{"id":24863,"date":"2026-10-05T12:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/?p=24863"},"modified":"2026-10-05T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T12:45:10","slug":"ipv4-and-ipv6-address-planning-for-multi-site-hosting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/ipv4-and-ipv6-address-planning-for-multi-site-hosting\/","title":{"rendered":"IPv4 and IPv6 Address Planning for Multi-Site Hosting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Running servers from several data centers gives a business better geographic reach, redundancy, and network options. It also creates a problem that teams often notice too late: IP address management becomes harder as sites grow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A weak address plan can create overlapping private networks, scattered IPv4 allocations, difficult BGP policies, IPv6 prefixes with no clear structure, and long migration windows.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A good multi-site IP address plan starts with the network topology. We then divide address space by region, site, network function, and subnet while leaving enough capacity for growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4 and IPv6 need different planning methods. IPv4 planning focuses heavily on conserving limited public space. IPv6 planning focuses more on hierarchy, subnet structure, delegation, and aggregation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For most multi-site hosting environments, the core design should cover:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">regional and site-level allocation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">public and private addressing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4 conservation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 prefix allocation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">route aggregation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BGP and ASN policy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS and reverse DNS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BYOIP<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">capacity for new sites<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A clear plan makes future deployments easier because each new subnet has a logical place in the network.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>IPv4 and IPv6 Address Planning at a Glance<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4 and IPv6 solve the same basic problem, but the available address space changes the way we plan each protocol.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Planning Area<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>IPv4<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>IPv6<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Address size<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">32-bit<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">128-bit<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Address availability<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limitado<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extremely large<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Main planning concern<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conservation<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hierarchical allocation<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Private addressing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RFC 1918<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ULA where appropriate<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NAT<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Common<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Usually not required for address conservation<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Standard LAN sizing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on required hosts<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Usually <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/64<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Multi-site design<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Careful block allocation<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regional and site prefix hierarchy<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Routing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CIDR and BGP<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CIDR and BGP<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Management<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A records<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AAAA records<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 global unicast addressing supports a structure containing a global routing prefix, subnet ID, and interface ID. This structure makes hierarchical addressing a natural fit for networks spread across several sites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Start With the Hosting Topology<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not start a multi-site addressing project by opening a subnet calculator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start with the infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create an inventory of every active and planned hosting location. Record the country, city, data center, upstream network, server count, expected customer count, current IP blocks, routing method, and expected growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A simple topology could look like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global Hosting Network<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u251c\u2500\u2500 Europe<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Amsterdam<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Frankfurt<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 London<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u251c\u2500\u2500 North America<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 New York<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 Los Angeles<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2514\u2500\u2500 Asia Pacific<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u251c\u2500\u2500 Singapore<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2514\u2500\u2500 Tokyo<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each site may contain several separate network functions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">public server networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">management networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">storage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">backup<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtualization<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">database networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">load balancers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VPN infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monitoring<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">transit links<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Planning these boundaries first makes subnet allocation much easier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24857\" src=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy.webp\" alt=\"Build a Regional and Site-Level Address Hierarchy\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy.webp 1672w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Build-a-Regional-and-Site-Level-Address-Hierarchy-18x10.webp 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Build a Regional and Site-Level Address Hierarchy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A multi-site network becomes easier to operate when the address structure reflects the physical or logical network structure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A practical model is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Organization \u2192 Region \u2192 Site \u2192 Network Function \u2192 Subnet \u2192 Host<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u251c\u2500\u2500 Amsterdam<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Management<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Public Servers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Private Services<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502 \u00a0 \u2514\u2500\u2500 Backup<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2502<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2514\u2500\u2500 Frankfurt<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u251c\u2500\u2500 Management<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u251c\u2500\u2500 Public Servers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u251c\u2500\u2500 Private Services<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u2514\u2500\u2500 Backup<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This structure gives network teams an immediate clue about where an address belongs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It also supports cleaner routing policies. Related networks can stay inside contiguous address blocks instead of being scattered across unrelated prefixes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Plan IPv4 Address Space Around Limited Supply<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public IPv4 space is limited, so the first goal should be to determine which systems truly need globally routable addresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A database server behind an application layer may not need its own public IPv4 address. A management interface usually should not be exposed directly to the public Internet. A public web server, VPN gateway, proxy endpoint, or customer workload may have different requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Separating these workloads reduces unnecessary public IPv4 use.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Separate Public and Private IPv4 Networks<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RFC 1918 reserves three address ranges for private networks:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.0.0.0\/8<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">172.16.0.0\/12<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">192.168.0.0\/16<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These addresses do not provide direct global Internet routing and are widely used for internal networks.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc1918\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a large multi-site deployment, we could divide a private block by region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.0.0.0\/8\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Global private allocation<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.16.0.0\/12\u00a0 \u00a0 Europe<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.32.0.0\/12\u00a0 \u00a0 North America<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.48.0.0\/12\u00a0 \u00a0 Asia Pacific<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each regional range can then be divided among individual data centers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exact prefix lengths depend on network size. The core principle is consistency.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Prevent Overlapping Private Networks<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overlapping RFC 1918 ranges create serious problems once sites need direct connectivity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suppose Amsterdam and Singapore both use:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.10.0.0\/16<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connecting the sites through a VPN, private backbone, SD-WAN, or routed tunnel becomes difficult because routers cannot determine which <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.10.0.0\/16<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> network should receive traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assign unique ranges from the beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This becomes even more useful if the company later connects:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another cloud provider<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an acquired business<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disaster recovery infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">office networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">colocation facilities<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Size IPv4 Subnets Based on Real Demand<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid allocating a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/24<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> simply because it is familiar.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Estimate the number of required addresses for each network and include capacity for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">servers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gateways<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">load balancers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cortafuegos<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">virtualization hosts<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">failover addresses<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">future nodes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A small network might need a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/28<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while a larger customer or server pool may require a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/26<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/24<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or larger block.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public address pools deserve tighter controls than private space because every unused public IPv4 address carries an opportunity cost.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM should record unused capacity rather than leaving addresses assigned without a documented purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Design IPv6 as a Hierarchy<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 planning should not copy IPv4 conservation habits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 gives us enough address space to prioritize readable hierarchy, delegation, clean routing, and long-term growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RFC 6177 also makes clear that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/48<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> should not be treated as a mandatory prefix size for every site. Address assignments should match actual and planned network requirements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A hosting provider or enterprise may receive a larger IPv6 prefix and divide it by location.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider this documentation example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organization: 2001:db8:1200::\/40<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201::\/48\u00a0 \u00a0 Amsterdam<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1202::\/48\u00a0 \u00a0 Frankfurt<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1203::\/48\u00a0 \u00a0 London<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1204::\/48\u00a0 \u00a0 Singapore<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8::\/32<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is reserved for documentation, so these examples should not be used as real production addresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The purpose of the structure matters more than the exact sample prefix.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24858\" src=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram.webp\" alt=\"IPv6 prefix hierarchy diagram\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram.webp 1672w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPv6-prefix-hierarchy-diagram-18x10.webp 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h2><b>Understand \/48, \/56, \/60, and \/64 Prefixes<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prefix size controls how much IPv6 address space belongs to a network.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Prefix<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Number of \/64 Networks<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Typical Planning Use<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/48<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">65,536<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large site or organizational assignment<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/52<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4,096<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Site or regional subdivision<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/56<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">256<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smaller site or delegated network<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/60<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">16<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Small delegated environment<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/64<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normal IPv6 subnet<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 global unicast architecture uses a 64-bit interface identifier for the standard address format described by RFC 4291. That is one reason <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/64<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remains the normal subnet size for common IPv6 LAN deployments.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc4291\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not assume every customer, site, or server requires a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/48<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Prefix assignment should reflect the number of networks needed now and over the next several years. RFC 6177 specifically moved away from a single default size for every end site.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc6177\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>Divide Each Site by Network Function<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once a site receives an IPv6 block, divide it in a repeatable way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amsterdam: 2001:db8:1201::\/48<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0000::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Management<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0100::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Public servers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0200::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Private services<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0300::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Storage<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0400::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Load balancers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0500::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Customer network<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0600::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Monitoring<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:0700::\/64\u00a0 \u00a0 Backup<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The numbers are examples, not protocol requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The value comes from having the same pattern at every location.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Los Angeles can all use the same subnet ID for the same service class.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That makes troubleshooting easier because network engineers can recognize a subnet&#8217;s function without searching through several systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Align IPv4 and IPv6 Boundaries Where It Helps Operations<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dual-stack networks are often easier to manage when IPv4 and IPv6 networks represent the same logical segment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Web VLAN 120<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4: 10.20.120.0\/24<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6: 2001:db8:1201:120::\/64<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both prefixes represent the same VLAN and workload group.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This approach can simplify:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">firewall policies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ACL management<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monitoring<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">incident investigation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">network diagrams<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">server provisioning<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not force identical structures if routing or operational requirements make them inefficient. Logical consistency is useful, but address design still needs to match the network.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Plan Route Aggregation Before Address Assignment<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IP addressing and routing should be planned together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If related networks sit inside contiguous prefixes, routers can advertise summarized routes instead of many smaller routes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suppose all European sites come from one larger allocation. The network may be able to advertise a regional aggregate internally while still keeping individual site routes inside the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Random address assignment removes this option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before allocating a new subnet, ask:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which region owns this address space?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which site owns it?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can related routes be summarized?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does another site already use part of this range?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will this prefix need public BGP advertisement?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does the failover design require the prefix somewhere else?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This process reduces routing cleanup later.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Include BGP, ASN, RPKI, and ROA Planning<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public IP planning does not end with subnet allocation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A multi-site hosting environment may use BGP to announce IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes through one or more upstream networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The IP plan should record:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prefix<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">origin ASN<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">upstream provider<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">announcement location<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">backup location<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RPKI status<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ROA authorization<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRR route object<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">routing policy<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This becomes especially useful during migrations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moving a workload may involve more than changing server addresses. The team may also need to change advertisements, routing authorization, firewall rules, DNS records, and monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treat the prefix as an infrastructure asset rather than a number assigned to a server.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Plan BYOIP Before Moving Between Data Centers<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bring Your Own IP, or BYOIP, allows an organization to use eligible IP space with infrastructure outside its original environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before a BYOIP migration, verify:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prefix ownership or authorization<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provider prefix-length requirements<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Origin ASN<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ROA configuration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IRR records where required<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Existing BGP advertisements<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Target data center support<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cutover sequence<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS dependencies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rollback procedure<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One common failure is advertising the same prefix from locations that were never designed to operate as anycast or multi-origin networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Routing behavior must be planned before the second announcement goes live.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For global hosting companies, BYOIP also helps separate IP identity from individual server hardware or one specific facility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atal Networks supports IPv4\/IPv6 services, ASN-related services, dedicated infrastructure, colocation, and BYOIP-focused network configurations across its hosting footprint. About Atal Networks About Atal Networks<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Use IPAM as the Source of Truth<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A spreadsheet can work for a small network. It becomes risky once several sites, teams, customers, VLANs, and prefixes are involved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An IP Address Management system should record more than whether an IP is available.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Track fields such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Field<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Example<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prefix<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201:100::\/64<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protocol<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Region<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Site<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00c1msterdam<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">120<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purpose<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public web servers<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gateway<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Documented in IPAM<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ASN<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Origin ASN<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assigned<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PTR<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assigned<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Status<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Active<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Owner<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Network Operations<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same database should track IPv4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM should answer three questions quickly:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Who owns this address? Where is it used? Why was it allocated?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the system cannot answer those questions, address records need work.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24859\" src=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram.webp\" alt=\"IPAM workflow diagram\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram.webp 1672w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IPAM-workflow-diagram-18x10.webp 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h2><b>Plan DNS With IPv4 and IPv6<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS should be part of the migration plan rather than an afterthought.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4 services normally use <\/span><b>A records<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 services use <\/span><b>AAAA records<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public hosting environments may also need PTR records for reverse DNS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before publishing an AAAA record, confirm that the full service path works over IPv6. RFC 7381 recommends enabling AAAA records as services become IPv6-ready rather than publishing them before the related service works correctly over IPv6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">application response<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">firewall policy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">load balancer<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TLS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monitoring<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">upstream routing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DNS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 path<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">failover<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For migrations, lower DNS TTLs before the planned change where appropriate, then restore normal values after the network has stabilized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reverse DNS delegation should also be planned around clean prefix boundaries. RFC 7381 notes that nibble-aligned IPv6 prefixes can simplify reverse DNS delegation.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc7381\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><b>Separate Customer, Infrastructure, and Management Address Pools<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A hosting network should not treat every server address as part of one large pool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep logical separation between:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer services<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hypervisors<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">router interfaces<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">management<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">storage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">monitoring<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">respaldo<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">public services<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Address structure can then support routing and security policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A management subnet, for example, can have stricter firewall rules than a public web server network.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A customer subnet can have its own routing policy without affecting storage traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This structure also makes incident response cleaner because the address itself provides useful context.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Dual Stack or IPv6-Only?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many multi-site hosting networks still use dual stack because customers and applications may require both protocols.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RFC 7381 describes the common progression from IPv4-only networks to dual stack and eventually toward IPv6-only operation.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc7381\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Model<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>IPv4<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>IPv6<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Suitable For<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv4-only<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00ed<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legacy workloads<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dual stack<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00ed<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00ed<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Broad application compatibility<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6-only<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00ed<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Modern controlled environments<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6 with NAT64\/DNS64<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Translation<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00ed<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6-first environments accessing IPv4 resources<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dual stack increases operational work because both protocols need routing, firewall rules, monitoring, and troubleshooting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPv6-only can reduce dependence on private IPv4 space, but application, provider, customer, and third-party compatibility should be tested first.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Reserve Space for Future Sites<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do not consume an address block simply because unused capacity exists today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reserve logical ranges for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new data centers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new regions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer growth<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disaster recovery<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">acquisitions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">additional VLANs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cloud connections<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">private backbone expansion<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RFC 7381 recommends planning IPv6 address space with growth in mind rather than building a plan that soon requires renumbering.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/rfc\/rfc7381.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same operating principle helps IPv4, although public IPv4 must be allocated more conservatively.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Multi-Site Address Planning Example<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider a company operating four sites:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00c1msterdam<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">francotirador<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Singapur<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A logical plan might look like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Site<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Private IPv4<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>IPv6 Site Block<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Main Function<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00c1msterdam<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.16.0.0\/16<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1201::\/48<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europe primary<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">francotirador<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.17.0.0\/16<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1202::\/48<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europe secondary<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Los Angeles<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.32.0.0\/16<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1203::\/48<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Norteam\u00e9rica<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Singapur<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10.48.0.0\/16<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2001:db8:1204::\/48<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asia Pacific<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each site could then follow a common internal model:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN 100\u00a0 \u00a0 Management<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN 120\u00a0 \u00a0 Public servers<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN 140\u00a0 \u00a0 Private services<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN 160\u00a0 \u00a0 Storage<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VLAN 180\u00a0 \u00a0 Backup<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exact prefix sizes should reflect actual requirements. The value of the model is that every site follows the same addressing logic.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24861\" src=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture.webp 1672w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Complete-Four-Site-Dual-Stack-Architecture-18x10.webp 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1672px) 100vw, 1672px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h2><b>Common IP Address Planning Mistakes<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Multi-site networks often become difficult to manage because of small design choices made during early deployment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid these problems:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reusing private IPv4 ranges at multiple connected sites<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assigning IP blocks without a regional hierarchy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using public IPv4 for systems that only need internal connectivity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Treating IPv6 address space like scarce IPv4 space<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giving every IPv6 site the same prefix size without assessing need<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allocating networks without considering route aggregation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Publishing AAAA records before testing IPv6<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignoring reverse DNS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mixing management and customer networks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keeping no capacity for new locations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allowing undocumented BYOIP advertisements<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Failing to update ROA or routing records during migration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Managing a large network from disconnected spreadsheets<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assigning addresses without clear ownership<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good address planning reduces renumbering, routing changes, and migration risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Multi-Site IP Address Planning Checklist<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before deploying a new site:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inventory existing IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Map every current and planned location.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create regional allocations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create site allocations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Separate public and private IPv4 space.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assign unique private ranges.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Build an IPv6 hierarchy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reserve growth capacity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Standardize network-function IDs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check route aggregation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Document origin ASNs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Review ROAs and IRR records.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Add prefixes to IPAM.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plan A and AAAA records.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Configure reverse DNS.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test IPv4 and IPv6 routing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test firewall policy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Test failover.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Document ownership.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A well-structured addressing plan should make the next data center easier to add than the first one.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Plan Multi-Site Hosting With Atal Networks<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atal Networks provides Dedicated Servers, Bare Metal Servers, VPS Hosting, IPv4\/IPv6 leasing, colocation, and network infrastructure for businesses operating across global locations. About Atal Networks<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our infrastructure also supports private networking, BYOIP, multihomed networking, high-bandwidth ports, and custom server configurations. About Atal Networks<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For businesses expanding across several data centers, we can help align server deployment with IPv4, IPv6, ASN, BGP, and network requirements before the migration begins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A clear IP plan reduces future network changes and gives every new server, subnet, and site a defined place in the infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Preguntas frecuentes<\/b><\/h1>\n<h3><b>What is IP address planning?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IP address planning is the process of defining how IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes, subnets, and individual addresses will be allocated across a network. A good plan accounts for sites, network functions, routing, security, growth, DNS, and operational ownership.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What IPv6 prefix should a hosting site receive?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no universal prefix size for every site. The allocation should reflect the number of required subnets, expected growth, routing policy, and available parent prefix. RFC 6177 specifically advises against treating <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/48<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as the required default for every end site.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc6177\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><b>Why are IPv6 LAN networks normally \/64?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Standard IPv6 global unicast addressing uses a 64-bit interface ID in the normal address architecture. This makes <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\/64<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the standard subnet size for many IPv6 LAN deployments.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfc-editor.org\/info\/rfc4291\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><b>Should IPv4 and IPv6 follow the same network layout?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can use the same logical VLAN and service structure even though prefix lengths differ. Keeping equivalent IPv4 and IPv6 networks aligned can simplify firewall rules, monitoring, documentation, and troubleshooting.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Does every dedicated server need public IPv4?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No. Public-facing services may require dedicated public IPv4 addresses, but storage, database, backup, monitoring, and management traffic can often use private networks or IPv6, depending on the application and connectivity requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What role does IPAM play in multi-site hosting?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IPAM provides a central record of prefixes, subnets, IP assignments, sites, VLANs, gateways, DNS records, status, and ownership. It reduces duplicate allocations and gives network teams a reliable view of available and assigned address space.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How does BGP affect IP address planning?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BGP determines how public prefixes are advertised between networks. Keeping related address blocks contiguous can support cleaner route aggregation. Address planning should therefore consider origin ASN, announcement location, multihoming, RPKI, and failover requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Can BYOIP be used across several data centers?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can, subject to prefix ownership, provider policy, routing configuration, RPKI, and BGP design. Organizations should determine where each prefix will be announced and avoid conflicting advertisements unless the routing architecture was built for that behavior.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Running servers from several data centers gives a business better geographic reach, redundancy, and network options. It also creates a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enterprise-grade-server"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24864,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24863\/revisions\/24864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atalnetworks.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}