IPv6 Mandates: Choosing a Transition Strategy, Preparing Transition Plans, and Executing the Migration of a Network to IPv6

Chapter 14. Understanding That Your Network Isn't New

	One faces the future with one's past.
	--Pearl S. Buck

Congratulations. I'll assume that because you've reached this section of the book, you've managed to finish at least your first IPv6 transition. You might have thought that with all the hype when you started this process, you would have a brand-new shiny network by the time it was all finished. Looking around your data center, you'll probably notice some boxes that are less dusty than others. Much of the equipment, however, especially if you had been upgrading it fairly regularly before you made this transition, probably looks a lot like it did before the transition began. The point of this chapter is to remind you that, even though you've learned a lot about all the new things you have to do and to look out for with IPv6, the old things that you've been doing and looking out for are still there.

What You'll Learn

This chapter serves as a refresher or reminder of security and other issues that you should consider during and after your IPv6 transition. Specifically, because other chapters covered IPv6 issues, this chapter covers the issues that were applicable to your pre-transition network and are still applicable to your post-transition network. To keep an IPv6 flavor to things, methods for performing those maintenance functions using the benefits of IPv6 are also discussed.

Welcoming IPv6 into Network Operations

A better heading for this section might have been "Shoving IPv6 ...