How to configure RIPNG on Cisco IOS Router

RIPNG is the exact same protocol as RIP for IPv4 but it has been upgraded to support IPv6. In this lesson i’ll demonstrate to you how to configure it on Cisco routers. Here’s the topology that we’ll use:

Let’s use this topology to configure RIPNG. I’m going to create a loopback interface on each router to advertise in RIPNG. Note that I don’t have any global unicast IPv6 addresses on the FastEthernet interface because the RIPNG updates will be sent using the link-local addresses.

R1(config)#ipv6 unicast-routing 
R1(config)#interface loopback 0
R1(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001::1/128

R2(config)#ipv6 unicast-routing 
R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001::2/128

Don’t forget to enable IPv6 unicast routing otherwise no routing protocol will work for IPv6.

R1#show ipv6 interface brief 
FastEthernet0/0            [up/up]
Loopback0                  [up/up]
    FE80::CE09:18FF:FE0E:0
    2001::1

R2#show ipv6 interface brief 
FastEthernet0/0            [up/up]
Loopback0                  [up/up]
    FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0
    2001::2

After configuring the IPv6 addresses on the loopback interface you can see the global unicast and the link-local IPv6 addresses. There is no link-local address on the FastEthernet interfaces however.

R1(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
R1(config-if)#ipv6 enable

R2(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
R2(config-if)#ipv6 enable

R1#show ipv6 interface brief 
FastEthernet0/0            [up/up]
    FE80::CE09:18FF:FE0E:0
Loopback0                  [up/up]
    FE80::CE09:18FF:FE0E:0
    2001::1

R2#show ipv6 interface brief 
FastEthernet0/0            [up/up]
    FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0
Loopback0                  [up/up]
    FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0
    2001::2

Use the IPv6 enable command to generate a link-local address for the FastEthernet interfaces.

R1(config)#ipv6 router rip RIPNGTEST
R1(config-rtr)#exit
R1(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
R1(config-if)#ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
R1(config-if)#exit
R1(config)#interface loopback 0
R1(config-if)#ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable

R2(config)#ipv6 router rip RIPNGTEST
R2(config-rtr)#exit
R2(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/0
R2(config-if)#ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
R2(config-if)#exit
R2(config)#interface loopback 0
R2(config-if)#ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable

To enable RIPNG you first have to start the process with the IPV6 router rip command. You have to give it a tag name and I called mine “RIPNGTEST”.

It doesn’t matter what tag name you choose and it doesn’t have to be the same on both routers. Second step is to activate RIPNG on the interfaces you want by using the IPv6 rip enable command. That’s not too bad right? No stinky network commands! Just enable it on the interface and you are ready to go. The ipv6 rip enable command does two things:

• Activate the prefix on the interface in RIPNG.
• Send RIPNG updates out of this interface.

R1#debug ipv6 rip
RIP Routing Protocol debugging is on

RIPng: Sending multicast update on FastEthernet0/0 for RIPNGTEST
       src=FE80::CE09:18FF:FE0E:0
       dst=FF02::9 (FastEthernet0/0)
       sport=521, dport=521, length=32
       command=2, version=1, mbz=0, #rte=1
       tag=0, metric=1, prefix=2001::1/128
RIPng: Process RIPNGTEST received own response on Loopback0
RIPng: response received from FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0 on FastEthernet0/0 for RIPNGTEST
       src=FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0 (FastEthernet0/0)
       dst=FF02::9
       sport=521, dport=521, length=32
       command=2, version=1, mbz=0, #rte=1
       tag=0, metric=1, prefix=2001::2/128

Here’s part of the output of the debug IPv6 rip command. You can see that the link-local IPv6 addresses are used as source of the updates. The destination address is multicast FF02::9.

R1#show ipv6 route rip
IPv6 Routing Table - 4 entries
Codes: C - Connected, L - Local, S - Static, R - RIP, B - BGP
       U - Per-user Static route
       I1 - ISIS L1, I2 - ISIS L2, IA - ISIS interarea, IS - ISIS summary
       O - OSPF intra, OI - OSPF inter, OE1 - OSPF ext 1, OE2 - OSPF ext 2
       ON1 - OSPF NSSA ext 1, ON2 - OSPF NSSA ext 2
R   2001::2/128 [120/2]
     via FE80::CE0A:18FF:FE0E:0, FastEthernet0/0

R2#show ipv6 route rip 
IPv6 Routing Table - 4 entries
Codes: C - Connected, L - Local, S - Static, R - RIP, B - BGP
       U - Per-user Static route
       I1 - ISIS L1, I2 - ISIS L2, IA - ISIS interarea, IS - ISIS summary
       O - OSPF intra, OI - OSPF inter, OE1 - OSPF ext 1, OE2 - OSPF ext 2
       ON1 - OSPF NSSA ext 1, ON2 - OSPF NSSA ext 2
R   2001::1/128 [120/2]
     via FE80::CE09:18FF:FE0E:0, FastEthernet0/0

A quick look at the routing table with the show IPv6 route command shows us that RIP has learned about the networks.

hostname R2
!
ipv6 unicast-routing 
!
interface loopback 0
 ipv6 address 2001::2/128
 ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
!
interface fastEthernet 0/0
 ipv6 enable
 ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
!
ipv6 router rip RIPNGTEST
!
end

hostname R1
!
ipv6 unicast-routing 
!
interface loopback 0
 ipv6 address 2001::1/128
 ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
!
interface fastEthernet 0/0
 ipv6 enable
 ipv6 rip RIPNGTEST enable
!
ipv6 router rip RIPNGTEST
!
end

This doesn’t look too bad right? You don’t have to use those annoying network commands anymore…If you have any more questions just leave a comment!