IPv6 address cannot be used for syslog recipient - IBM Flex System

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H212243

Symptom

The Information Technology Elements (ITEs) can be configured to upload the log files (event and audit) to a remote syslog server, the remote server's address types supported are:

1. IPv4 Address
   
2. Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
   
3. IPv6 Address
   

When the IPv6 address is specified, the current implementations fail to deliver the logs to the specified IPv6 syslog server.

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

• Flex System x220 Compute Node, type 2585, any model
• Flex System x220 Compute Node, type 7864, any model
• Flex System x220 Compute Node, type 7906, any model
• Flex System x222 Compute Node, type 7916, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 7863 E5-xxxxV2, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 8737, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 8737 E5-xxxxV2, any model
• Flex System x240 Compute Node, type 8738, any model
• Flex System x440 Compute Node, type 2584, any model
• Flex System x440 Compute Node, type 7917, any model

This tip is not software specific.

This tip is not option specific.

Solution

This behavior will be corrected in a future release of IMM update package.

The target date for this release is scheduled for second quarter 2014.

The file is or will be available by selecting the appropriate Product Group, type of System, Product name, Product machine type, and Operating system on IBM Support's Fix Central web page, at the following URL:

• http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

Workaround

The current workaround is to use an IPv4 or FQDN for the syslog server instead of the IPv6 address.

Additional information

The root cause is the usage of IPv6 sockets in the IMM code when an IPv6 address is specified.

The workaround is to simply use an IPv4 or FQDN for the syslog server, this is the general usage as more than 99% of the users do not use IPv6.