Suse Linux ( SLES10 ) IPv6 Configuration

How do I configure IPv6 networking under SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES v10.2) or OpenSuse Linux by Novell?

IPv6 support under YaST is not upto date. You need to manually edit the configuration files. This is NOT recommended as YaST may get confused later on.

SLES10 IPv6 Configuration From The Command Line

Use the following command to set new IPv6 address using ip command under Suse Linux.

Our Sample IPv6 Setup

• IPv6 IP : 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0002/64
• IPv6 Default Router IP : 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0001

Task: Adding An IPv6 Address

Type the following command:
ip -6 address add {IPv6-Address}/{NetMask} dev {device-name}
To add 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0002/64 IP to eth0, enter:
# ip -6 address add 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0002/64 dev eth0

Task: Adding A Default Route

Type the following command:
ip -6 route add default via {IP6-Router-IP} dev {device-name}
Add a default IPv6 router IP 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0001, enter:
# ip -6 route add default via 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0001 dev eth0

Task: Display your IPv6 IP addresses configuration

Type the following command:
# ip -6 address show dev eth0
To review your IPv6 routing table, enter:
# ip -6 route show

Task: Testing your IPv6 Configuration

Type the following command:
# ping6 ipv6.google.com
# ping6 www.cyberciti.biz

Sample output:

PING6(56=40+8+8 bytes) 2607:f0d0:3001:9::2 --> 2607:f0d0:1002:11::4

16 bytes from 2607:f0d0:1002:11::4, icmp_seq=0 hlim=60 time=34.481 ms

16 bytes from 2607:f0d0:1002:11::4, icmp_seq=1 hlim=60 time=34.207 ms

16 bytes from 2607:f0d0:1002:11::4, icmp_seq=2 hlim=60 time=33.994 ms

Persistence IPv6 Configuration

Above commands will not keep IPv6 configuration across reboots unless the configuration files are updated accordingly. You need to update the following IPv6 configurations under SLES / OpenSuse Linux:

• eth0 IPv6 configuration file : /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-${ETHIDFILE}
• Default IPv6 routing configuration file : /etc/sysconfig/network/routes

You can find out the value of ETHIDFILE by typing the following command:
# ip link show dev eth0 | awk '/link/{ print $2 }'
# ETHIDFILE=$(ip link show dev eth0 | awk '/link/{ print $2 }')
Now, open configuration file, enter:
# cp /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-${ETHIDFILE} /root/ifcfg-eth-id-${ETHIDFILE}.bak
vi /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-${ETHIDFILE}
Add configuration as follows:

LABEL_0='0'

IPADDR_0='2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0002'

PREFIXLEN_0='64'

Save and close the file. Now, update default IPv6 routing:
# cp /etc/sysconfig/network/routes /root/routes.bak
# echo 'default 2607:f0d0:1002:0011:0000:0000:0000:0001 - -' >> /etc/sysconfig/network/routes
Finally, restart the networking under SLES10:
# service network restart
Test your setup, enter:
# ping6 www.cyberciti.biz
# ping6 ipv6.google.com

FTP Error code

# Description

110 Restart marker reply. In this case, the text is exact and not left to the particular implementation; it must read: MARK yyyy = mmmm where yyyy is User-process data stream marker, and mmmm server's equivalent marker (note the spaces between markers and "=").

120 Service ready in nnn minutes.

125 Data connection already open; transfer starting.

150 File status okay; about to open data connection.

200 Command okay.

202 Command not implemented, superfluous at this site.

211 System status, or system help reply.

212 Directory status.

213 File status.

214 Help message.On how to use the server or the meaning of a particular non-standard command. This reply is useful only to the human user.

215 NAME system type. Where NAME is an official system name from the list in the Assigned Numbers document.

220 Service ready for new user.

221 Service closing control connection.

225 Data connection open; no transfer in progress.

226 Closing data connection. Requested file action successful (for example, file transfer or file abort).

227 Entering Passive Mode (h1,h2,h3,h4,p1,p2).

230 User logged in, proceed. Logged out if appropriate.

250 Requested file action okay, completed.

257 "PATHNAME" created.

331 User name okay, need password.

332 Need account for login.

350 Requested file action pending further information

421 Service not available, closing control connection.This may be a reply to any command if the service knows it must shut down.

425 Can't open data connection.

426 Connection closed; transfer aborted.

450 Requested file action not taken.

451 Requested action aborted. Local error in processing.

452 Requested action not taken. Insufficient storage space in system.File unavailable (e.g., file busy).

500 Syntax error, command unrecognized. This may include errors such as command line too long.

501 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.

502 Command not implemented.

503 Bad sequence of commands.

504 Command not implemented for that parameter.

530 Not logged in.

532 Need account for storing files.

550 Requested action not taken. File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access).

551 Requested action aborted. Page type unknown.

552 Requested file action aborted. Exceeded storage allocation (for current directory or dataset).

553 Requested action not taken. File name not allowed.

FTP Commands

?	to request help or information about the FTP commands
ascii	to set the mode of file transfer to ASCII (this is the default and transmits seven bits per character)
binary	to set the mode of file transfer to binary (the binary mode transmits all eight bits per byte and thus provides less chance of a transmission error and must be used to transmit files other than ASCII files)
bye	to exit the FTP environment (same as quit)
cd	to change directory on the remote machine
close	to terminate a connection with another computer
	close brubeck	closes the current FTP connection with brubeck, but still leaves you within the FTP environment.
delete	to delete (remove) a file in the current remote directory (same as rm in UNIX)
get	to copy one file from the remote machine to the local machine
	get ABC DEF	copies file ABC in the current remote directory to (or on top of) a file named DEF in your current local directory.
	get ABC	copies file ABC in the current remote directory to (or on top of) a file with the same name, ABC, in your current local directory.
help	to request a list of all available FTP commands
lcd	to change directory on your local machine (same as UNIX cd)
ls	to list the names of the files in the current remote directory
mkdir	to make a new directory within the current remote directory
mget	to copy multiple files from the remote machine to the local machine; you are prompted for a y/n answer before transferring each file
	mget *	copies all the files in the current remote directory to your current local directory, using the same filenames. Notice the use of the wild card character, *.
mput	to copy multiple files from the local machine to the remote machine; you are prompted for a y/n answer before transferring each file
open	to open a connection with another computer
	open brubeck	opens a new FTP connection with brubeck; you must enter a username and password for a brubeck account (unless it is to be an anonymous connection).
put	to copy one file from the local machine to the remote machine
pwd	to find out the pathname of the current directory on the remote machine
quit	to exit the FTP environment (same as bye)
rmdir	to to remove (delete) a directory in the current remote directory

NFS Stale File Handle error and solution

Sometime NFS can result in to weird problems. For example NFS mounted directories sometimes contain stale file handles. If you run command such as ls or vi you will see an error:
$ ls
.: Stale File Handle

First let us try to understand the concept of Stale File Handle. Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition book defines filehandles as follows (a good book if you would like to master NFS and NIS):
A filehandle becomes stale whenever the file or directory referenced by the handle is removed by another host, while your client still holds an active reference to the object. A typical example occurs when the current directory of a process, running on your client, is removed on the server (either by a process running on the server or on another client).

So this can occur if the directory is modified on the NFS server, but the directories modification time is not updated.

How do I fix this problem?

a) The best solution is to remount directory from the NFS client using mount command:
# umount -f /mnt/local
# mount -t nfs nfsserver:/path/to/share /mnt/local

First command (umount) forcefully unmount a disk partition /mnt/local (NFS).

(b) Or try to mount NFS directory with the noac option. However I don't recommend using noac option because of performance issue and Checking files on NFS filesystem referenced by file descriptors (i.e. the fcntl and ioctl families of functions) may lead to inconsistent result due to the lack of consistency check in kernel even if noac is used.