Deploying IPv6 in a datacenter (Was: Awful quiet?)

Wed Dec 21 15:33:24 UTC 2005

> 8) Once we got everything on the network and server side ready for 
> and usable on IPv6 we discovered that a lot of our client's 
> applications just had no idea what to do with IPv6 connections. Many 
> PHP applications broke because they expected $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] 
> to fit within 15 characters at most. Databases had to have their 
> columns widened (if they were storing the address as text), or 
> functionality had to be rewritten if they were storing IPs as 32 bit 
> integers. Web server log analyzers claimed that the log was 
> "corrupted" if it had an IPv6 address in it. Lots and lots of 
> application logic just wasn't IPv6 aware at all, and either had 
> serious cosmetic problems with displaying IPv6 addresses, or simply 
> didn't work when an IPv6 address was encountered.

Just imagine what it will be like if the idea of
sticking a decimal point into 32 bit AS numbers
ends up getting deployed. 

--Michael Dillon