idea? chmod permissions can be set with the letter-based commands (u+r,u-w) or with their numeric equivalents (eg. 400 or 644), whichever floats your boat.

A Quick Numeric chmod Reference

chmod 777 | Gives specified file read, write and execute permissions (rwx) to ALL users
chmod 666 | Allows for read and write privileges (rw) to ALL users
chmod 555 | Gives read and execute permissions (rx) to ALL users
chmod 444 | Gives read permissions (r) to ALL users
chmod 333 | Gives write and execute permissions (wx) to ALL users
chmod 222 | Gives write privileges (w) to ALL users
chmod 111 | Gives execute privileges (x) to ALL users
chmod 000 | Last but not least, gives permissions to NO ONE (Careful!)

Get a List of File Permissions

To see what your current file permissions are in a given directory, execute the ls –l command. This returns a list of the current directory including the permissions, the group it’s in, the size and the last date the file was modified. The output of ls –l looks like this:

On the left side of that image, you’ll see the permissions in the rwx format. When the permission begins with the “d” character, it means that object is a directory. When the permission starts with a dash (-), it is a file.

Practice Deciphering Permissions

Let’s look at a few examples and work backward to apply what we’ve learned:

• Example 1: -rw-------
• Example 2: drwxr-x---
• Example 3: -rwxr-xr-x

In Example 1, the file is not a directory, the user that owns this particular object has read and write permissions, and when the group and other fields are filled with dashes, we know that their permissions are set to 0, so they have no access. In this case, only the user who owns this object can do anything with it. We’ll cover “ownership” in a future blog, but if you’re antsy to learn right now, you can turn to the all-knowing Google.

In Example 2, the permissions are set on a directory. The user has read, write and execute permissions, the group has read and execute permissions, and anything/anyone besides user or group is restricted from access.

For Example 3, put yourself to the test. What access is represented by “-rwxr-xr-x“? The answer is included at the bottom of this post.

Wrapping It Up

How was that for a crash course in Unix environment permissions? Of course there’s more to it, but this will at least make you think about what kind of access you’re granting to your files. Armed with this knowledge, you can create the most secure server environment.

Here are a few useful links you may want to peruse at your own convenience to learn more:

Linuxforums.org
Zzee.com
Comptechdoc.org
Permissions Calculator

Did I miss anything? Did I make a blatantly ridiculous mistake? Did I use “their” when I should have used “they’re”??!!… Let me know about it. Leave a comment if you’ve got anything to add, suggest, subtract, quantize, theorize, ponderize, etc. Think your useful links are better than my useful links? Throw those at me too, and we’ll toss ‘em up here.

Are you still feeling the burn from your Sysadmin Boot Camp workout? Don’t forget to keep getting reps in bash, logs, SSH, passwords and user management!

- Ryan

Root User

The root user — also known as the “super user” — has absolute control over everything on the server. Nothing is held back, nothing is restricted, and anything can be done. Only the server administrator should have this kind of access to the server, and you can see why. The root user is effectively the server’s master, and the server accordingly will acquiesce to its commands.

Broad root access should be avoided for the sake of security. If a program or service needs extensive abilities that are generally reserved for the root user, it’s best to grant those abilities on a narrow, as-needed basis.

Creating New Users

Because the Sysadmin Boot Camp series is geared toward server administration from a command-line point of view, that’s where we’ll be playing today. Tasks like user creation can be performed fairly easily in a control panel environment, but it’s always a good idea to know the down-and-dirty methods as a backup.

The useradd command is used for adding users from shell. Let’s start with an example and dissect the pieces:

useradd -c "admin" -d /home/username -g users\ -G admin,helpdesk -s\ /bin/bash userid

-c "admin" – This command adds a comment to the user we’re creating. The comment in this case is “admin,” which may be used to differentiate the user a little more clearly for better user organization.
-d /home/username – This block sets the user’s home directory. The most common approach is to replace username with the username designated at the end of the command.
-g users\ – Here, we’re setting the primary group for the user we’re creating, which will be users.
-G admin,helpdesk – This block specifies other user groups the new user may be a part of.
-s\ /bin/bash userid – This command is in two parts. It says that the new user will use /bin/bash for its shell and that userid will be the new user’s username.

Changing Passwords

Root is the only user that can change other users’ passwords. The command to do this is:

passwd userid

If you are a user and want to change your own password, you would simply issue the passwd command by itself. When you execute the command, you will be prompted for a new entry. This command can also be executed by the root user to change the root password.

Deleting Users

The command for removing users is userdel, and if we were to execute the command, it might look like this:

userdel -r username

The –r designation is your choice. If you choose to include it, the command will remove the home directory of the specified user.

Where User Information is Stored

The /etc/passwd file contains all user information. If you want to look through the file one page at a time — the way you’d use /p in Windows — you can use the more command:

more /etc/passwd

Keep in mind that most of your important configuration files are going to be located in the /etc folder, commonly spoken with an “et-see” pronunciation for short. Each line in the passwd file has information on a single user. Arguments are segmented with colons, as seen in the example below:

username:password:12345:12345::/home/username:/bin/bash

Argument 1 – username – the user’s username
Argument 2 – password – the user’s password
Argument 3 – 12345 – the user’s numeric ID
Argument 4 – 12345 – the user group’s numeric ID
Argument 5 – "" – where either a comment or the user’s full name would go
Argument 6 – /home/username – the user’s home directory
Argument 7 – /bin/bash – the user’s default console shell

Now that you’ve gotten a crash course on user management, we’ll start going deeper into group management, more detailed permissions management and the way shadow file relates to the passwd usage discussed above.

-Ryan

Your password isn’t good enough.

Yeah, that’s a pretty general statement, but it’s shocking how many people are perfectly fine with a six- or eight-character password made up of lowercase letters. Your approach to server passwords should be twofold: Stick with it and Be organized.

Remembering a 21-character password like ^@#*!sgsDAtg5t#ghb%!^ may seem daunting, but you really don’t have to remember it. For a server, secure passwords are just as vital as any other form of security. You need to get in the habit of documenting every username and password you use and what they apply to. For the sake of everything holy, keep that information in a safe place. Folding it up and shoving it in your socks is not advised (See: blisters).

Want to make your approach to password security even better? Change your passwords every few months, and make sure you and at least one other trusted colleague or friend knows where to find them. You’re dealing with sensitive material, but you can never guarantee that you will be available to respond to a server-based emergency. In these cases, your friends and co-workers end up scrambling through bookshelves and computer files to find any trace of useful information.

Having been one of the abovementioned co-workers in this situation, I can attest that it is nearly impossible to convince customer service that you are indeed a representative of the company having no verification information or passwords to provide.

Coming soon: Now you’ve got some of the basics, what about the not-so-basics? I’ll start drafting some slightly more advanced tips for the slightly more advanced administrator. If you have any topics you’d like us to cover, don’t hesitate to let us know in a comment below.

-Ryan

Logs are like an overbearing mother who sneakily follows her teenage son around and writes down the addresses of each house he visits. When he realizes he lost a really important piece of baseball history at one of those houses, he’ll be glad he has that list so he can go desperately search for the soon-to-be-noticed missing bat. Ahem.

MAKE BEST FRIENDS WITH THIS DIRECTORY: /var/log/

When something goes wrong – when there’s hitch in the flux capacitor or too many gigawatts in the main reactor – your logs will be there to let you know what’s going on, and you can pinpoint the error with educated vengeance. So treat your logs with respect.

One of the best places to start harnessing this logged goodness is /var/log/messages. This log file reports all general errors with network and media, among other things. As you add to and learn your server’s command line environment, you’ll see specific logs for applications as well, so it’s a very good idea to keep a keen eye on these. They just might save your life … or server.

Some of the most commonly used logs (may vary with different Linux distributions):

• /var/log/message – General message- and system-related info
• /var/log/cron.log – Cron job logs
• /var/log/maillog – Mail server logs
• /var/log/kern.log – Kernel logs
• /var/log/httpd/ – Apache access and error logs
• /var/log/boot.log – System boot logs
• /var/log/mysqld.log – MySQL database server logs
• /var/log/secure – SSH authentication logs
• /var/log/auth.log – Authentication logs
• /var/log/qmail/ – Qmail log directory (more files inside this directory)
• /var/log/utmp or /var/log/wtmp – Login records file
• /var/log/yum.log – Yum log files

There are plenty more in-depth logs – particularly involving raw system components – and others that act similarly to logs but are a bit more active like tcpdumps. Those are a little more advanced to interpret, so I’ll save them for another guide and another day.

At this point in our UNIX workout series, you’re familiar with the command line, you know the basics of how to tell your server what to do and you just learned how to let the server tell you what it’s done. There’s still a bit of work to be done before you can call yourself a UNIX ninja, but you’re well on your way. In our next installment, we’re going to take a step back and talk about p455w0rd5.

Keep learning.

-Ryan

As we mentioned earlier in this series, customers with control panels from cPanel and Parallels might be tempted to rely solely on those graphical interfaces. They are much more user-friendly in terms of performing routine server administration tasks, but at some point, you might need to get down and dirty on the command line. It’s almost inevitable. This is where you’ll use bash commands.

Here are some of the top 10 essential commands you should get to know and remember in bash. Click any of the commands to go to its official “manual” page.

1. man – This command provides a manual of other bash commands. Want more info on a command? Type man commandname, and you’ll get more information about “commandname” than you probably wanted to know. It’s extremely useful if you need a quick reference for a command, and it’s often much more detailed and readable than a simple --help or --h extension.
2. ls – This command lets you list results. I showed you an example of this above, but the amount of options that are available to you with this command are worth looking into. Using the “manual” command above, run man ls and check out the possibilities. For example, if you’re in /etc, running ls -l /etc will get you a slightly more detailed list. My most commonly used list command is ls -hal. Pop quiz for you (where you can test your man skills): What does the -hal mean?
3. cd – This command lets you change directories. Want to go to /etc/? cd /etc/ will take you there. Want to jump back a directory? cd .. does the trick.
4. mv – This command enables you to move files and folders. The syntax is mv originalpath/to/file newpath/to/file. Simple! There are more options that you can check out with the man command.
5. rm – This command enables you to remove a file or directory. In the same vein as the mv command, this is one of those basic commands that you just have to know. By running rm filename, you remove the “filename” file.
6. cp – This command enables you to copy files from one place to another. Want to make a backup of a file before editing it? Run cp origfile.bla origfile.bak, and you have a backup in case your edit of origfile.bla goes horrendously wrong and makes babies cry. The syntax is simply: cp /source /destination. As with the above commands, check out the manual by running man cp for more options.
7. tar – On its own, tar is a command to group a bunch of files together, uncompressed. These files can then be compressed into .gzip format. The command can be used for creating or extracting, so it may be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the parameters, as you may find yourself using it quite often. For a GUI equivalent, think 7-zip or WinRAR for Windows.
8. wget – I love the simplicity of this little command. It enables you to “get” or download a target file. Yes, there are options, but all you need is a direct link to a file, and you just pull one of these: wget urlhere. Bam! That file starts downloading. Doesn’t matter what kind of file it is, it’s downloaded.
9. top – This handy little binary will give you a live view of memory and CPU usage currently affecting your machine, and is useful for finding out where you need to optimize. It can also help you pinpoint what processes may be causing a slowdown or a load issue.
10. chmod – This little sucker is vital to make your server both secure and usable, particularly when you’re going to be serving for the public like you would with a web server. Combine good usage of permission and iptables, and you have a locked down server

When you understand how to use these tools, you can start to monitor and track what’s actually happening on your server. The more you know about your server, the more effective and efficient you can make it. In our next installment, we’ll touch on some of the most common server logs and what you can do with the information they provide.

Did I miss any of your “essential” bash commands in my top 10 list? Leave a comment below with your favorites along with a quick explanation of what they do.

-Ryan

In my tenure at SoftLayer, I’ve come across a lot of customers who rely almost entirely on control panels provided by partners like cPanel and Parallels to administer their servers. While those panels simplify some fairly complex tasks to the touch of a button, we all know that one day you’re going to have to get down and dirty in that SSH (Secure Shell) interface that so many UNIX server newbies fear.

I’m here to tell you that SSH can be your friend, if you treat it right. Graphical user interfaces like the ones used in control panels have been around for quite a while now, and despite the fact that we are in “the future,” the raw power of a command line is still unmatched in its capabilities. It’s a force to be reckoned with.

If you’re accustomed to a UNIX-based interface, this may seem a little elementary, but you and I both know that as we get accustomed to something, we also tend to let those all-important “basics” slip from our minds. If you’re coming from a Windows background and are new to the environment, you’re in for a bit of a shell shock, no pun intended. The command line is fantastically powerful once you master it … It just takes a little time and effort to learn.

We’ll start slow and address some of the most common pain points for new sysadmins, and as we move forward, we’ll tackle advanced topics. Set your brain to “absorbent,” and visualize soaking up these UNIX tips like some kind of undersea, all-knowing, Yoda-like sea sponge.

SSH

SSH allows data to be exchanged securely between two networked devices, and when the “network” between your workstation and server is the Internet, the fact that it does so “securely” is significant. Before you can do any actual wielding of SSH, you’re going to need to know how to find this exotic “command line” we’ve talked so much about.

You can use a third-party client such as PuTTY, WinSCP if your workstation is Windows-based, or if you’re on Linux or Mac, you can access SSH from your terminal application: ssh user@ipaddress. Once you’ve gotten into your server, you’ll probably want to find out where you are, so give the pwd command a try:

user@serv: ~$ pwd
/home/user
user@serv: ~$

It’s as easy as that. Now we know we’re in the /home/user directory. Most of the time, you’ll find yourself starting in your home directory. This is where you can put personal files and documents. It’s kind of like “My Documents” in Windows, just on your server.

Now that you know where you are, you’ll probably want to know what’s in there. Take a look at these commands (extracted from a RedHat environment, but also usable in CentOS and many other distributions):

    user@serv: /usr/src $ ls    
This will give you a basic listing of the current directory.

    user@serv: /usr/src $ ls /usr/src/redhat    
This will list the contents of another specified directory.

    user@serv: /usr/src $ ls ./redhat    
Using a “relative pathname,” this will perform the same action as above.

    user@serv: /usr/src $ ls redhat    
Most of the time, you’ll get the same results even without the “./” at the beginning.

    user@serv: /usr/src $ cd /usr/src/redhat/    
This is an example of using the cd command to change directories to an absolute pathname.

    user@serv: /usr/src $ cd redhat    
This is an example of using the cd command to change directories to a relative pathname.

    user@serv: /usr/src/redhat $ cd /usr/src    
To move back on directory from the working directory, you can use the destination’s absolute path.

    user@serv: /usr/src/redhat $ cd ..    
Or, since the desired directory is one step down, you can use two dots to move back.

You’ll notice many similarities to the typical Windows DOS prompts, so it helps if you’re familiar with navigating through that interface: dir, cd, cd .., cd /. Everything else on the other hand, will prove to be a bit different.

Now that you’re able to access this soon-to-be-powerful-for-you tool, you need to start learning the language of the natives: bash. In our next installment, we’ll take a crash course in bash, and you’ll start to get comfortable navigating and manipulating content directly on your server.

Bookmark the SoftLayer Blog and come back regularly to get the latest installments in our “UNIX Sysadmin Boot Camp” series!

-Ryan

Standing Cloud’s Application Layer for the SoftLayer Cloud

When we first came across the SoftLayer Cloud, we were impressed by the breadth of what it allowed the user to do through a web browser. Beyond the basic infrastructure capabilities of provisioning servers and storage (that you can find from other providers), the SoftLayer console and API allow full access to the networking, security, and server console capabilities of the system. It’s as though you can take over the mind of a network administrator and have him or her do your bidding.

A host of networking features that come with the offering with the offering were especially exciting to us (see the end of this post for details). Now, when I say “us,” I mean our Founding System Architect, Joel Wampler. Joel breathes network protocols, eats open source technology stacks for most of his meals and speaks in Linux command line. I, in contrast, wouldn’t have the first idea how to make good use of those network features, but his amazement was enough to be contagious. I’m a software developer by trade, not a systems or network architect, and increasingly I’m mostly a business user … And as I’ve transitioned to more of a business-centric focus, I’ve become the target demographic for Standing Cloud. The distinction between business users in a technical company and technical users in a business are why the Standing Cloud service is so powerful on the SoftLayer Cloud.

For business users and application developers, what we call the “dark cloud” (IaaS without an application layer) is not very useful and relatively intimidating. Business users primarily want SaaS – the ability to use applications without any consideration of the mechanics. Developers want APaaS or PaaS – the ability to customize existing applications or build them from scratch, without any (or much) consideration of the underlying technology stack or infrastructure.

Standing Cloud delivers all of this, the way it ought to be, on the SoftLayer Cloud. An end user can deploy a pre-packaged application in minutes with just a few clicks. We incorporate best practices so you take advantage of all the Standing Cloud and SoftLayer capabilities without having to know about them. As a developer, you can deploy one of these applications and then customize the code without having to think about system security configuration, memory parameters or other system administration issues. Just sync with your repository on Github or Subversion and the code will be uploaded and ready to run.

These “startup” benefits are just the beginning, though. Standing Cloud makes it easy to “move” your application – to a different server if you need more (or less) capacity, to a shared server if you are a solution provider and want to reduce the cost to your clients, or to a “test drive” if you want to experiment with an upgrade or code changes but don’t want to affect the production deployment. We monitor the application and its status 24×7, and you receive notifications if it is down or performing slowly – and optionally, we can automatically revive it on a new server if the situation warrants.

If you want to open the hood, you can. Because of the way Standing Cloud deploys and manages applications, an adventurous end-user can easily access the application code and the PaaS layer. And a developer who has a special need can dive into the infrastructure layer through our browser based terminal window. Unlike most SaaS and PaaS systems, Standing Cloud keeps these details out of your hair but does not prevent you from accessing and changing them.

If you are just getting started with the SoftLayer Cloud, and you are not a system administrator, I highly recommend that you explore the Standing Cloud Application Network. Instead of being faced with the “dark cloud,” you’ll have more than 80 application choices (and we take requests if your favorites aren’t included yet!). For developers, we offer language support for Java, Ruby, PHP, and Python.

If you are a system administrator and an existing SoftLayer customer, you may want to consider Standing Cloud as a time saver. There are so many powerful (and challenging!) capabilities to manage on SoftLayer for your complex, mission critical applications. Is deploying and locking down a server running Drupal or SugarCRM the best use of your time?

Finally, we would love to hear from you. Send an email to support@standingcloud.com, and tell us what you need, how you want to use the cloud, and what we could do better. Our users drive our product evolution, so please tell us what you think!

And for those of you who are curious about the network features I mentioned Joel salivating over at the start of the post, here are a few highlights:

• Up to Gigabit speeds both internally and to the Internet
• Private IP blocks are assigned as a VLAN so that other customers cannot access them
• IPv6 capable
• Free inbound bandwidth, and 1000GB of outbound bandwidth included
• Ability to share an IP address across multiple machines (excellent for high availability solutions)

-Dave Jilk, Standing Cloud

You should be seeing a blog from Nathan in the next half hour or so with more detail about how we approached managed hosting, so you’ll have all the background you need to springboard into that post after you watch this video.

If you’ve heard everything you need to hear about managed hosting and want to start the process of adding it to servers on your account, visit http://www.softlayer.com/solutions/managed-hosting/ or chat with a sales rep, and they can help you get squared away. If you’re not sure whether it’s a good fit, ask for a sales engineer to consult … They’re a great group with a pretty awesome manager.

Paul, sorry for stealing your spot in the 3 Bars | 3 Questions rotation! I’m handing the baton back over to you to talk about TechWildcatters and the Technology Partners Marketplace in the next episode.

-Tam

Luckily, a lot of people have been hard at work to mitigate the impending Internet crisis. IP version 6 (IPv6) is on the horizon and is already supported by most modern internet enabled devices. If you’re like me, the fact that we went from IPv4 to IPv6 might make you wonder, “What happened to IPv5?”

The powers that be didn’t decide to rid the number system of the number five because of its mixture of curves and right angles, and it wasn’t because they only wanted to use round numbers. IP version 5 (IPv5) was a work in progress and part of a family of experimental protocols by the name of ST (Internet Stream Protocol). ST and later ST-II were connection-oriented protocols that were intended to support the efficient delivery of data streams to applications that required guaranteed data throughput.

An ST packet looks very similar to its IPv4 sibling, and both use the first 8 bits to identify a version number. IPv4 uses those 8 bits to identify IPv4 packets, and ST used the same 8 bits to identify IPv5 packets. Since “version 5″ was spoken for, the next iteration in IP advancement became version 6.

If you’ve been around the SoftLayer blog for a while, you already know a fair bit about IPv6, but you’re probably wondering, “What’s next?” How do you actually start using IPv6 yourself?

1. Get a Block of IPv6 Addresses

Lucky for you, the SoftLayer platform is IPv6 ready, and we’re already issuing and routing IPv6 traffic. Obtaining a block of public IPs from us is as easy as logging into the portal, pulling up the hardware page of a server and ordering a /64 block of IPv6 IPs for $4/mo per subnet ($10 if you want a portable subnet)!

For those of you that have ordered IPs from us in the past, IPv4 addresses are usually $0.50-$1.00 each. To get a /64 of public static IPv6 addresses, it’s a whopping $0.00 for the entire range. So just how many IPs is in a /64? 256? Try again. 512? Keep going. 1 Million? You’re still cold. Let’s try 18.4 quintillion. For those that understand scientific notation better, that is 1.84 x 10¹⁹. If you just want to see the number written in long form, it’s 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IP addresses. That allocation should probably tide you over for a little while.

2. Make Sure Your Server is IPv6 Ready

Most current server operating systems are ready to take the IPv6 leap. This includes Windows 2003 SP1 and most Linux OSes with 2.6.x Linux kernels. We’ll focus on Windows and RedHat/CentOS here.

To ready your Windows 2003 server for IPv6, do this:

1. In Control Panel, double-click Network Connections.
2. Right-click any local area connection, and then click Properties.
3. Click Install.
4. In the “Select Network Component Type” dialog box, click Protocol, then Add.
5. In the “Select Network Protocol” dialog box, click Microsoft TCP/IP version 6, then OK.
6. Click Close to save changes to your network connection.

Once IPv6 is installed, IIS will automatically support IPv6 on your web server. If a website was running when you installed the IPv6 stack, you must restart the IIS service before the site begins to listen for IPv6 requests. Sites that you create after you enable IPv6 automatically listen for IPv6. Windows 2008 server should have IPv6 enabled by default.

When your Windows server is ready for IPv6, you will add IPv6 addresses to the server just as you’d add IPv4 addresses … The only difference is you will edit the properties to the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) network protocol.

To ready your RedHat/CentOS servers, do this:

1. Using your favorite editor, edit /etc/sysconfig/network and enable NETWORKING_IPV6 by changing the “no” to a “yes.”

   Example:

   NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=ipv6test.yourdomain.com
GATEWAY=10.13.40.1
NETWORKING_IPV6=yes
2. Next edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 to add IPv6 parameters.

   Add the following to end of the file:

   IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6ADDR=YOURIPV6ADDRESS
IPV6_DEFAULTGW=YOURGATEWAY

   Example:

   IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6ADDR=2607:f0d0:2001:0000:0000:0000:0000:0010/64
IPV6_DEFAULTGW=2607:f0d0:2001:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001
3. Once you have successfully added your assigned IP addresses, you must restart networking with this command:
   [root@ipv6test /]# service network restart

Once you have completed these steps on your respective OS, you should be able to communicate over the IPv6 stack. To test, you can ping ipv6.google.com and see if it works.

3. Bind Your New IPv6 Address to Apache/IIS

Now that you have more IPv6 addresses for your server(s) than what’s available to the entire world in IPv4 space, you must bind them to IIS or Apache. This is done the similarly to the way you bind IPv4 addresses.

In IIS, all IPs that have been added to the system will now be available for use in the website properties. Within Apache, you will add a few directives to ensure your web servers is listening on the IPv6 stack … which brings us to a very important point when it comes to discussing IPv6. Due to the fact that it’s full of colons (:), you can’t just write out the IP as you would a 32-bit address.

IPv6 addresses must be specified in square brackets or the optional port number could not be determined. To enable Apache to listen to both stacks on separate sockets you will need to add a new “Listen” directive:

And for your Virtual Hosts, the will look like this:

4. Add Addresses to DNS

The final step in getting up and running is to add your new IPv6 addresses to your DNS server. If you’re using a IPv6 enabled DNS server, you will simply insert an ‘AAAA’ resource record (aka quad-A record) for your host.

5. Test Your Server’s IPv6 Accessibility

While your DNS is propagating, you can still test your webserver to see if it responds to the IP you assigned by using square brackets in your browser: http://[2101:db8::a00:200f:fda7:00ea]

This test, of course, will only work if your computer is on a IPv6 network. If you are limited to IPv4, you will need sign up with a tunnel broker or switch to an ISP that offers IPv6 connectivity.

After about 24 hours, your server and new host should be ready to serve websites on the IPv6 stack.

Good luck!

-Harold

I find it very interesting how everyone in the world has customers. Our customer’s, customer’s, customer’s, customer’s…and so on…depend on us here at SoftLayer. It is a sort of bottomless pit. Does it begin anywhere…or end anywhere. Does anyone NOT have customers?

For example:

Our customers have customers, who have customers, who have customer, who have customers, etc. We are the customer of INTEL, AMD, Seagate, etc. They are the customers of those that provide the material to make the hardware that they manufacture. The natural resources used to make the hardware are purchased from someone. That someone purchased the rights to those resources from someone, who purchased the rights from someone, who purchased the rights from someone, etc. I suppose somewhere upstream someone’s country went to war and took the rights to those resources from someone else. And, I suppose if you go far enough back, no one had “rights” to those resources before the land was “claimed”. As recent as 2005, the race was on to claim the land of the Arctic Circle. I suppose you could say that all customers began with a gift of land containing resources from God. And, SoftLayer gives free stuff to customers all the time…so…I guess God gave the land containing the resources to people…His customers!

Anyway, this necessity of life that we have termed “customers”, has been, and will always be, I suppose, the most important aspect of life in terms of survival. Without customers, basic necessities like food cannot be purchased. In other words, without customers, you cannot be a customer. And, if you are not a customer, you must, therefore, be dead. So, in terms on everyone being dependent on being a customer and having customers, we all depend on each other like a family of customers. And, we must take care of our family.

We know that our survival, here at SoftLayer, depends on our customers (our family) and that their survival depends on us. We take this responsibility very seriously and work very hard to provide for our family the way that we would like to be provided for.

In conclusion, I feel that we, here at SoftLayer, do a pretty good job of taking care of our “family”, and in turn, our family of customers do a great job of taking care of us. As we continue to grow together, our success will benefit each other for years and years to come.

*If you do not understand any of this, just write it off to the insane ramblings of a tired CSA at the end of a long, challenging, and yet satisfying day at Softlayer working for his family.

-David