Configuring IPv6 for instances and instance templates

Console

1. Go to the Create an instance page.

   Go to Create an instance

2. Enter a Name for the instance.

3. Select a Region that contains a subnet that has an IPv6 range configured.

4. Select a Zone.

5. Expand the Advanced options section.

6. Expand Networking, and do the following:

   1. In the Network interfaces section, expand the network interface to edit it.

   2. For Network and Subnetwork, select the network and subnetwork that you want to use.

      Select a subnet that has an IPv6 range configured. The IPv6 access type of the subnet determines whether the VM receives an internal IPv6 address or an external IPv6 address.

   3. For IP stack type, select IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack).

   4. For Primary internal IP, select one of the following:

      • Ephemeral to assign a new ephemeral IPv4 address
      • A reserved IPv4 address from the list
      • Static to assign a new static IPv4 address

   5. For External IPv4 address, select one of the following:

      • Ephemeral to assign a new ephemeral IPv4 address
      • None to not assign an external IPv4 address
      • A reserved IPv4 address from the list
      • Create new IP address to assign a new static IPv4 address.

   6. To finish modifying the network interface, click Done.

7. Continue with the VM creation process.

8. Click Create.

gcloud

Create an instance by using the gcloud compute instances create command.

gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \
  --subnet=SUBNET_NAME \
  --zone=ZONE \
  --stack-type=IPV4_IPV6

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_NAME: the name for the instance.
• SUBNET_NAME: the subnet to connect the instance to. The subnet must have an IPv6 subnet range.
• ZONE: the zone to deploy the instance in.

REST

1. Select an image. Make a note of the name of the image or image family and the name of the project containing the image.

2. Use the instances.insert method to create a VM from an image family or from a specific version of an OS image:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances
   

   Replace the following:

   • PROJECT_ID: ID of the project to create the VM in
   • ZONE: zone to create the VM in

   Example request body:

   {
    "machineType": "zones/MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
    "name": "INSTANCE_NAME",
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "subnetwork": "regions/REGION/subnetworks/SUBNET",
        "stackType": "IPV4_IPV6"
      }
    ],
    "disks": [
      {
        "initializeParams": {
          "sourceImage": "IMAGE_URI"
        },
        "boot": true
      }
    ],
   }
   

   Replace the following:

   • MACHINE_TYPE_ZONE: zone containing the machine type to use for the new VM
   • MACHINE_TYPE: machine type, predefined or custom, for the new VM. For example, n1-standard-1.
   • INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the new VM.
   • SUBNET: a subnet that has IPv6 configured.
   • REGION: the region of the subnet.

   • IMAGE_URI: the URI to the image that you want to use.

     For example, if you specify "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10", Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.

Console

1. Go to the VM instances page.

   Go to VM instances

2. Click the name of the instance that you want to assign an IPv6 address to.
3. From the instance details page, complete the following steps:
   1. Click Edit.
   2. In Network interfaces, expand the interface that you want to edit.
   3. Select the IP stack type: IPv4 only (single-stack) or IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack).
   4. Click Done.
4. Click Save.

gcloud

Update the stack type of a VM by using the gcloud compute instances network-interfaces update command

gcloud compute instances network-interfaces update INSTANCE_NAME \
  --stack-type=STACK_TYPE \
  --zone=ZONE

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance.
• ZONE: the zone that the instance is deployed in.
• STACK_TYPE: the stack type for the VM: IPV4_ONLY or IPV4_IPV6.

REST

Update the stack type of a VM by making a PATCH request to the instances.updateNetworkInterface method.

PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONEinstances/INSTANCE_NAME/updateNetworkInterface

Replace the following:

• PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project that contains the instance.
• ZONE: the zone that the instance is deployed in.
• INSTANCE_NAME: the name of the instance.

Example request body:

{
  "stackType": "STACK_TYPE",
}

Replace STACK_TYPE with the stack type for the VM: IPV4_ONLY or IPV4_IPV6.

gcloud

To create a regional or global instance template, use the gcloud compute instance-templates create command. If you want to create a regional instance template, you must use the --instance-template-region flag to specify the region for the instance template.

The following example creates a global instance template:

gcloud compute instance-templates create TEMPLATE_NAME \
    --subnet=SUBNET \
    --stack-type=IPV4_IPV6

Replace the following:

• TEMPLATE_NAME: the name for the template.
• SUBNET: a subnet that has an IPv6 subnet range.

REST

To create a regional instance template, use the regionInstanceTemplates.insert method, or, to create a global instance template, use the instanceTemplates.insert method.

The following example creates a global instance template:

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/instanceTemplates

Replace PROJECT_ID with the project ID.

Example request body:

{
  "name": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME"
  "properties": {
    "machineType": "MACHINE_TYPE",
    "networkInterfaces": [
      {
        "subnetwork": "regions/REGION/subnetworks/SUBNET",
        "stackType": "IPV4_IPV6",
      },
    ],
    "disks":
    [
      {
        "type": "PERSISTENT",
        "boot": true,
        "mode": "READ_WRITE",
        "initializeParams":
        {
          "sourceImage": "IMAGE_URI"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of the instance template.
• MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VMs. For example, n1-standard-1.
• SUBNET: a subnet that has an IPv6 subnet range.
• REGION: the region of the subnet.

• IMAGE_URI: the URI to the image that you want to use.

  For example, if you specify "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10", Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.

To learn more about request parameters, see the instanceTemplates.insert method.