Requirements for customizing a virtual machine with IPv6-Only Networking

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware vSphere Foundation

Issue/Introduction

This article details requirements for configuring a virtual machine (VM) for an IPv6-only network, specifically by disabling IPv4 for the guest operating system.

Environment

VCF 9.1

Resolution

Prerequisites

• Ensure that the VCF 9.1.0 or later.
• Ensure the Guest OS is in the following supported list:
  
  
• Windows:
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 and later
  • Windows 7 SP1 and later
• Linux:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.10 or later
  • Oracle Linux 5.x or later
  • CentOS 5.x or later
  • Rocky Linux 8.x or later
  • AlmaLinux OS 8.x or later
  • Miracle Linux 8.x or later
  • Ubuntu 18.04 or later

 

Important Considerations

• Virtual machine customization with IPv6-only networking is supported through both the vSphere Web Services API (see vSphere Web Services SDK Programming Guide 9.1) and the vSphere Automation API (see vSphere Automation API Reference). In addition, IPv6-only customization is also supported through the vSphere Client user interface.
• When a Virtual machine is customized with IPv4 disabled, Windows APIPA(Automatic Private IP Addressing) or Linux IPv4 link-local addressing is also disabled.
• Please ensure your environment provides a functional IPv6 network. Proper configuration of IPv6 gateway, routes, and DNS requires IPv6 connectivity. If the network is unavailable, Instant Clone customization with IPv6-Only may time out.vmware 
• Cloud-init is not supported for IPv6-only customization. With IPv4 disabled, DataSourceVMware defaults network interfaces to DHCP