How to Enable IPv6 on Droplets

On Ubuntu 18.04, open the /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml configuration file in a text editor and make the following changes:

• In the eth0 stanza, under addresses:, add the Droplet’s IPv6 address on a new line followed by the netmask value, /64.

• In the eth0 stanza, on a new line, add gateway6 and the gateway address from the Droplet’s IPv6 networking page.

• In the nameservers stanza, add two lines for IPv6 name servers, 2001:4860:4860::8844 and 2001:4860:4860::8888.

The file looks like this when you’re done:

    
        
            
network:
    version: 2
    ethernets:
        eth0:
            addresses:
            - substitute_your_primary_ipv6_address/64
            - 203.0.113.213/20
            - 192.0.2.11/16
        gateway4: 206.189.208.1
        gateway6: substitute_your_ipv6_gateway
        match:
            macaddress: 5e:5x:5a:2m:8p:le
        nameservers:
            addresses:
                - 67.207.67.2
                - 67.207.67.3
                - 2001:4860:4860::8844
                - 2001:4860:4860::8888
                search: []
        set-name: eth0

        
    

To locate your Droplet’s IPv6 address and gateway address in the control panel, click Droplets, then click the Droplet’s name from the list. From the Droplet’s page, click Networking in the side menu. The Public Network section lists your Droplet’s IPv6 information.

Once you’ve edited and saved the file, run the following command to check the configuration’s syntax and temporarily apply the network changes:

sudo netplan apply --debug

If you receive the error Cannot call Open vSwitch: ovsdb-server.service is not running., you need to install the openvswitch-switch-dpdk package on the Droplet. Open vSwitch is a virtual switch licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. It helps more efficiently forward packets via the kernel space data path. Run sudo apt-get install openvswitch-switch-dpdk to install the package and then run netplan apply again.

On Ubuntu 14.04 and Debian 10/11, open the /etc/network/interfaces configuration file in a text editor.

Add the entire stanza below, substituting the substitute_your_primary_ipv6_address variable with your Droplet’s IPv6 address, and the substitue_your_ipv6_gateway variable with your Droplet’s gateway address:

    
        
            
iface eth0 inet6 static
	hwaddress c6:45:b9:90:08:4b
	address   substitute_your_primary_ipv6_address/64
	gateway   substitue_your_ipv6_gateway

        
    

Once you’ve edited and saved the file, run the following command to check the configuration’s syntax and temporarily apply the network changes:

sudo systemctl restart networking

On FreeBSD, open the /etc/network/interfaces configuration file in a text editor.

Add the entire stanza below, substituting the address variable for your Droplet’s IPv6 address, and the gateway variable for your Droplet’s gateway address:

    
        
            
iface eth0 inet6 static
    address substitute_your_primary_ipv6_address
    netmask 64
    gateway substitute_your_ipv6_gateway
    autoconf 0
    dns-nameservers 2001:4860:4860::8844 2001:4860:4860::8888 209.244.0.3

        
    

Warning

If your configuration file has syntax errors, it may disrupt connectivity or lock you out of your Droplet. Please ensure your configuration file is correct before proceeding. Currently, you can only access FreeBSD via ssh. However, when enabling IPv6 via ssh, you cannot reset network or routing to verify your syntax without terminating your connection to the Droplet.

On Fedora, use the Network Manager’s CLI to add the new IPv6 route to the Droplet’s network configuration.

To do this, first add the Droplet’s IPv6 address, followed by its /64 netmask value, to the eht0 interface:

nmcli connection modify "cloud-init eth0" ipv6.address <your-ipv6-address>/64

Then add the Droplet’s IPv6 gateway address to the configuration:

nmcli connection modify "cloud-init eth0" ipv6.gateway <your-gateway-address>

Lastly, add DigitalOcean’s DNS servers to the configuration:

nmcli connection modify "cloud-init eth0" ipv6.dns "2001:4860:4860::8844 2001:4860:4860::8888"

Once you have added all of the Droplet’s IPv6 information into the network configuration, restart the eth0 interface.

nmcli connection up "cloud-init eth0"

On CentOS 7/8/9, Rocky Linux 8/9, and Almalinux 8/9 open the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 configuration file in a text editor.

Add the following block, substituting the primary_ipv6_address variable with your Droplet’s IPv6 address, and the ipv6_gateway variable with your Droplet’s gateway address.

    
        
            
IPV6ADDR=primary_ipv6_address/64
IPV6INIT=yes
IPV6_AUTOCONF=no
IPV6_DEFAULTGW=ipv6_gateway
IPV6_FORCE_ACCEPT_RA=no

        
    

To locate your Droplet’s IPv6 address and gateway address in the control panel, click Droplets, then click the Droplet’s name from the list. From the Droplet’s page, click Networking in the menu on the left. The Public Network section lists your Droplet’s IPv6 information.

Once you’ve edited and saved the file, run the following command to check the configuration’s syntax and temporarily apply the network changes:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service