I am investigating mechanisms to allow the migration of an IPv4/MPLS network, carrying VPNs, to use IPv6. I have a core of P routers, running IOS 12.4, connecting to PE routers, also running 12.4. I am using OSPF as the IGP, with iBGP in the core. I have static routing defined between the PEs and the CEs, mostly because it's simple and not the area of interest. I have two CE routers, one on VRF "Red" and one on VRF "Blue", on each PE. I can exchange IPv4 data between the CEs on VRF Red, and between the CEs on VRF Blue, but not between Red and Blue....what I am describing here is pretty much a standard, multi-VPN MPLS installation.
Now I want to update the network to support IPv4 and IPv6. I based my changes on 6PE, so added config to the PEs only to enable IPv6 (with IPv6 addresses added to the CEs and the CE-PE links), and I can now see from "sho bgp ipv6 uni" that the PEs are learning unicast prefixes from MP-ibgp, and "sho ipv6 cef <address> det" shows the forwarding table is being built, so I'm happy that the IPv6 addresses are advertised correctly on each PE.
Now here's the problem. I can't exchange IPv6 data (I know 6PE doesn't handle ICMP well, so I'm using telnet rather than ping between CEs to test, but whereas telnet to an IPv4 address works, telnet to an IPv6 address doesnt). I'm running VRFs, and I want to allow them to operate for IPv6 as well as IPv4, but I don't think they are, and lots of documentation suggest that I should be entering something like the following in my PEs:
!
ip vrf Red
rd 1:100
route-target export 1:100
route target import 1:100
address-family ipv4
exit-address-family
!
address-family ipv6
exit-address-family
IOS 12.4 won't accept the "address-family" statements in that context, but I can't see another way to get the vrf to accept both address families....
Have I got the commands completely wrong, or is the "address family" syntax in the vrf context only available in IOS XR, or some special version of IOS?
Any comments or suggestions would be most welcome!
Jim
