Re: AWS Elastic IP architecture

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

> On Jun 2, 2015, at 5:49 AM, Matthew Kaufman <matthew () matthew at> wrote:
>
> On 6/1/2015 6:32 PM, Mark Andrews wrote:
> > In message <CAL9jLaaQUP1UzoKag3Kuq8a5bMcB2q6Yg=B_=1fFWxRN6K-bNA () mail gmail com
> > > , Christopher Morrow writes:
> > > On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 9:02 PM, Ca By <cb.list6 () gmail com> wrote:
> > > > On Monday, June 1, 2015, Mark Andrews <marka () isc org> wrote:
> > > > > In message
> > > > > <CAL9jLaYXCdfViHbUPx-=rs4vSx5mFECpfuE8b7VQ+Au2hCXpMQ () mail gmail com>
> > > > > , Christopher Morrow writes:
> > > > > > So... I don't really see any of the above arguments for v6 in a vm
> > > > > > setup to really hold water in the short term at least.  I think for
> > > > > > sure you'll want v6 for public services 'soon' (arguably like 10 yrs
> > > > > > ago so you'd get practice and operational experience and ...) but for
> > > > > > the rest sure it's 'nice', and 'cute', but really not required for
> > > > > > operations (unless you have v6 only customers)
> > > > > Everyone has effectively IPv6-only customers today.  IPv6 native +
> > > > > CGN only works for services.  Similarly DS-Lite and 464XLAT.
> > > ok, and for the example of 'put my service in the cloud' ... the
> > > service is still accessible over ipv4 right?
> > It depends on what you are trying to do.  Having something in the
> > cloud manage something at home.  You can't reach the home over IPv4
> > more and more these days as.  IPv6 is the escape path for that but
> > you need both ends to be able to speak IPv6.
>
> ...and for firewalls to not exist. Since they do, absolutely all the techniques required to "reach something at home" 
> over IPv4 are required for IPv6. This is on the "great myths of the advantages of IPv6" list.

IPv4 with NAT, you can open one host at home to remote access, or, in some cases, you can select different hosts by 
using the port number in lieu of the host name/address.

IPv6 — I add a permit statement to the firewall to allow the traffic in to each host/group of hosts that I want and I 
am done.

I do not see the above as being equal effort or as yielding equal results.

As such, I’d say that your statement gets added to the great myths of Matthew Kauffman rather than there being any myth 
about this being an IPv6 advantage.

I can assure you that it is MUCH easier for me to remote-manage my mother’s machines over their IPv6 addresses than to 
get to them over IPv4.
I live in California and have native dual-stack without NAT. She lives in Texas and has native dual-stack with NAT for 
her IPv4.

> IPv6 has exactly one benefit... there's more addresses. It comes with a whole lot of new pain points, and probably a 
> bunch of security nightmare still waiting to be discovered. And it for sure isn't free.

IPv6 comes with at least one design-advantage — More addresses.

However, more addresses, especially on the scale IPv6 delivers them comes with MANY benefits:

        1.      Simplified addressing
        2.      Better aggregation
        3.      Direct access where permitted
        4.      Elimination of NAT and its security flaws and disadvantages
        5.      Simplified topologies
        6.      Better sunbathing
        7.      Better network planning with sparse allocations
        8.      Simpler application code
        9.      Reduced complexity in:
                        Proxies
                        Applications
                        Firewalls
                        Logging
                        Monitoring
                        Audit
                        Intrusion Detection
                        Intrusion Prevention
                        DDoS mitigation
        10.     The ability to write software with hope of your codebase working for the next 10 years or more.

I’m sure there are other benefits as well, but this gives you at least 10.

There are those that would argue that other design advantages include:

        1.      Fixed length simplified header
        2.      Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
        3.      Mobile IP
        4.      A much cleaner implementation of IPSEC

I’m sure there are more, but this is a quick list off the top of my head.

Owen