One of the members of a Linux community I’m in posted a neat little site, Hurricane Electric, that created an IPv6 certification - free of charge - verifies one’s expertise with IPv6. The certification can be found here.

Components of the certification include testing ability to:

  • Prove that you have IPv6 connectivity
  • Prove that you have a working IPv6 web server
  • Prove that you have a working IPv6 email address
  • Prove that you have working forward IPv6 DNS
  • Prove that you have working reverse IPv6 DNS for your mail server
  • Prove that you have name servers with IPv6 addresses that can respond to queries via IPv6
  • Prove your knowledge of IPv6 technologies through quick and easy testing

Furthermore, the certification also demonstrates familiarity with IPv6 concepts including:

  • the format of IPv6 addresses
  • AAAA records
  • reverse DNS for IPv6
  • the IPv6 localhost address
  • the IPv6 default route
  • the IPv6 documentation prefix
  • the IPv6 link local prefix
  • the IPv6 multicast prefix
  • how to do an IPv6 ping
  • how to do an IPv6 traceroute
  • common IPv6 prefix lengths such as /64, /48, /32
  • and more!

Needless to say, the chance I had a couple of hours free, I decided to give it a shot.

Certification Recap

Without delving into the specific details of the certification, it was a very hands-on, enjoyable experience that throws you into the deep end of working with IPv6. Initially, I attempted to do everything from my local network, however that only worked for the IPv6 ping without complication. I quickly switched to deploying a VPS with public IPv6 enabled and that removed the unnecessary headache.

From setting up a web server and mail server to configuring DNS records, the certification was great. Unlike the typical “certification” where you sit at a test center (looking at you, PearsonVUE), the HE IPv6 certification used traditional exam-style questions to supplement the hands-on experiments. Additionally, the certification layout started at the Newbie level and progressed to Sage level.

All in all, I highly recommend the technical folks to give it a try. You might learn a thing or two.

Badges and Stuff

Turns out, they also send a super cool free t-shirt with the IPv6 RFC design!

Badge 1 Badge 3

Badge 2

If you read till here.. seriously check it. And ignore the 1990’s style website. Content is gold.

https://ipv6.he.net/certification/