Setting up a Private PNRP Global Cloud

  • Article

A PNRP cloud is a collection of computers participating in PNRP name lookups and registrations. PNRP uses two clouds – one for link local operations and the other for global communication through the internet.

You can create a private global cloud by setting up a seed server. Private global clouds are sometimes used by large organizations that aren’t ready to open up their networks to the IPv6 internet but need to enable name resolution across multiple subnets.

A seed server is just a well known PNRP node that can be used for bootstrapping. Microsoft maintains a number of seed servers on the public internet behind pnrpv2.ipv6.microsoft.com and pnrpv21.ipv6.microsoft.com. By default, PNRP v2.0 clients use these servers to start participating in the global cloud.

 Any computer running pnrp can act as a seed server, it just needs to keep one name published at all times. A PNRP node without a name published will go dormant and stop learning about the cloud as it changes.

The easiest way to keep a name published is to setup a Windows Internet Computer Name (WICN) on a machine running Windows Vista. Instructions to guide you through WICN setup can be found here:

https://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/p2p/wicn.mspx

Client Setup

There are a number of ways that you can configure client systems to use your new seed server.

Vista keeps a list of seed servers in the registry under the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PeerNet\PNRP\IPV6-Global\Global_\SeedServer

 

You can view and modify this key directly, or you can use NetSH.

netsh p2p pnrp cloud set seed <address|hostname> <cloud>

Alternatively, you can use your corporate DNS server or the Windows hosts file to override pnrpv2.ipv6.microsoft.com and pnrpv21.ipv6.microsoft.com (default seed servers).

 

Cloud Separation

PNRP is not designed to deal with multiple global clouds, so you have to take special care to make sure your custom cloud doesn’t merge with the global cloud on the public internet. A single computer accidently connected to multiple clouds will start an irreversible merging process. Network edge controls are a good way to prevent this.

 

Contact Us

If you’re thinking of setting up a custom seed server, we would like to hear from you. The link local pnrp cloud is good enough for most scenarios inside a corporation. If you’re experimenting with PNRP and considering it for development, let us know so that we can supply you with the best possible guidance and link you into the Microsoft peer-to-peer community.

Have fun!

Tyler (tylbart at microsoft.com)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    Hi, I am facing problem in resolving PNRP name.I am working on VISTA.I have few questions for which your help will be appreciated. http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=windows+meeting+space+step+by+step+guid+&meta= 1>The above links says when we do netsh>p2p>pnrp>cl>show names and if number of Cache entries being shown is less than 45 then PNRP is not properly initialized.What soes this mean n also how can we increase this number.

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    I have two separate broad band connection and VISTA as OS installed on it. When i add one pnrp name in one machine by using netsh>p2p>pnrp>peer>add reg 0.testingpnrp Global_ I am not able to resolve this on another machine by using resolve 0.testingpnrp Hence i am not able to communicate with other machine through Windows meeting space. Any help pn this will be appreciated.

  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2007
    Generally seed server being used is default seed server that is pnrpv2.ipv6.microsoft.com,pnrpv21.ipv6.microsoft.com. What is PNRPSEEDSERVER.CORP.MICROSOFT.COM server as specified in http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=windows+meeting+space+step+by+step+guid+&meta= Can we also set the above server as seed server along with default seed server?

  • Anonymous
    July 25, 2007
    Hi, you wrote : > Any computer running pnrp can act as a seed   server, it just needs to keep one name published at all times.   > The easiest way to keep a name published is to setup a Windows Internet Computer Name (WICN) on a machine running Windows Vista.   Is this possible for a machine running XP to act as a seed server ? If Yes, How ? Thank you

  • Anonymous
    February 13, 2008
    I am a computer science undergrad and am currently working on developing a p2p iptv system for my graduation thesis and me and my group are considering using the WCF p2p for that .. i would like to get more info on how to set up a private cloud (media streaming server) thank you