How to Change a Plesk Server's IPv6 Address

On Plesk for Linux, you change the server’s IPv6 address by adding the new address to the network interface, then running plesk bin ipmanage --remap with a mapping file that pairs the old address with the new one. Plesk registers the new address and updates its web, mail and FTP configuration, its own database and the DNS zones of websites on the old address. IPv6 addresses typed by hand into SPF records may not be updated, so you check those separately, along with reverse DNS (PTR), outgoing mail and any DNS hosted outside Plesk.

This guide is for administrators of their own Plesk for Linux server (a VPS or dedicated server) who have root SSH access. It covers the server’s own address. To add IPv6 to individual websites, see How to Enable IPv6 for a Website in Plesk.

Last reviewed: 13 October 2026, against the current Plesk Obsidian release. This guide is written for Noiz hosting and is kept current against Plesk. It complements, and does not replace, the official Plesk documentation linked below.

Official Documentation Reference

• Plesk: Remapping IP Addresses: the vendor procedure for manual and automatic remapping, including the mapping file format and DNS timing advice.
• Plesk: IP Addresses Management: shared and dedicated addresses and where they are listed in the panel.
• Plesk CLI: ipmanage: listing addresses and setting a public address mapping. Remapping itself is described in the administrator guide above.
• Plesk Repair Utility: checking web, mail and DNS configuration in report-only mode.
• curl manual: the --resolve, --ipv4 and --ipv6 options used in the checks below.

Prerequisites

• The new IPv6 address is allocated to your server by your provider, is not in use by any other device, and is routed to the server.
• A way into the server that does not depend on either the old or new IPv6 address, such as IPv4 SSH or your provider’s console.
• A backup of the network configuration, the Plesk configuration and the DNS records you expect to change, with a copy kept off the server.
• The current TTL of every DNS zone and record that points at the old address, including records held outside Plesk.

The examples use 2001:db8:100::10 as the old address, 2001:db8:100::20 as the new one and eth0 as the network interface. These are documentation values: replace them with your own. Find your interface name with ip -6 addr show.

What Depends on the Server’s IPv6 Address

Even when no website is assigned to the address, it can still carry the Plesk panel, the server’s own hostname, mail and the default website. Before you change anything, list:

Area	What to note
Network	Where the address is configured persistently, and the IPv6 gateway
Plesk	Whether the address is Shared or Dedicated under Tools & Settings > IP Addresses, and what is assigned to it
Web and panel	Which hostnames answer on it and which certificates they use
Mail	Whether outgoing mail is sent from it, and the SPF and PTR (reverse DNS) records for it
DNS	Every zone that mentions it, including secondary nameservers and zones managed outside Plesk

Search DNS text values as well as address records. An IPv6 address written into an SPF record as ip6:2001:db8:100::10 is plain text, and a remap may leave it unchanged.

If a record is managed somewhere other than Plesk (at your registrar or an external DNS provider), change it there. Do not switch on synchronisation of an old local copy of a zone just to update one record, because that can overwrite everything else in the published zone.

Plan the DNS Timing

Plesk warns that a remap can cause access problems for affected websites, usually lasting up to 48 hours, while DNS caches expire. To keep this short:

1. Lower the TTL on the affected zones and records at least one full TTL period before the change (Plesk’s default is 24 hours).
2. Make the change.
3. Restore the original TTL once everything is confirmed.

A cached answer keeps its original lifetime even after you lower the TTL, which is why step 1 has to happen early. If your nameservers themselves use the old address, update the glue records at your domain registrar as well.

Expect a short period in which visitors whose DNS cache still holds the old address cannot reach the panel or default website over IPv6. Lowering the TTL first keeps that window small; it does not remove it.

Outgoing Mail

Keep outgoing mail on its current source address until the new address has a PTR record that matches the server’s hostname, and SPF authorises it. If both addresses might send mail during the change, authorise both in SPF, wait for the old SPF record’s TTL to pass, and remove the old address only once it no longer sends.

Remap the Address

1. Add the new address to the network interface and confirm the server is reachable on it from another network. Do not register it in Plesk first: the remap registers it.

2. Generate a mapping file that lists every address on the server:

   plesk bin ipmanage --remap /root/ip_map_file

3. Edit /root/ip_map_file so that it contains only the IPv6 line you are changing. Delete or comment out every other line, including the IPv4 address. The finished line looks like this (it is file content, not a command):

   eth0 2001:db8:100::10 64 -> eth0 2001:db8:100::20 64

4. Run the same command again to apply the mapping. Run it inside screen or tmux so that a dropped SSH session does not interrupt it:

   plesk bin ipmanage --remap /root/ip_map_file

5. Make the new address persistent in your distribution’s network configuration (for example /etc/network/interfaces with ifupdown, or Netplan), and check that the IPv6 gateway is still configured. Removing the old address from a configuration file can remove the gateway line that sat beside it, while the running route keeps working until the next reboot.

The same --remap command both creates the file (when it does not exist) and applies it (when it does), so always check the file’s contents before you run it a second time. Plesk cannot map an IPv4 address to an IPv6 address or the other way round.

If you already added the new address under Tools & Settings > IP Addresses, check that nothing is assigned to it and remove it there before remapping.

If the Remap Is Interrupted

The remap regenerates web, mail and panel configuration and can take several minutes on a busy server. If your session drops or the command appears to hang, do not run it again straight away. First check what has already happened:

1. List the addresses Plesk now knows about:

   plesk bin ipmanage --ip_list

2. Check the addresses on the interface with ip -6 addr show.

3. Run the repair utility in report-only mode for the web and mail services:

   plesk repair web -n
   plesk repair mail -n

Then finish only the steps that did not complete.

Check the Result

1. Run the report-only repair checks above and confirm they report no issues.

2. From another network with working IPv6, test the server hostname on the new address directly. Keep the real hostname in the URL so that the certificate is checked properly:

   curl --noproxy '*' --connect-timeout 10 --max-time 30 \
     --resolve 'host.example.com:443:[2001:db8:100::20]' \
     --silent --show-error --dump-header - \
     https://host.example.com/

   Expect the correct page or its usual redirect, with a valid certificate. Do not add --insecure. Test the panel port separately if you use it.

3. Test a few existing customer websites over IPv4 to confirm nothing else changed.

4. Once the DNS change is live, repeat the request without --resolve, using --ipv6, and again with --ipv4.

5. Query each of your authoritative nameservers for the changed AAAA, PTR and SPF records, and confirm that unrelated records are unchanged.

6. Make sure your firewall rules cover the new IPv6 address. A firewall that only lists the old address leaves the new one unprotected.

7. Confirm that the network configuration persists: reboot in a maintenance window, or at least run ifquery -a (ifupdown) or netplan get (Netplan) and check the address and gateway.

For mail, a successful TLS connection to port 25 or 587 shows the service is listening. It does not prove that mail is delivered: send and receive a real test message.

If you are applying DNS template changes as part of this work, read How to Apply Plesk DNS Template Changes Safely first.

If the Old Address Will Be Reused

If another device on the same network, such as a server management controller, will take over the old address, remove the address from the server first. Wait for the old DNS records’ TTL to pass, then let the other device take it. Two devices claiming one IPv6 address will conflict. See Diagnose an IPv6 Duplicate Address Involving a Hardware Controller if that happens.

How to Reverse the Change

1. Re-add the old address to the network interface.
2. Run plesk bin ipmanage --remap with a mapping file that has the source and target swapped.
3. Restore the DNS values you saved, through wherever each record is managed, keeping any changes made since your backup.
4. Check the gateway, the repair reports and websites over IPv4 and IPv6.

Do not restore the whole Plesk database to undo an address change: it would also undo unrelated customer work done since the backup.

Need a Hand?

Noiz carries out address changes like this on managed Plesk servers. If your server is on a Noiz managed plan, contact Noiz support with the old and new address, and Noiz will schedule the change and the DNS updates for you.