How to Disable IPv6 in CentOS and Redhat

By default IPv6 is enabled on installed CentOS and Redhat. In this article I will explain how to disable IPv6 in CentOS and Redhat.

Disable IPv6 in CentOS and Redhat

First of all check the configuration of the existing network with the “ifconfig” command. If inet6 appears in the configuration, means IPv6 is enabled.

[root@look ~]# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 12:57:7B:56:74:B4
          inet addr:192.168.0.5  Bcast:172.30.3.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::1057:7bff:fe56:74b4/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:9001  Metric:1
          RX packets:1592001 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:896813 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:944612392 (900.8 MiB)  TX bytes:1004972537 (958.4 MiB)
          Interrupt:17

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:836996 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:836996 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:252767227 (241.0 MiB)  TX bytes:252767227 (241.0 MiB)

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Follow the below steps to disable IPv6 on CentOS and Redhat.

1. Edit /etc/sysctl.conf file.

Method #1:

# vim /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following :

net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1

Run the below command to apply the changes.

# sysctl -p

Method #2:

To disable ipv6 in the running system.

# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/default/disable_ipv6
OR
# sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
# sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1

2. Edit config file in/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens160.

On CentOS 6:

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
HWADDR=00:0C:29:C5:36:7C
TYPE=Ethernet
UUID=f9db89e6-013a-4403-8893-ae0536c6306f
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=no
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.0.5
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
IPV6INIT=no

On CentOS 7:

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ens160

TYPE="Ethernet"
BOOTPROTO="static"
DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
IPV6INIT="no"
IPV6_AUTOCONF="no"
IPV6_DEFROUTE="no"
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL="yes"
NAME="ens32"
UUID="ccfd7425-20ab-40c9-a141-b71828a1b8bf"
DEVICE="ens160"
ONBOOT="yes"
IPADDR="192.168.0.6"
PREFIX="24"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
DNS1="8.8.8.8"
DOMAIN="ehowstuff.local"
IPV6_PEERDNS="no"
IPV6_PEERROUTES="no"
IPV6_PRIVACY="no"

3. Edit /etc/sysconfig/network file and add the “no” to NETWORKING_IPV6.

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING_IPV6=no

I will suggest you to restart network configuration as shown below.

On CentOS 6:

# service network restart

On CentOS 7:

# systemctl restart network