Understanding IPv6, Third Edition is now available!

Microsoft Press has released the new book Understanding IPv6, Third Edition by my friend Joseph Davies. I was fortunate enough to be asked by Joe to be the technical editor of the book and I am very excited about it now being available. Joe has done a great job covering some pretty difficult topics around IPv6 and if you are an IT Pro and doing Microsoft infrastructure architecture, design and deployment you really need to get this book. Why?

First, it has been updated for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and some of the specific IPv6 behavior those two OS's will have verse previous versions of Windows. Second, it has updated recommendations on best practices for deployment in DirectAccess environments and also updated references to RFC's. The last point isn't trivial as the RFC landscape around IPv6 is actually changing and has been moving around a lot within the last 3 years or so.

Finally, you will need a good technical reference around the IPv6 protocol and how it is implemented in Windows and this is the ONLY book that provides that. It was written by someone who has intimate access to the Windows COSD team (they write the network stack for Windows) and I think Joe does a wonderful job making a rather difficult subject matter something that can be understood quickly. Best of all, you don't have to read it end to end, it was designed to be read in chapters as they are relevant to you and what you are trying to do.

It is available from Amazon and at the O'Reilly / Microsoft Press site. The first chapter is available as a sample download too.

The book chapters are:
Chapter 1: Introduction to IPv6
Chapter 2: IPv6 Protocol for Windows
Chapter 3: IPv6 Addressing
Chapter 4: The IPv6 Header
Chapter 5: ICMPv6
Chapter 6: Neighbor Discovery
Chapter 7: Multicast Listener Discovery and MLD Version 2
Chapter 8: Address Autoconfiguration
Chapter 9: IPv6 and Name Resolution
Chapter 10: IPv6 Routing
Chapter 11: IPv6 Transition Technologies
Chapter 12: ISATAP
Chapter 13: 6to4
Chapter 14: Teredo
Chapter 15: IP-HTTPS
Chapter 16: NAT64/DNS64
Chapter 17: IPv6 Security Considerations
Chapter 18: DirectAccess
Chapter 19: Deploying IPv6 on an Intranet
Chapter 20: IPv6 on the Microsoft Corporate Network
Appendix IPv6 RFC Index
Appendix Testing for Understanding Answers
Appendix Setting Up an IPv6 Test Lab
Appendix IPv6 Reference Tables
Appendix Link-Layer Support for IPv6
Appendix Windows Sockets Changes for IPv6
Appendix Mobile IPv6
Appendix Teredo Protocol Processes

So there you have it, my shameless book plug. Honestly, I really do believe you will get great value from Joe's book if you have to do any work around IPv6 and Windows at all. Given everything that is happening on the Internet that should be a LOT of people!
- Ed

Presenting in Los Angeles on Deploying IPv6 in Microsoft Enterprise Networks

On Tuesday, September 20th at 6pm I will be in downtown Los Angeles at the Pacific IT Professionals User Group meeting presenting on Deploying IPv6 in a Microsoft Enterprise Network. In addition, Richard Hicks (fellow MVP) will be presenting on DirectAccess. I'm excited that Jessica DeVita (another MVP!) who runs the group invited me to come and present. If you are in Los Angeles and want to come join us the event is free to attend and you can sign up at their MeetUp site.

I will post the presentation after the event, I'm still updating some of the content. A quick abstract for my presentation.

Abstract: The presentation is focused on the basic deployment items that system and network administrators need to pay attention to for Enterprises networks that are primarily Microsoft focused. Topics covered include default IPv6 behavior of different Windows OS's, when transition technologies are enabled, what Microsoft products will use IPv6 and deployment guide modifications for Exchange, DirectAccess, Forefront UAG and TMG. In addition, if time allows, some design challenges around DHCP and DNS and how Windows 7 will behave vs Apple OSX or Linux implementations.

Hope to see you there!
- Ed Horley - Microsoft MVP - Windows IT Pro

Microsoft 2009 MVP Summit - thoughts

I wasn't sure if I was going to attend the Microsoft MVP Summit this year. After the MVP program decided to remove the Windows Server - Networking category I didn't think I had much reason to attend and honestly was expecting to not be renewed because of the category going away.
I am now very happy I changed my mind and I attended. It seems that my new category of Enterprise Security felt that it was important to add networking sessions back to the mix.
A ton of folks from the MS Networking Team showed up! From Sandeep Singhal, Sean Siler, Dave Thaler, Ravi Rao, Tyler Barton, Devrim Asli Iyigun, Mahesh Prakriya, to Joseph Davies - thanks to you all for taking the time and effort to listen to my feedback and opinion about networking and what Microsoft is doing right and wrong.
So, without violating my NDA what was I most excited about from the event? Honestly, it is things that were already on my radar (NDA or not) - specifically Direct Access, Branch Cache and IPv6. I think any Enterprise that is running AD and has a large mobile workforce will adopt Direct Access just to make remote support of that mobile workforce easier, there is literally nothing the end user has to do at all (well, you have to turn the computer on and have some sort of Internet connection) to make it work and the initial scaling numbers I have heard put it on par with a typical traditional VPN deployment. Just as many Enterprises have adopted rpc over http/s for Outlook to Exchange the next natural step is to adopt a paradigm that allows ALL corporate applications the same flexibility and access that Outlook and Exchange currently have today - that solution is Direct Access.
Microsoft is pushing more advanced services into both Windows Server 2008R2 and Windows 7 - Branch Cache is one of these services and one that makes a lot of sense for folks to use (big and small IT shops will win with this one - and it is free to turn it on - how cool is that). It does not replace WAN accelerations devices (though with the changes in Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Server 2008 networking you could argue you might not need the acceleration part) but specifically targets the caching of file content. Given the cost point and relative easy of deployment I think it will have a good adoption rate.
Finally, IPv6 - there are several solutions in both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 that just won't work without IPv6. There is no getting around it and you need to start learning it - period. In Windows 7 there is HomeGroup and for Windows Server 2008R2 if you want Direct Access you will need to get up to speed on IPv6. There are more subtle IPv6 items but those two alone should make folks stand up and notice.
- Ed