# Getting started with IPv6 networking This tutorial teaches you how to deploy your first ScyllaDB cluster with IPv6 networking. You’ll learn IPv6 networking concepts while setting up a working cluster. ## What you’ll learn In this tutorial, you’ll: - Understand what IPv6 networking means for ScyllaDB - Verify your Kubernetes cluster supports IPv6 - Deploy a ScyllaDB cluster with dual-stack networking - Verify your cluster is working correctly - Understand the configuration you created #### NOTE This tutorial uses **dual-stack** configuration (both IPv4 and IPv6) because it’s production-ready and well-tested. IPv6-only configurations are experimental. See [Production readiness](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/reference/ipv6-configuration.md#production-readiness) for details. ## Prerequisites Before you begin: ### Kubernetes cluster - **Dual-stack support**: Your cluster needs both IPv4 and IPv6 network ranges configured ### ScyllaDB - **ScyllaDB version**: 2024.1 or newer (recommended for IPv6 support) - **ScyllaDB Operator**: Already installed in your cluster ### Tools - `kubectl` configured to access your cluster - Basic familiarity with ScyllaDB and Kubernetes concepts ## Step 1: Verify IPv6 support Check if your cluster has at least one node that has an IPv6 address of type InternalIP: ```bash kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.addresses[?(@.type=="InternalIP")].address}' | tr ' ' '\n' | grep ':' ``` This command filters for IPv6 addresses. You can quickly tell if an IP address is IPv4 if it uses dots `.` as separators (e.g. 172.16.57.29); IPv6 addresses use colons `:` as separators (e.g. 2001:db8:1::1). **Example output for an IPv6-ready cluster:** ```default 2001:db8:1::1 2001:db8:1::2 2001:db8:1::3 ``` If you see IPv6 addresses in the output, then your cluster has some IPv6-enabled nodes. ## Step 2: Understand dual-stack networking Before deploying, let’s understand what dual-stack means: - **Kubernetes services**: Have both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses - **ScyllaDB nodes**: Communicate using a single IP family (IPv4 in this tutorial) - **Client connectivity**: Clients can discover services via either protocol This is useful when you have clients on different network types that all need to access your database. ## Step 3: Create your first IPv6-enabled cluster Download the example dual-stack configuration: ```shell kubectl apply -f=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scylladb/scylla-operator/v1.22/examples/ipv6/scylla-cluster-minimal-dual-stack.yaml ``` You can view the complete example configuration in the repository: [scylla-cluster-minimal-dual-stack.yaml](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/../../examples/ipv6/scylla-cluster-minimal-dual-stack.yaml) The key networking configuration is: ```yaml network: ipFamilyPolicy: PreferDualStack ipFamilies: - IPv4 # ScyllaDB will use IPv4 internally - IPv6 # Services will also be accessible via IPv6 dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst ``` Or deploy directly: ```shell kubectl create namespace scylla kubectl apply -f=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scylladb/scylla-operator/v1.22/examples/ipv6/scylla-cluster-minimal-dual-stack.yaml ``` ## Step 4: Watch the cluster deploy Monitor the cluster deployment: ```bash kubectl get pods -n scylla -w ``` Wait until all pods show `Running` status with `4/4` ready: ```default NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE IP NODE scylla-ipv6-tutorial-us-east-1-us-east-1a-0 4/4 Running 0 5m 10.244.1.5 worker-1 scylla-ipv6-tutorial-us-east-1-us-east-1a-1 4/4 Running 0 4m 10.244.2.6 worker-2 scylla-ipv6-tutorial-us-east-1-us-east-1a-2 4/4 Running 0 3m 10.244.3.7 worker-3 ``` ## Step 5: Verify IPv6 configuration Check that your services have both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses: ```bash kubectl get svc -n scylla -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,IP-FAMILIES:.spec.ipFamilies,POLICY:.spec.ipFamilyPolicy ``` **Expected output:** ```default NAME IP-FAMILIES POLICY scylla-ipv6-tutorial-client [IPv4 IPv6] PreferDualStack scylla-ipv6-tutorial-tutorial-dc-tutorial-rack-0 [IPv4 IPv6] PreferDualStack scylla-ipv6-tutorial-tutorial-dc-tutorial-rack-1 [IPv4 IPv6] PreferDualStack scylla-ipv6-tutorial-tutorial-dc-tutorial-rack-2 [IPv4 IPv6] PreferDualStack ``` The `IP-FAMILIES` column shows both IPv4 and IPv6, confirming dual-stack configuration. ## Step 6: Verify cluster health Check the cluster status using nodetool: ```bash kubectl exec -it scylla-ipv6-tutorial-tutorial-dc-tutorial-rack-0 -n scylla -c scylla -- nodetool status ``` **Expected output:** ```default Datacenter: tutorial-dc ======================= Status=Up/Down |/ State=Normal/Leaving/Joining/Moving -- Address Load Tokens Owns Host ID Rack UN 10.244.1.5 256 KB 256 ? a1b2c3d4-... tutorial-rack UN 10.244.2.6 256 KB 256 ? e5f6g7h8-... tutorial-rack UN 10.244.3.7 256 KB 256 ? i9j0k1l2-... tutorial-rack ``` All nodes should have status `UN` (Up/Normal). ## Step 7: Test client connectivity Let’s test connecting to the cluster via both IPv4 and IPv6: ```bash # Get the client service IP addresses kubectl get svc scylla-ipv6-tutorial-client -n scylla -o jsonpath='{.spec.clusterIPs}' | jq . ``` **Example output:** ```default [ "10.96.10.20", # IPv4 address "fd00:10:96::1234" # IPv6 address ] ``` Test connectivity with cqlsh: ```bash kubectl run -it --rm cqlsh --image=scylladb/scylla-cqlsh:latest --restart=Never -n scylla-test -- \ scylla-ipv6-tutorial-client.scylla.svc.cluster.local 9042 \ -e "SELECT cluster_name,broadcast_address FROM system.local;" ``` **Example output** ```default -------------------+--------------------- cluster_name | tutorial broadcast_address | 10.96.136.225 (1 rows) pod "cqlsh" deleted ``` ## Understanding your configuration Let’s break down what you configured: ### Network settings ```yaml network: ipFamilyPolicy: PreferDualStack # Use dual-stack if available ipFamilies: - IPv4 # First = ScyllaDB's internal protocol - IPv6 # Second = Additional service accessibility dnsPolicy: ClusterFirst # Essential for proper DNS resolution ``` **Key points:** - The **first** IP family (`IPv4`) determines what protocol ScyllaDB uses internally - The **second** IP family (`IPv6`) makes services accessible via IPv6 too - `PreferDualStack` falls back to single-stack if dual-stack isn’t available ## What’s next? Now that you have a working IPv6-enabled cluster, you can: - Learn how to [configure different IPv6 setups](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/deploy-scylladb/set-up-networking/ipv6/configure-dual-stack.md) (IPv6-only, different dual-stack configurations) - Understand [how IPv6 networking works](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/deploy-scylladb/set-up-networking/ipv6/ipv6-concepts.md) in ScyllaDB - Explore the [IPv6 configuration reference](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/reference/ipv6-configuration.md) for all available options - Learn how to [migrate existing clusters to IPv6](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/deploy-scylladb/set-up-networking/ipv6/migration.md) ## Clean up To remove the tutorial cluster: ```bash kubectl delete -f scylla-cluster-ipv6.yaml kubectl delete namespace scylla ``` ## Related documentation - [How to configure IPv6 networking](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/deploy-scylladb/set-up-networking/ipv6/configure-dual-stack.md) - [IPv6 networking concepts](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/deploy-scylladb/set-up-networking/ipv6/ipv6-concepts.md) - [IPv6 configuration reference](https://operator.docs.scylladb.com/v1.22/reference/ipv6-configuration.md)