Add a dual-stack network to an existing virtual machine using the Azure CLI

Article
08/24/2023

In this article, you add IPv6 support to an existing virtual network. You configure an existing virtual machine with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. When completed, the existing virtual network supports private IPv6 addresses. The existing virtual machine network configuration contains a public and private IPv4 and IPv6 address.

Prerequisites

An Azure account with an active subscription. Create one for free.

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

This tutorial requires version 2.0.28 or later of the Azure CLI. If using Azure Cloud Shell, the latest version is already installed.
An existing virtual network, public IP address and virtual machine in your subscription that is configured for IPv4 support only. For more information about creating a virtual network, public IP address and a virtual machine, see Quickstart: Create a Linux virtual machine with the Azure CLI.
- The example virtual network used in this article is named myVNet. Replace this value with the name of your virtual network.
- The example virtual machine used in this article is named myVM. Replace this value with the name of your virtual machine.
- The example public IP address used in this article is named myPublicIP. Replace this value with the name of your public IP address.

Add IPv6 to virtual network

In this section, you add an IPv6 address space and subnet to your existing virtual network.

Use az network vnet update to update the virtual network.

az network vnet update \
    --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/16 2404:f800:8000:122::/63 \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myVNet

Use az network vnet subnet update to create the subnet.

az network vnet subnet update \
    --address-prefixes 10.0.0.0/24 2404:f800:8000:122::/64 \
    --name myBackendSubnet \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --vnet-name myVNet

Create IPv6 public IP address

In this section, you create a IPv6 public IP address for the virtual machine.

Use az network public-ip create to create the public IP address.

  az network public-ip create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name myPublicIP-Ipv6 \
    --sku Standard \
    --version IPv6 \
    --zone 1 2 3

Add IPv6 configuration to virtual machine

Use az network nic ip-config create to create the IPv6 configuration for the NIC. The --nic-name used in the example is myvm569. Replace this value with the name of the network interface in your virtual machine.

  az network nic ip-config create \
    --resource-group myResourceGroup \
    --name Ipv6config \
    --nic-name myvm569 \
    --private-ip-address-version IPv6 \
    --vnet-name myVNet \
    --subnet myBackendSubnet \
    --public-ip-address myPublicIP-IPv6

Next steps

In this article, you learned how to create an Azure Virtual machine with a dual-stack network.

For more information about IPv6 and IP addresses in Azure, see: