Why would I need to disable Network Helper when configuring an IPv6?
Linode
Linode Staff
I am going to statically configure a new IPv6 address and the Network Helper documentation states that:
Be aware that Network Helper configures only IPv4 addressing; your Linode’s IPv6 address is assigned by SLAAC.
So I guess I’m confused as to why the Static IP configuration documentation is telling me I need to disable it.
1 Reply
jecochard
Linode Staff
Hey there,
That is a great point, and I can definitely see why disabling Network Helper seems counter-intuitive and unnecessary.
Network Helper is a host side service that automatically sets your static IPv4 address and the gateway of your Linode by detecting the distribution that is booting and modifying the appropriate configuration file.
For reference, we have a list of which files are modified and how when Network Helper is Enabled.
When you boot your Linode with Network Helper it will revert back to its default settings, so if something has been manually added to these configuration files, they will be overwritten by Network Helper since the additions were not assigned at the host level.
In our guide on Static IP Configuration You will see that the first step is to disable Network Helper for this exact reason.
Since additional IPv6 pools are not assigned via SLAAC, the manual addition of the static IP addresses to your network configurations are susceptible to being undone by Network Helper.
Hope this helps clarify the way Network Helper interacts with your Linode's configurations.
-Josh