[Lustre-devel] LNET and IPv6?

[Andreas Dilger]

On May 26, 2011, at 09:18, Nathan Rutman wrote:
> Does anyone have any ideas / plans for IPv6 support for Lustre / LNET?  Or does it remain an uninvestigated wishlist item?
> 
> This was part of the OpenSFS requirements gathering phase:
> Support for IPv6 requires a change in the NID format to accommodate a 128bit IPv6 address in the address-within-network field. This affects all protocol levels: LNDs, LNET and Lustre.

While I think there are a number of semi-interested parties, I don't think
anyone is actually working on this today.

There is a two-fold problem:
1) the less complex one is to change Lustre/LNET to handle the larger IPv6
   NIDs at compile time and get that working, but this breaks compatibility
2) the more complex one is to make an IPv6-capable Lustre work in some
   manner with older clients that don't understand it (e.g. IPv4-IPv6 LNET
   routers, different socklnds for each, or similar)

Of course, until #1 is done there is no way to know how hard #2 will be to
implement.  The earlier #1 is finished, it would be possible for many users
to upgrade to RPMs built with IPv6 support, but most of the sites that have
money to fund such work are interested in compatibility (#2) because they
cannot upgrade their entire infrastructure at one time.


Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger 
Principal Engineer
Whamcloud, Inc.