Jim Laurent's Weblog

The next update of Sun's open source Solaris 10 (tentatively named 8/07) has completed its certification for the IPv6 logo program.  This certification was completed by the Univ. of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab.

The certification document is a mind-numbing 298 pages of tests for every possible networking capability related to IPv6.

Earlier versions of Solaris 10 also completed the "MoonV6" phase I and II trials sponsored by the US DoD and UNH.  However, just because Solaris 10 has completed these certifications doesn't mean that earlier versions of Solaris aren't IPv6 capable.

What does it mean to be IPv6 capable or compliant?

That's a good question because the US Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs) now require:

1. Adding a new paragraph (A)(2) in FAR 7.105 (b)(4)(ii) to ensure 
agency planners comply with the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) 
capability requirements as a part of acquisition planning;
    2. Adding paragraph (e) to FAR 12.202 to state that requirements 
documents for information technology shall include Internet Protocol 
Version 6 (IPv6) capable products and services; and
    3. Adding paragraph (e) to FAR 39.101 to state when acquiring 
information technology, agencies shall include the appropriate 
requirements for Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) capable products 
and services, and for agencies to establish procedures for granting 
exceptions.

They don't define, however, what it means to be capable.  They don't reference specific standards or protocols. 

Solaris has supported IPv6 since it was first introduced in Solaris 8 in 2000 and has been adding standards and features throughout the development of Solaris 8, 9 and 10.   IPv6 consists of a broad collection of IETF RFCs that define various networking capabilities and features.  This collection of standards is constantly evolving and expanding as requirements change over time.  Just because you don't support every one yet doesn't mean that your platform is NOT IPv6 capable.

Why should you care?

IPv6 is the next generation of IP networking standards and has been mandated by the US DoD, Civilian Agencies as well as governments and commercial customers around the globe.  Sun has been a leader in developing and supporting IP standards ever since we included TCP/IP and Ethernet interfaces in our first workstation in 1982.  With Solaris 10, we provide a highly robust, scalable platform for IPv6 deployments that runs on Sparc, Intel and AMD based platforms ranging from laptop computers to 144 processor core super servers.

First introduced over 7 years ago, Sun's IPv6 capabilities have improved and expanded through three generations of Solaris. Solaris IPv6 capability is only part of our industry leading networking support in Solaris 10.  Soon to be added will be our "Crossbow" network virtualization technology now being developed as part of OpenSolaris.

Finally, if you would like to try out Solaris or OpenSolaris, they are available for download and free use in test, development and production environments.