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[Weaver]

I'm wondering if a mere mortal with no *nix expertise could set up a Raspberry Pi as a DHCPv6 server? Would need high-quality software module for this obviously.

Would any kitizens be up for some hand-holding too?

[loonylion]

raspi is simple enough but ive not touched dhcpv6 since I was at uni. IPv6 scares me 

I know I need to start getting into it.

[Weaver]

IPv6 scares me too. That's why I was determined to start using it all the time.mand now it represents a substantial fraction of my traffic. Indeed, I could go IPv6-only, by using Andrews and Arnold's protocol conversion services, NAT64 iirc.

[Weaver]

Do I need to just look out for any Linux software if the dhcpv6 server module is to run on Raspbian

[loonylion]

when I was at uni the only ipv6 capable dhcp server was radvd, but that may have changed now

[currytop]

I can't see any problem with a R-Pi running as a DHCP-6 server. But in your case why not just set it up on your Firebrick? I assume it currently provides your DNS resolution, maybe as a forwarder?

[Weaver]

The firebrick doesn't do dhcpv6 state full allocation. I would like to assign IPv6 addresses by MAC address mappings. The Firebrick can do this beautifully for IPv4, building a MAC to IPv4 mapping table, but not for IPv6. Maybe one day I can talk Rev6 into doing it, however failing that I'm stuck with IPv6 addresses that are random or MAC-derived.

[currytop]

I don't understand why you want to use DHCP to assign addresses from a fixed mapping table. If addresses are fixed then why not set hosts with static addresses?

I know this is a typical Usenet response, not answering the question you ask - sorry!   

I do use mapping for some hosts here but that's because I move them to other sites and still want the convenience of DHCP. Is that what you want to do?

[Weaver]

It turns out to be very easy and convenient to assign addresses from a map that is all in one place. Configuring some device like printers can be a real pain, involving walking about, and typing in an IPv6 address into some box that isn't very user-friendly is no fun. It has always worked very well for me in the past, using DHCP with IPv4 to manage everything centrally rather than having to go on tour.

[Weaver]

The last point you make is a perfect one, a laptop or phone moves from one LAN to another,N static manual addressing is dangerous to your health.

[Weaver]

With DHCP-assigned IPv4 addressing I assign firewall rules and thereby effectively permissions to certain privileged boxes. For example some devices, selected by their IPv4 addresses, are rate-limited, they only get a restricted amount if downstream and upstream, so that they can't hog the network when I'm trying to work. But at the moment they can get out of this restriction by using IPv6. Yes I know I could block IPv6 to/from them, but that is philosophically rubbishy.

[Weaver]

But my question was: does anyone know about solid DHCPv6 server software?

[currytop]

Pretty well all the service level software on Debian seems to be solid - as it is on other distros. So I would have thought the standard Debian (Raspbian) Wide-DHCPv6 package would work OK, but I haven't tried the v6 version personally. I've used the v4 version often and configure it manually through editing config files if that style of use is suitable for you. There are some dedicated router distros around that include DHCP and use a browser interface but typically expect an x86 base. Some require diy to compile an image for ARM/PPC/other hardware.

[currytop]

Just realised the standard linux ISC DHCP server I use does IPv6 as well! You do have to run two instances to provide both IPv4 & IPv6. This software is available in all Linux distributions I've come across so would be your first port of call. It's very solid. If you want it to inform a local instance of BIND (DNS server) of lease allocations it gets a bit more complicated.

[Weaver]

How does one configure it?