Posted On: Aug 4, 2023
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announces the launch of primary IPv6 address in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), enabling customer to make the first IPv6 address associated with their elastic network interface (ENI) immutable. Once the first IPv6 address is made primary on the ENI, the IPv6 address cannot be removed as long as the ENI is attached to an instance or until the instance is terminated, effectively making the address immutable. The primary IPv6 address can be an Amazon provided IPv6 address or a Bring your own IP (IPv6) addresses.
With IPv4, customers use the primary IPv4 address on the instance to route traffic, because the primary IPv4 address on the instance is immutable for the lifetime of the instance. This way adding or removing IPv4 addresses to the ENI will not impact traffic flows or connectivity. In IPv6, customers can use primary IPv6 feature to set a primary IPv6 address on the instance to route traffic without worrying about the IPv6 address changing.
This feature is available in all AWS commercial and the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions at no additional cost. For more information, please visit the VPC user guide.