The only constant in the world of computers is that the world of computers is always changing.
Each year hardware manufacturers introduce products that tackle chores that were not possible in the previous year.
Each year software makers create new software programs or add features to existing programs.
Each year new technologies make it possible to administer systems with fewer employees.
The software that runs the Internet is no different than anything else in the computer world.
The Internet Protocol is an evolving technology.
The first drafts for IPv6 occurred during the early to mid 1990's.
Since then, the documents have been converted into actual programs, problems were discovered, documents were rewritten to address the problems, programs were updated to match the new documents, and the cycle repeated itself. The goal, to move from a version of a protocol to a newer version of a protocol.
Along the way people started asking for things to make it easier to administer the current IPv4 address space. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol made it easier to allocate IP addresses to workstations.
During the development of IPv6 people have taken the time to ask the, "Wouldn't it be nice if this version did..." questions. Those questions were turned into reality.
The result, a raft of Request for Comments for the new version.
Configuring IPv4 on Solaris isn't very difficult.
During the installation of the Operating Environment you're asked to supply the hostname, IP Address, and Subnet Mask for your system.
If you aren't responsible for generating this information you would normally talk to someone on the networking side of the house and ask them to assign an IP address and subnet mask so you could bring a machine online, or this may have been done for you by a machine build team.
Once you plugged in the information you would then finished the installation of Solaris.
After a reboot, your machine was on the network and the process of adding additional software to the machine was then carried out so the machine could be put to use.
If a problem arises with the machines ability to be accessed from the network your phone generally rings.
The more you know about the Internet Protocol and how it works the easier it will be for you to troubleshoot issues when they arise.
Fortunately Solaris comes with diagnostic utilities to help you track down what went wrong.
The files that are used to configure networking on Solaris and the utilities you could use to troubleshoot problems include:
arp - Maps Ethernet addresses to known IP addresses
/etc/ethers - Used by rarp
rarp - Reverse arp - Maps IP addresses to Ethernet addresses
icmp - Internet Control Message Protocol - Detects and reports network error conditions
ping - Uses ICMP to see if a host is reachable via the network
spray - Similar to ping
traceroute - Allows you to see all of the routers between two different machines
ipfilter - Vendor supplied firewall
rcp - Used to copy files from one machine to another
rlogin - Used to remotely login to another system without supplying a password
rsh - Used to issue commands to another machine
bootparams - Supplies parameters for booting off of the network
nfs - Used to share hard disks between machines
ftp - Used to transfer files between machines - Password is sent as clear text
scp - Used to transfer files between machines - Password is encrypted
ssh - Secure shell - Used to login to another machine - Password is encrypted
telnet - Used to login to another machine - Password is sent as clear text
tftp - Used to transfer files between machines - No username/password required
LDAP - Uses an industry standard directory server for user information
NIS - Network Information Services - User repository for interconnected machines
NIS+ - An enhanced version of NIS
/etc/defaultdomain - Either the NIS domain name or the Fully Qualified Domain Name
of the machine
/etc/defaultrouter - Sets the default router for this machine - Any packets not
destined for a machine on the same segment as the host are
sent to this machine.
/etc/dhcp.interface - Used to configure the machine as a dhcp client
/etc/default/dhcpagent - Contains tunable parameters for the dhcpagent daemon
/etc/dhcp/interface.dhc - File containing information on the current dhcp session
/etc/inet/ipnodes - List of IPv6 machines on your network - similar to /etc/hosts
Starting with Solaris 10 08/07 /etc/inet/ipnodes and /etc/inet/hosts
are links to the same file.
/etc/inet/netmasks - Holds the Subnet Mask Information for this machine
/etc/named.conf - Configuration file for DNS
/etc/networks - Associates network names with network numbers
/etc/nodename - The name of the machine
/etc/hostname.interface - The IPv4 address or the nodename of the machine
/etc/hostname6.interface - The IPv6 address or the nodename of the machine
/etc/inet/hosts - Contains a list of IP addresses and the host machines that
they are assigned to
/etc/nologin - Temporarily disables logins to the machine - To re-enable logins, delete this file
/etc/notrouter - Turns off the Routing Information Protocol
/etc/nscd.conf - Allows you to tune the name service cache daemon
/etc/nsswitch.conf - Used to configure name services
/etc/protocols - List the protocols that are installed on your machine
/etc/resolv.conf - Used to configure your machine as a DNS client
/usr/sbin/in.routed /var/logfilename - Allows you to log network problems
/etc/services - List of services and their well known services numbers
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf - Configuration file for sendmail
in.routed - Looks for routers that are running the router discovery protocol
svcadm - Allows you to start/stop services on system startup
tcp wrappers - Allows you to control access to services running on the machine
netstat - Displays network information
snoop - Allows you to view IP packets
/usr/sadm/admin/bin/dhcpmgr - GUI tool to configure DHCP
dhcpconfig - Used to administer a DHCP server
dhtadm - Used to add/delete/modify configuration options for your DHCP Server
pntadm - Used to manage your DHCP tables
ifconfig - Used to configure the network interface card
ifconfig interface dhcp start - Starts the dhcp client
ifconfig interface dhcp inform - Requests network information
ifconfig interface dhcp extend - Request a lease extension
ifconfig interface dhcp release - Stops the dhcp client
ifconfig interface dhcp drop - Stops the dhcp client on one interface
ifconfig interface dhcp ping - Tests the interface to see if it is under dhcp control
ifconfig interface dhcp status - View dhcp configuration status of the network interface
sys-unconfig - Removes the IP configuration from a machine. On reboot you will be asked
to resupply this information.
In addition to the Internet Protocol you also have the Transport protocols: UDP, TCP, SCTP and RTP. UDP-Lite is currently in the development stage.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol), TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) ride on top of the Internet Protocol. You use UDP when the packet may or may not get to its destination. You use TCP when you need to guarantee the delivery of a packet from one machine to another. You use SCTP when you find TCP too limiting. RTP is used when you need to transmit audio and video.
The IP address of the recipient determines how the packet is routed. If the address includes the network number of the local network, the packet goes directly to the host with that IP address. If the network number is not the local network, the packet goes to the router on the local network if one exists.
Solaris uses the file /etc/hostname6.interface at start up to automatically define network interfaces in the same way IPv4 uses /etc/hostname.interface. A minimum of one /etc/hostname.interface or /etc/hostname6.interface file should exist on the local machine. The Solaris installation program creates these files for you. For the file name, replace interface with the device name of the primary network interface.
The hostname in /etc/hostname.interface or /etc/hostname6.interface should match the name of the machine in the /etc/nodename file.
This file should contain one entry: the host name of the local machine. For example, on machine timbuktu, the file /etc/nodename would contain the entry timbuktu. Make sure that the hostname is fully qualified.
The ipnodes database contains the IPv6 addresses and host names of machines on your network. If you use the NIS, NIS+, or DNS name services (or LDAP as a name service), the ipnodes database is maintained in a database that is designated for host information.
There's a lot of information to cover concerning IPv6. If you understand all of the components of IPv6 and how they fit together, you'll be able to design networks and troubleshoot the problems that arise on them. The faster you can resolve an issue the sooner the rest of business can get back to doing their jobs.
The web pages that follow will use the following convention:
If a single RFC covers a topic, then the link will take you to that RFC. If it takes multiple RFC's to cover a topic, then another web page will show you all of the RFC's that pertain to that topic. The best place to learn how Sun put's the RFC's into use is http://docs.sun.com. While you're reading the documentation remember that on a Solaris system Differentiated Services is called IP Quality of Services.