Tencent Cloud IPv6 Load Balancing Setup Guide

With the global exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 has become essential for network infrastructure. This article provides a comprehensive tutorial on setting up IPv6 load balancing on Tencent Cloud.

Prerequisites:

Available regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shanghai Finance, and Shenzhen Finance

Create a VPC with 2 cloud servers in one of the above regions

Register a domain name (e.g., www.qcloudipv6test.com.cn)

Step 1: Configure IPv6 Private Network

Log in to the VPC console, select the target VPC, and click "Edit CIDR" to obtain an IPv6 CIDR. Then, for the subnet, click "Get IPv6 CIDR" to assign IPv6 to the subnet. Finally, go to "IP and Network Interface" > "Elastic Network Interface", select the target ENI, go to "IPv6 Address Management", and click "Assign IP" to assign an IPv6 address to the cloud server.

Step 2: Configure IPv6 on Cloud Server and Deploy Nginx

Log in to the CVM console and complete IPv6 basic configuration. For CentOS 7.5, execute:

dhclient -6

ifconfig

Then deploy Nginx:

yum install nginx

service nginx restart

Verify Nginx is listening on IPv6:

netstat -tupln

Step 3: Create IPv6 Load Balancer Instance

Go to the CLB purchase page and configure: Billing mode: Pay-as-you-go, Region: Select from available regions, IP Version: IPv6, Carrier Type: BGP, Network: Select the VPC with IPv6 CIDR.

Step 4: Create IPv6 Load Balancer Listener

Create an HTTP/HTTPS listener, configure domain name, URL path, load balancing algorithm (weighted round robin), health check, and session persistence. Then bind the cloud servers to the listener.

Step 5: Add AAAA and A Records in DNS

In the DNS console, add AAAA record pointing to the IPv6 load balancer VIP, and A record pointing to the IPv4 load balancer VIP.

Step 6: Test IPv6 Load Balancing

Use an IPv6-capable client to access the domain or load balancer IPv6 address to verify the setup works correctly.

FAQ:

IPv6 and IPv4 load balancers can bind to the same cloud server if it has both IPv4 and IPv6 configured

Separate IPv6 and IPv4 load balancers improve operational efficiency and troubleshooting

Cloud DNS supports adding both AAAA and A records for the same domain

For dual-stack clients, IPv6 should be preferred; if IPv6 fails, fall back to IPv4

IPv6 public network quality is improving but currently has slightly higher latency than IPv4