Differences Between EIGRP for IPv4 and for IPv6
IPv6 EIGRP requires a routing process to be defined and enabled (no shutdown) and a router ID
(in 32-bit IPv4 address format) to be manually assigned using the router-id command, both of
which must be done in IPv6 router configuration mode before the IPv6 EIGRP routing process can
start. These are two of the differences between EIGRP for IPv4 and IPv6. Some others include the
following:
■ Configured on the interface—As with OSPFv3 (and RIPng), EIGRP advertises networks
based on interface commands rather than routing process network commands. For example,
the command to enable IPv6 EIGRP AS 100 on an interface is ipv6 eigrp 100.
■ Must no shut the routing process—When EIGRP for IPv6 is first configured on an interface,
this action creates the IPv6 EIGRP routing process on the router. However, the routing process
is initially placed in the shutdown state, and requires a no shutdown command in router
configuration mode to become active.
■ Router ID—EIGRP for IPv6 requires a 32-bit router ID (a dotted-decimal IPv4 address) to
be configured before it starts. A router does not complain about the lack of an EIGRP RID,
however, so remember to configure one statically when doing a no shutdown in the routing
process.
■ Passive interfaces—IPv6 EIGRP, passive interfaces are configured in the routing process
only. That is, no related configuration commands are required on the interface.
■ Route filtering—IPv6 EIGRP performs route filtering using only the distribute-list prefixlist
command. IPv6 EIGRP does not support route filtering through route maps that call
distribute lists.
■ Automatic summarization—IPv6 EIGRP has no equivalent to the IPv4 (no) auto-summary
command, because there is no concept of classful routing in IPv6.
Cisco IOS support—EIGRP for IPv6 is supported in Cisco IOS beginning with
Release 12.4(6)T.