Environment
Novell GroupWise 2014
Novell GroupWise 2014 R2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
Situation
You want to test if GWIA listens on ipv6 address but telnet does not seem to succeed despite the ipv6 is enabled on SLES server and ifconfig command lists ipv6 address.
Resolution
When you enable ipv6 protocol on SLES server, it gets assigned address that might look similar like:
gw2014-r2:~ # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:D6:FE:95
inet addr:147.2.76.231 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.254.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11854102 errors:0 dropped:1124 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:379754 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1318731636 (1257.6 Mb) TX bytes:157182071 (149.9 Mb)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:D6:FE:95
inet addr:147.2.76.231 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.254.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11854102 errors:0 dropped:1124 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:379754 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1318731636 (1257.6 Mb) TX bytes:157182071 (149.9 Mb)
The problem is that "feXX" network address is local and telnet cannot telnet it / find additional routing. You will need to add a private network address to the same NIC and that shall use "fdXX" network prefix like in example bellow:
gw2014-r2:~ # ifconfig eth0 add fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64
After that you will have following IP addresses bound to the eth0 interface:
gw2014-r2:~ # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:D6:FE:95
inet addr:147.2.76.231 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.254.0
inet6 addr: fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Global
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11856689 errors:0 dropped:1124 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:380118 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1318974934 (1257.8 Mb) TX bytes:157232844 (149.9 Mb)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:D6:FE:95
inet addr:147.2.76.231 Bcast:0.0.0.0 Mask:255.255.254.0
inet6 addr: fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Global
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:11856689 errors:0 dropped:1124 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:380118 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1318974934 (1257.8 Mb) TX bytes:157232844 (149.9 Mb)
Additional part that needs attention is to make sure that GWIA does not use "Bind exclusively" option, otherwise it listens only on specified ipv4 IP address. You should have see from nestat command that the server listens on port 25 on all interfaces like:
gw2014-r2:~ # netstat -ntpl | grep 25
tcp 0 0 :::25 :::* LISTEN 9904/gwia
tcp 0 0 :::25 :::* LISTEN 9904/gwia
Once you are at this point, then you can telnet GWIA on private ipv6 IP address (starting with fd network prefix) like in example bellow:
gw2014-r2:~ # telnet fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95 25
Trying fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95...
Connected to fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 gw2014-r2 GroupWise Internet Agent 14.2.0 Copyright (c) 1993-2015 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Ready
Trying fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95...
Connected to fd12::20c:29ff:fed6:fe95.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 gw2014-r2 GroupWise Internet Agent 14.2.0 Copyright (c) 1993-2015 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Ready