IPv6 support
This product version introduces selective support for Internet Protocol V6 (IPv6). IPv6 is the next evolution in Internet Protocol beyond the IPv4 standard currently in use in most networks today. IPv6 client workload now can be distributed to back end application servers, and proxy server support is extended to new IPv6 clients and servers.
The key IPv6 enhancement is the expansion of the IP address space from 32 bits to 128 bits, enabling virtually unlimited IP addresses. This addressing capability, along with new functions enabling end-to-end security, improved mobility support, simplified address configuration and management, make IPv6 a critical component in the evolution of e-business and the next generation Internet.
The new IPv6 network support extends Load Balancer to IPv6 clients, enabling their workload to be distributed to back end WebSphere application servers for increased flexibility. With proxy server support for IPv6 clients and upstream server connections, you get added network reach and flexibility. For details, see the Edge Component documentation.
IPv6 addresses are supported in JMS connection factories, but require square brackets to distinguish the IPv6 address from the rest of the providerEndpoints string. This is because the colon separator ( : ) used by the providerEndpoints string is also used as the separator in IPv6 network addresses. The standard format for provider endpoints is host:port:chain, and an IPv6 address might appear as follows
2002:914:fc12:179:9:20:141:42Therefore, an IPv6 provider endpoint setting might be written as
2002:914:fc12:179:9:20:141:42:7276:BootstrapBasicMessagingAn IPv6 address can be of variable length; therefore, it is impossible to know where the IPv6 address ends and the port begins. The solution is to surround the IPv6 address with square brackets, as described in RFC2732 on the Internet Engineering Task Force Web site (http://www.ietf.org). For example, the previous providerEndpoints string becomes
[2002:914:fc12:179:9:20:141:42]:7276:BootstrapBasicMessagingThe following table summarizes the IPv6 support by WebSphere Application Server components and products bundled in WAS v6. In the table, Yes indicates that IPv6 is supported and No indicates that IPv6 is not supported.
Table 1. IPv6 support within WAS Product or component Windows 2003 AIX Solaris Linux HP-UX iSeries z/OS WebSphere Application Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes IBM HTTP Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes WebSphere plug-ins Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Load Balancer (Edge component v6.0.1) No No No No No Not applicable Not applicable Load Balancer (Edge component v6.0.2) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Not applicable Not applicable Caching Proxy Server (Edge component v6.0.1) No No No No No Not applicable Not applicable Caching Proxy Server (Edge component v6.0.2) No No No No No Not applicable Not applicable
Related concepts
JavaMail support for IPv6 Related reference