Resolving case F2H-773 CentOS Networking in the DE region

This relates to CentOS 7 in the DE region only. If you are using any other OS like Debian, Ubuntu, AlmaLinux or CentOS 8+ you can order an IPv6 at signup.

Case 773 has now been open for almost a year and we have been unable to find a resolution to the problem. The issue was with older versions of Cloudinit not recognising the static6 variable during boot. This caused the network configuration to fail. Unfortunately, there are no newer versions of Cloudinit for CentOS 7 and there will be no official fix from the developers of Cloudinit or CentOS.

In other regions of the network we use DHCP servers as a fallback position should Cloudinit fail. The instance will contact the DHCP server to get the correct networking. In Germany, we do not use DHCP servers because we use a different network configuration. It’s not possible to run a DHCP server on the configuration we use in this region.

The Resolution

In the DE region, we will now provide all services without an IPv6 automatically. You can still select a free IPv6 address on the order form but if you are using CentOS 7 you should leave this set to “None”. If you select an IPv6 and CentOS 7 at signup, this will cause the instance to boot incorrectly.

Order an IPv6

Once you have your instance. From your client area select “Services > View Addons” and order the “Free IPv6” addon. An IPv6 will then be assigned to your instance and this can be configured in the usual way.

How to configure IPv6 in CentOS 7

Because there is no route to upgrade between versions and the short lifespan of CentOS versions, F2H no longer recommends CentOS as an OS to be used in a production environment. We advise, where possible to use Ubuntu, Debian or AlmaLinux as these provide a long term update policy.