Thursday, August 15, 2013

Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators - yes, I am writing a book

After hearing many time at conferences, trade shows, user groups and even by customers  "All I need is a fast primer to get me up and going with IPv6 plus some best practices" I decided to do something about it. I wrote a book proposal and submitted it to some colleagues at Apress and they decided it would actually be worth doing, which I still find kind of amazing.

So, I have been rather busy working on the book content and not blog posting as much as I like but I hope everyone understands why.

The book covers what Windows Administrators need to know to get up and operational with IPv6. I know, why Microsoft Windows and not something that covers all OS's? First off, there are other good books out there that help with the other OS platforms (with the exception of Apple - who know what is happening there?) and there was a gap in good content for the Windows platform IMHO. Second, I am a Microsoft MVP and a Networking Engineer by trade so it was a natural fit. I have been presenting at events like Microsoft TechEd, TechMentor and IPv6 conferences for several years and all my presentations revolve around IPv6 and Microsoft Windows it seems.

The book will have 10 chapters and the goal is about 250 pages at this point. The chapters are:
  1. IPv6: The Big Picture
  2. IPv6 Support in Windows
  3. IPv6 Addressing
  4. IPv6 Best Practices in Windows
  5. IPv6 and PowerShell
  6. IPv6 and Advanced Firewall
  7. IPv6 in Hyper-V and Virtual Networking
  8. IPv6 and DNS
  9. IPv6 and DHCP
  10. Miscellaneous IPv6 Item


Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators is designed to be a handy guide on implementing IPv6 in a Microsoft Windows environment. If you are a Microsoft Windows Administrator who suddenly finds themselves having to deal with IPv6 and in need of a quick resource to get up and going this book is for you. It is meant to be the fast reference you pull out to get something done. I hope it will have sticky notes with scribbled comments and highlighted sections and coffee stains because it is something you find that useful.

The book covers the current state of IPv6 and its support in Microsoft Windows and then provides an explanation of IPv6 Addressing, Best Practices and how to implement. From managing IPv6 with PowerShell, to the Advanced Firewall to what is supported in Hyper-V and Virtual Networking it provides practical examples of IPv6. It also addresses how IPv6 integrates with all the standard tools you use for IPv4 today like DNS, DHCP and concludes with a summary of insider knowledge on IPv6 that could be stumbling points on the road to deployment.

You can read Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators from end to end but I envisioned it to be treated as a handbook. Each chapter stands on its own so if, for example, you just need to know how to get DNS working you can read Chapter 8 and be good to go. Now let’s go implement IPv6 in your Windows environment!

So this book:
  • Allows Windows Administrators who already know IPv4 a quick way to learn IPv6
  • Provides Windows specific best practices in dealing with IPv6 and Dual Stack networks
  • Has practical examples to help manage IPv6 in Windows

That is it in a nutshell. I'm excited to be putting the content together and hopefully it will be out in the beginning of 2014. In the meantime, go check out the other great titles from Apress.

- Ed

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice and so very timely! Internally we are trying to figure out how we can work around ipv6 so we don't have to disable it via the registry, which none of us likes. We don't want ipv6 addresses making their way upstream to the big dns server that our clients use. Since we can't control clients ipv6 configuration, we don't want name lookups to return AAAA records.

phone service said...

Good luck on doing that Sir. The IPv6 network configuration is never easy. I am sure that your book would lend a hand on us network admins. I searched every corner of the internet and I haven't found a complete guide to IPv6 and I hope that your book would be that guide.

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