Configure IPv6 for Ubuntu 16 instances in Lightsail - Amazon Lightsail
PrerequisitesConfigure IPv6 on a Ubuntu 16 instance

Configure IPv6 for Ubuntu 16 instances in Lightsail

All instances in Amazon Lightsail have a public and a private IPv4 address assigned to them by default. You can optionally enable IPv6 for your instances to have a public IPv6 address assigned to them. For more information, see IP addresses and Enabling or disabling IPv6 in Amazon Lightsail.

After you enable IPv6 for an instance that uses the Ubuntu 16 blueprint, you must perform an additional set of steps to make the instance aware of its IPv6 address. In this guide, we show you the additional steps that you must perform for Ubuntu 16 instances.

Prerequisites

Complete the following prerequisites if you haven't already:

  • Create a Ubuntu 16 instance in Lightsail. For more information, see Create an instance.

  • Enable IPv6 for your Ubuntu 16 instance. For more information, see Enable or disable IPv6.

    Note

    New Ubuntu instances created on or after January 12, 2021, have IPv6 enabled by default when they are created in the Lightsail console. You must complete the following steps in this guide to configure IPv6 on your instance even if IPv6 was enabled by default when you created your instance.

Configure IPv6 on a Ubuntu 16 instance

Complete the following procedure to configure IPv6 on a Ubuntu 16 instance in Lightsail.

  1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

  2. Important

    The Lightsail browser-based SSH/RDP clients only accept IPv4 traffic. Use a third-party client to SSH or RDP into your instance over IPv6. For more information, see Connect to your instances.

    In the Instances section of the Lightsail home page, locate the Ubuntu 16 instance that you wish to configure, and choose the browser-based SSH client icon to connect to it using SSH.

    Browser-based SSH client icon in the Lightsail home page.

  3. After you're connected to your instance, enter the following command to view the IP addresses configured on your instance.

    ip addr

    You will see a response similar to one of the following examples:

    • If your instance does not recognize its IPv6 address, then you will not see it listed in the response. You should continue to complete steps 4 through 9 of this procedure.

      IPv6 not configured on the instance.

    • If your instance does recognize its IPv6 address, then you will see it listed in the response with a scope global as shown in this example. You should stop here; you do not need to complete steps 4 through 9 of this procedure because your instance is already configure to recognize its IPv6 address.

      IPv6 configured on the instance.

  4. Enter the following command to open the interfaces configuration file using Vim.

    sudo vim /etc/network/interfaces

  5. Press I to enter insert mode in Vim.

  6. Add the following line of text to the end of the file.

    iface eth0 inet6 dhcp

    The file will look like the following when done:

    Interfaces configuration file on the instance.

  7. Press the Esc key to exit insert mode in Vim, then type :wq! and press Enter to save your edits (write) and quit Vim.

  8. Enter the following command to restart the networking service of your instance.

    sudo service networking restart

    You might need to wait a few more minutes to allow your instance to recognize its IPv6 address after you restart the networking service of your instance.

  9. Enter the following command to view the IP addresses configured on your instance, and confirm that it is now recognizing its assigned IPv6 address.

    ip addr

    You will see a response similar to the following example. If your instance does recognize its IPv6 address, then you will see it listed in the response with a label of scope global as shown in this example.

    IPv6 configured on the instance.