This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
An IPv6 address is eight groups of sixteen bits. The expander shows the zeros you hid. The compressor hides them again. The validator says whether the text is an address at all.
2001:db8::/32 is documentation. A link-local fe80:: address is not a global plan. A unique-local address is not a public prefix.
Leading zeros in a group may be omitted. A double colon may be used once. Two double colons is not an address. Read the expanded form before you type the short form into a router.
You do not need a public prefix to learn this. Expand one documentation address and stop.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Paste one address you are allowed to use, or a documentation address.
- Expand it.
- Compress it.
- Confirm both forms match.
- Label it link-local, unique-local, documentation, or global.
- Do not configure a router in this hour.
Mistakes that outlive the command
IPv6 Addressing Basics goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- Two double colons.
- A link-local used as a global plan.
- 2001:db8:: applied as if it were yours.
- The short form typed without reading the long form.
Decisions to write down
One decision for IPv6 Addressing Basics: The expanded form was read. The compressed form matches. The type of address is labeled. And documentation space stayed in the note.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: Expanded and compressed forms match. The type is written. No production prefix was invented. And a second person can read the address aloud. If one of those fails, stop.
2001:db8::/32 is documentation.
Expand before you compress.Before you leave the device
IPv6 Addressing Basics ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
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