Cisco 500 series Administration Manual page 281

Configuring IP Information
Management and IP Interfaces
STEP 6
CAUTION
Cisco 500 Series Stackable Managed Switch Administration Guide
• Prefix Length—Length of the IPv4 prefix.
Click Apply. The IPv4 address settings are written to the Running Configuration
file.
When the system is in Native Stacking mode with a Backup Master present, it is
preferable to configure the IP address as a static address to prevent disconnecting
from the network during a Stacking Master switchover. This is because when the
backup master takes control of the stack, when using DHCP, it might receive a
different IP address than the one that was received by the stack's original master-
enabled unit.
Managing IPv6
The Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network-layer protocol for packet-
switched internetworks. IPv6 was designed to replace IPv4, the predominantly
deployed Internet protocol.
IPv6 introduces greater flexibility in assigning IP addresses because the address
size increases from 32-bit to 128-bit addresses. IPv6 addresses are written as
eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, for example
FE80:0000:0000:0000:0000:9C00:876A:130B. The abbreviated form, in which a
group of zeroes can be left out, and replaced with '::', is also acceptable, for
example, ::-FE80::9C00:876A:130B.
IPv6 nodes require an intermediary mapping mechanism to communicate with
other IPv6 nodes over an IPv4-only network. This mechanism, called a tunnel,
enables IPv6-only hosts to reach IPv4 services, and enables isolated IPv6 hosts
and networks to reach an IPv6 node over the IPv4 infrastructure.
Tunneling uses the ISATAP mechanism. This protocol treats the IPv4 network as a
virtual IPv6 local link, with mappings from each IPv4 address to a link local IPv6
address.
The switch detects IPv6 frames by the IPv6 Ethertype.
Defining IPv6 Global Configuration
The IPv6 Global Configuration page defines the frequency of the IPv6 ICMP error
messages generated by the switch.
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