What is ipv6 route Command? – Brief Explanation

If you learn how to configure a static route for IPv4 then you can easily configure and understand the IPv6 static routes. The configuration and syntax for IPv6 static routes are similar to IPv4 static routes. There is only a minor difference between IPv4 and IPv6 static routes. The static routes for IPv6 are configured using the ipv6 route command in global configuration mode. The common syntax for the ipv6 route command is following:

Router(config)# ipv6 route ipv6-prefix/prefix-length { ipv6-address |exit-interface }

The parameter of the command is mostly identical to the IPv4 version of the command. We can configure the following types of the route using ipv6 route command:

  • Standard IPv6 static route – This is the same as standard IPv4 routing.
  • Default IPv6 static route – This is also the same as the default static ipv4 route
  • Floating IPv6 static route – This is a floating static route also the same to an ipv4 floating route.
  • Summary IPv6 static route – this route is also the same as the summary ipv4 static route.

To configure ipv6 routing the ipv6 unicast-routing must be configured to enable the router to forward IPv6 packets. The parameter description of ipv6 routing command is the following:

Ipv6-prefix – This is the first parameter. It specifies the destination network address that required adding into the routing table.

prefix-length – prefix length of the remote network to add into the routing table.

Ipv6-address – This is the IP address of the next-hop router. This creates recursive route lookup.

Exit-Interface –  This is the exit interface to forward packets to the destination network also referred to as directly connected static route. Typically this is used when connecting in a point-to-point configuration.

Enable ipv6 Routing on the Router

Enabling ipv6 unicast routing on the router is important. Without enabling  ipv6 unicast ipv6 static routing is not possible, the enabling process is following.

  • Router0>enable
  • Router0#configure terminal
  • Router0(config)#ipv6 unicast routing
  • Router0(config)#exit
  • Router0# wr
  • Building configuration…
  • [OK]
  • Router0>