The Build Forge system can run on IPv6 and mixed IPv6/IPv4 networks
with some restrictions.
The Build Forge system can run on IPv6 networks and heterogeneous IPv4/IPv6
networks. Support is mostly transparent, but there are some requirements and
restrictions:
- Know the address configuration of machines where you install the Management
Console and agents
- The main requirement for IPv6 support is that your machines and network
are configured correctly to support IPv6. If there are network configuration
problems, then host names and addresses specified from within the Build Forge
system will not resolve correctly.
- Use the correct address format when entering IP addresses within Build
Forge
- There are only a few places within Build Forge where administrators or
users enter a host name or IP address:
- During installation, administrators specify a host name or IP address
that the Management Console uses to communicate with the license server (Standard
and Enterprise Editions) and the database.
- In the agent configuration (bfagent.conf file), there is an optional setting
to restrict connections to the agent to a particular address or range of addresses.
- Users enter a URL in a browser in order to view the Management Console
user interface. The URL consists of the host name or IP address of the machine
where the Management Console is running. For example, to access Management
Console installed on a machine named BFmachine that has both an
IPv4 and IPv6 address configured, a user could enter any of the following
in the web browser address bar:
- http://BFmachine/
- http://localhost/
- http://127.0.0.1/ (IPv4 loopback address)
- http://::127.0.0.1/, http://0:0:0:0:0:0:127.0.0.1/(IPv6
abbreviations of an IPv4 loopback address), or simply http://::1/ (IPv6
compressed notation for the loopback address)
The IPv4 and IPv6 address formats differ in format as well as length:
- IPv4 format: 32 bits, specified as four decimal-separated decimal values,
for example 255.255.255.255
- IPv6 format: 128 bits, specified as eight colon-separated hexadecimal
values, for example FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329. There are a number
of conventions for using the higher order fields. There are also rules for
abbreviation. Build Forge does not perform any interpretation of IP addresses,
they are passed directly to the network. Therefore any legal and valid abbreviation
should work. Please see other references for more information on IPv6 address
conventions.
- Put components that do not support IPv6 on a host machine with an IPv4
address
- The following components do not support IPv6. They must be installed on
a machine that has an IPv4 address.
- Rational License Server, the license server for Build Forge Standard and
Enterprise Editions
- DB2 database: the PHP database drivers do not yet support IPv6.
- MySQL database: the PHP database drivers do not yet support IPv6.
- Oracle database other than 11g: the PHP database drivers do not
yet support IPv6.
- Windows: due to a limitation in the way Apache binaries were compiled
and released by The Apache Foundation, the standard installation of Management
Console does not support IPv6 on Windows platforms.
To support IPv6, the
Apache source must be compiled using the flag -D APR_HAVE_IPV6.
At present the Windows binaries of Apache (2.2.8) have not been compiled with
this flag.
If you need IPv6 support for the Management Console on Windows
platforms, contact IBM Customer Support for Rational for assistance in replacing
the Apache binaries.