[Triumf-linux-managers] HEP software - IPv6 gap analysis

[Andrew Daviel]

If you create or maintain software that uses networking (TCP/IP, UDP), 
please read on.

If you don't use any software that uses network connections, apart from
standard stuff like email and web browsing and SSH, or don't 
undertand any of this, feel free to stop reading now :-)

   ------------------------------------

It was suggested at HEPiX this morning that we (the HEP community) need 
to do a gap analysis to figure out what software will break when we 
transition to IPv6. (New IPv4 address space is due to run out globally 
next year, and DOE labs in the US have a directive to implement IPv6 "by 2013")

Recent operating systems (Linux, Vista and later) and popular software 
such as Firefox are all IPv6 ready. It's the home-grown code, scripts and 
documentation that may have issues.

The presence of "AF_INET" in source code with no corresponding "AF_INET6" 
is an indication that network code may not be IPv6 ready. Similarly, 
scripts which use regex like "[\d]+\.[\d]+\.[\d]+\.[\d]+" to match 
addresses such as "142.90.100.150" or GUIs that cannot handle 
numeric addresses such as "2607:f8f0:660::8e5a:6496" are not IPv6 ready.


Please let me know if you are aware of any software that we should be 
concerned about. (We should not be writing any new code that is not IPv6 
capable, or installing anything that does not have at least a committed 
upgrade path).


TRIUMF itself is unlikely to run out of IPv4 for a long time, so there's 
no real concern about software that only runs onsite. It's more an issue 
with software that is accessed over the Internet, or auto-updates from 
the Internet.


DOE mandate: 
http://www.cio.gov/Documents/IPv6MemoFINAL.pdf

--
Andrew Daviel, TRIUMF, Canada
Tel. +1 (604) 222-7376  (Pacific Time)
Network Security Manager