The commands to verify the IPv6 interface configuration are similar to the commands used for IPv4.

The show ipv6 interface brief command in Figure 1 displays a summary for each of the interfaces. The [up/up] output on the same line as the interface name indicates the Layer 1/Layer 2 interface state. This is the same as the Status and Protocol columns in the equivalent IPv4 command.

The output displays two configured IPv6 addresses per interface. One address is the IPv6 global unicast address that was manually entered. The other address, which begins with FE80, is the link-local unicast address for the interface. A link-local address is automatically added to an interface whenever a global unicast address is assigned. An IPv6 network interface is required to have a link-local address, but not necessarily a global unicast address.

The show ipv6 interface gigabitethernet 0/0 command output shown in Figure 2 displays the interface status and all of the IPv6 addresses belonging to the interface. Along with the link local address and global unicast address, the output includes the multicast addresses assigned to the interface, beginning with prefix FF02.

The show ipv6 route command shown in Figure 3 can be used to verify that IPv6 networks and specific IPv6 interface addresses have been installed in the IPv6 routing table. The show ipv6 route command will only display IPv6 networks, not IPv4 networks.

Within the routing table, a ‘C’ next to a route indicates that this is a directly connected network. When the router interface is configured with a global unicast address and is in the “up/up” state, the IPv6 prefix and prefix length is added to the IPv6 routing table as a connected route.

The IPv6 global unicast address configured on the interface is also installed in the routing table as a local route. The local route has a /128 prefix. Local routes are used by the routing table to efficiently process packets with the interface address of the router as the destination.

The ping command for IPv6 is identical to the command used with IPv4 except that an IPv6 address is used. As shown in Figure 4, the ping command is used to verify Layer 3 connectivity between R1 and PC1.

Other useful IPv6 verification commands include: