How do I decode IPv6 addresses in Linode Manager

I had a pool of IPv6 addresses assigned to my Linode. The documentation says I should see a range of addresses, but I see this under the Remote Access tab:

Public IP Pools    2600:3c03:e000:0049::/64 routed to 2600:3c03::f03c:91ff:fe70:ce00 

I understand the second number is the IPv6 of my Linode and that the first number is the beginning of the pool. I don't understand what the IP addresses available to me are. Would they be something like:

2600:3c03:e000:49::1/64
2600:3c03:e000:49::2/64
2600:3c03:e000:49::3/64

and so on to 2600:3c03:e000:49:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff ? That would mean I have 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 addresses available to me which seems like a lot more than a lot. The Linode blog on this issues says I should be getting 4,096 addresses.

What am I not understanding correctly?

3 Replies

It looks like you got one of the routed subnets mentioned in the IPv6 FAQ but the manager is referring to it as a pool. Looks like some language inconsistency that could be fixed up.

That is standard notation for a subnet. /64 means the first 64 bits of the (128-bit) IP address are the network address, and the rest (in this case, 64 bits) are the host address. You've got the full range of host addresses at your disposal.

It is a lot, but it is the smallest commonly-used subnet size: MAC addresses formatted in EUI-64 notation fit very nicely into a /64.

Thanks, nivex and hoopycat. Your post helped me figure out what the actual addresses available to me are.

To summarize for anyone who happens to find this thread useful:

  • Linode can assign you a /64 subnet, which shows in the manager as I noted in my original post

  • That subnet makes 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 addresses available to you. They range from 0000:0000:0000:0001 to ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff. The notation is hexadecimal.

  • To specify the address, take the first half of the address (the part Linode gives you, in my case 2600:3c03:e000:0049) and add one of the the available subnet addresses.

  • Example: 2600:3c03:e000:0049:0000:0000:0001 (can also be written as 2600:3c03:e000:49::1)

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