EVALUATION GUIDE

IP Address Manager
EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Table of Contents
1 PURPOSE OF THE DOCUMENT 3

2 WHY INVEST IN AN IPAM SOLUTION? 3

3 EVALUATION GUIDE 5

3.1 Install and Configure 5

3.2 Add IP Addresses and DHCP and DNS Servers to IPAM 5

3.3 Orion Web Console 6

®

3.4 Managing IP Addresses and Subnets 7

3.5 Simplified IP Conflict Detection and Troubleshooting 8

3.6 DHCP and DNS Management 9

Enhanced Microsoft DHCP Failover Support (New Feature) 10

®

3.7 Third-Party Integration 12

Integration with VMware vRO (New Feature) 12

®

API Support (New Feature) 13

3.8 Active Alerting and Monitoring 14

Monitoring 14

Alerting 15

3.9 Collaborative IP Management 15

4 IPAM LICENSING 16

5 READY TO BUY? 16

6 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 17

7 ABOUT SOLARWINDS 17

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Purpose of the Document

We’re glad you’ve decided to evaluate SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) for your network
®

monitoring needs. You can download the free trial here. The trial version is a fully-featured version
of the product, functional for 30 days. After the evaluation period, you can easily convert your
evaluation license to a production license by obtaining and applying a license key.

This document will get you started with IP Address Manager and help you explore how IPAM’s
features can work in your environment and the associated benefits. It will guide you through
setting up IP Address Manager in your environment, and provide an overview of key features and
functionalities.

To get a peek at a live install of IPAM (and other SolarWinds products) without introducing it to
your environment, take a look at our live demo.

If at any time you would require further information or troubleshooting, do not hesitate to contact
sales@solarwinds.com or visit our Success Center, making sure to check out the Getting Started
Guide.

Why Invest in an IPAM Solution?

Poor IP address management can affect network performance and be a significant time sink for
network administrators. Common symptoms indicating that you might need to consider a (new)
IP address management tool are:

»» Managing IP addresses using spreadsheets has become too time consuming and unreliable

»» You’re spending too much effort and time to monitor, troubleshoot, and fix IP-related problems

»» Managing DHCP, DNS, and IP addresses in silos takes too much time and limits visibility

»» You’re tired of using separate specialized administrative tools to manage DHCP and DNS servers

»» You need to be able to delegate IP administration tasks

»» You want centralized management and monitoring of both your cloud and on-premises IP
address spaces

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

IPAM KEY FEATURES BENEFITS

Automated IPv4 and IPv6 Address Scanning IPAM is designed so you can easily set up scheduled,
automatic scanning for both your IPv4 and IPv6 ad-
dress space. This can reduce manual errors and help
The Excel sheets we
ensure that your network’s IP address information is
always up to date. were using were getting
bulky and it was constantly
Integrated IP, DHCP, and DNS Management Admins can quickly find available addresses and
easily configure them on DHCP and DNS systems. not being updated when a
project went up or down.
Multi-Vendor DHCP and DNS Services Admins can save time by managing Microsoft ,
®

Cisco , and ISC open source DHCP servers, as well

® With IPAM, it more or
as your BIND and Microsoft DNS servers, from a less takes care of itself.
single management console. Even if a project goes up
Cloud DNS Monitoring Be able to monitor both your Amazon Web unexpectedly, I know that
Services™ (AWS ) Route 53™, and Azure DNS the IPAM will still capture the
® ®

zones and records from a centralized console. information we need.

This can enable the immediate troubleshooting
of broken or missing DNS records in hybrid
environments. — Network Administrator,
Medium Enterprise
Infoblox Monitoring IP Address Manager can monitor your Infoblox
®

Construction Company
1

DHCP and DNS resources, allowing you to view

all subnets, DNS zones, and DHCP scopes in one
place. Be able to surface DNS mismatches and IP
address conflicts on the main dashboard.
IP Request Wizard Gain the ability to automatically make reservations
or enable users to request IP addresses utilizing
the built-in IP request wizard to help speed up the
deployment of devices.
vRO Integration Automate IP address provisioning and update
DNS records to help remove error-prone manual IPAM has reduced IP
workflows. Automating these tasks can help enable conflicts to point that they
virtual environments to scale dynamically.
rarely occur.
API Support IPAM can offer API support with CRUD (create, read,
update, delete) operations to help enable two-way
— Network Engineer, State &
integration with third-party software, including
Local Government
2

automation, orchestration, inventory

1 Source: TechValidate. TVID: 106-629-07F (Published: Sep, 2015)

2 Source: TechValidate. TVID: CFB-04E-9FC (Published: Sep, 2015)

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Evaluation Guide
INSTALL AND CONFIGURE
To install SolarWinds IPAM, please follow the SolarWinds Orion Installer instructions. You should
also review the IPAM system requirements overview to help ensure you have the right environment
prepared for your IPAM install. SolarWinds IP Address
Manager is extremely easy
ADD IP ADDRESSES AND DHCP AND DNS SERVERS TO IPAM to setup and use. It gives a
useful snapshot of the IP
After a successful installation, you can now log into the Orion Web Console. address state.

You now have multiple ways to add IP addresses to IPAM. The easiest way is to run Network — John Barber, a Senior
Discovery to help discover existing subnets and IP addresses. Network Engineer at
Gloucestershire Hospitals
The Network Sonar wizard guides you through the process: adding an Active Directory Domain
®

NHS Foundation Trust

3

Controller, adding SNMP or WMI community strings or credentials, selecting scheduling options,
and running the discovery.

After the Network Sonar wizard discovers your network, the Network Sonar Results wizard opens,
enabling you to import network elements into the SolarWinds Orion database. Discovered elements
do not count against your license count; only elements that you import into the Orion database
count against your license.

3 Source: TechValidate. TVID: 717-29E-06F (Published: May, 2015)

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

When you manually run discovery, by default, the system automatically selects all network
elements to be monitored. You must clear the check boxes for elements you do not want
monitored.
You can also manually import IP addresses and subnets to IPAM.
The following terms will help
as you explore SolarWinds IP
Address Manager (IPAM):

»» Orion Web Console: The

web inter face you see
when you log on to the Ori-
on Platform that’s used to
view, configure, and man-
age all of your monitored
objects. You can access
the Orion Web Console
Now you’re ready to add DHCP and DNS servers to IPAM.
from any computer con-
nected to the internet.
ORION WEB CONSOLE
»» View: An individual page
If this is your first time reviewing a SolarWinds product, this section will help you get familiar with in the web console.
the Orion Web Console, its features, and navigation. »» Resource: The widgets or
informational blocks that
make up a view.

»» Element: Anything that

can be monitored by the
Orion Platform.

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

The top menu, common to all SolarWinds products running on the Orion Platform, presents the
starting point to drill deep into SolarWinds products. The tab My Dashboards ➔ IP Addresses
contains various views to explore IP Address Manager (IPAM); all of them are customizable and
you can create your own. To begin with, we recommend highlighting the following:

»» IPAM Summary – An overview of IPAM data in a single pane of glass

»» Manage Subnets & IP Addresses – Central point to handle IP addresses and subnets
»» DHCP & DNS Management – Overview and tools for managing DHCP, DNS zones, and DNS servers
»» Admin – Assign roles and permissions to view and edit subnets to specific users

Other menu items we would like to highlight for first evaluation are:

»» Alerts & Activity ➔ Alerts – Starting area for managing and creating alerts, with hundreds
of out-of-the-box alerts available for you to try
»» Reports ➔ All reports – Manage and schedule your reports

MANAGING IP ADDRESSES AND SUBNETS

IP address management begins with a clear understanding of what address blocks and addresses
are available for use. Not having accessible and reliable IP address data can create blind spots in
IP address management. If an issue arises and you have no information on who changed what,
troubleshooting can become unnecessarily time consuming. When dealing with an issue, ready
access to reliable IP address data can help save time and effort.

Manual IP documentation is time-intensive, especially when your documentation has not been
updated. Outdated documentation and obsolete data can lead to project delays and network
errors. Moreover, duplicate IP addresses can cause IP conflicts, which can result in connectivity
issues and network downtime.

You can use IPAM to efficiently manage your IP subnets and address blocks without spending
time and effort building and maintaining IP documentation. Gain the ability to:

»» Automate subnet discovery, and scan inventory IP subnets and address blocks
»» Search IP blocks for addresses and statuses, including user device details
»» Manage IPv6 address blocks
»» View IP address changes from the event log
»» Detect IP conflicts
»» Scan the network to automatically discover subnets

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Your main resource will be My Dashboards > IP Address Manager > Manage Subnets & IP
Addresses.

IP Request Wizard

Admins want to be able to quickly add devices to the network, enabling services to be delivered
to customers. A common bottleneck in this process is waiting for a static IP reservation. The
IP request wizard can solve this problem by automating IP address requests from users to help
save time and enhance network reliability. It is built so those with the necessary permission
to select the subnet on which they want their IP addresses, and then IPAM can automatically
reserve them. It can also give restricted users a quick and dependable way to send requests
to their administrator. In addition, SolarWinds IPAM can offer automated reporting to track IP
®

requests for compliance or change management purposes.

Your main resource will be My Dashboards > IP Addresses > Request IP Address.

» The IP address request wizard allows you to complete an IP reservation in three easy steps.

Check out this quick video

explaining the wizard in
further detail

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Learn More:
Automatic Subnet Discovery Wizard
IP Address Details View
Searching for IP Addresses
IPv6 Monitoring

SIMPLIFIED IP CONFLICT DETECTION AND TROUBLESHOOTING

»» IPAM can help to quickly detect IP conflicts. Integrating it with SolarWinds User Device Tracker
(UDT), while optional, can help minimize disruptions to critical network services and applications.
The advanced integration feature of IPAM and UDT, called SolarWinds IP Control Bundle (IPCB),
allows you to quickly respond to alerts on IP conflicts and other IP-related issues

»» Employ troubleshooting strategies with real-time IP address information

»» IPCB is designed to help you resolve network issues caused by IP conflicts in two simple steps:

• View the IP Address Conflicts resource to see alerts on IP conflicts and

comprehensive information on the IP address in conflict.

• Click on the IP address to obtain further details, which can help you analyze
the conflict and determine a resolution. You can also use the view to remotely
shut down the switch port and remove the offending device from the network.

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

DHCP AND DNS MANAGEMENT

A common challenge that admins can face when managing DHCP/DNS services is the potential
for too many DHCP and DNS servers to update and manage. This can make it difficult to maintain
alignment between IP address documentation and DHCP and DNS settings. With no visibility
into DHCP scopes running out of lease addresses, admins can find themselves without proper
provisioning. This lack of relevant and timely information can lead to DHCP and DNS servers being
unable to handle peak loads. As the network grows, the number of DHCP/DNS servers also grows,
which can result in DHCP and DNS sprawl that requires time and skill to manage.

You can use IPAM to:

»» Create and manage DHCP scopes, split scopes, DNS zones, and records
»» Configure advanced DHCP settings
»» Automate detection of DNS forward, and reverse record mismatches and creation of DNS/
PTR records when registering new devices into DNS zones
»» Find and reclaim unused reserved DHCP addresses, rather than expand a DHCP scope

Your main resource will be My Dashboards > IP Addresses > DHCP & DNS Management

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Enhanced Microsoft DHCP Failover Support

IP Address Manager can monitor and manage your DHCP failover relationships (load balancing
and hot standby configurations) within IPAM to help ensure continuous availability of DHCP service
to clients. Key features include:

» IPAM can provide detailed information on failover relationships via a pop-up

» IPAM is built to consolidate cluster details into a single pop-up, whereas a Windows Server
®

only displays failover details one scope at a time

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

»» With IPAM, you can configure all failover relationships on a server on a single screen, whereas
in Windows Server you can only configure one failover relationship one scope at a time (see
the following link for more info on configuration within Windows Server)

Cloud DNS Monitoring

Be able to quickly verify if DNS records are the root cause of application failures in the cloud with
IPAM. The process of migrating DNS records to the cloud can lead to broken or missing DNS
records. IPAM can help alleviate this pain point by centrally monitoring Amazon Route 53 and
®

Azure DNS services, which can enable quick record verification.

Your main resource for Cloud DNS Monitoring will be My Dashboards >> Cloud

» DNS zones from multiple cloud accounts from both services can be displayed in a centralized view

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

» IPAM’s interface is searchable, and can be filtered based on record type

Learn More:
Setup and monitor Windows DHCP server failover using SolarWinds IPAM
DHCP Management
DNS Management

THIRD-PARTY INTEGRATION

Integration with VMware vRO

IPAM can integrate with VMware vRealize® Orchestrator (vRO) through a vRO plug-in. This
extended functionality helps enable automated IP addresses provisioning and DNS record
management.

Automating these processes can remove the need for manual IP address management workflows
in virtual environments. This in turn can help eliminate handoffs between admin teams, which
can be time consuming and error prone. These virtual environments can scale dynamically with Check out this quick video
compute, storage, and now network addresses provisioned automatically. explaining how IPAM
automates IP Address
IPAM Integration with VMware vRealize Orchestrator Highlights: Management in virtual
environments
»» vRealize Orchestrator plug-in is designed to be easy to install for complete integration with
SolarWinds IPAM

»» The plug-in contains over a dozen workflows and actions you can leverage to script or
seamlessly integrate with vRealize Automation and vCenter Server
®

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IPAM can also add centralized monitoring and reporting of virtual environments and offers these
benefits:

»» Get help avoiding depleted IP address subnets or scopes by receiving high utilization alerts or
by tracking utilization data to capacity plan. Tracking this data can help you project the point at
which IP address pools in your virtual environment are likely to be depleted of their addresses.

»» Utilize IPAM’s customizable out-of-the-box templates so you can achieve fast, flexible, and
centralized reporting of your IP address space

Learn more about automating IP address management for virtual environments

API Support

You can manage IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses in IPAM via API using Windows PowerShell and the
® ®

Orion SDK or OrionSDK for Python. This can enable two-way integration with third-party software,
including automation, orchestration, inventory management, and help desk systems.

The IPAM-specific API fields are documented on the IPAM API wiki page in the Orion SDK.

You can perform these supported operations:

»» Get the first available IP address for a specified subnet

»» Change IP node status

»» Start, finish, and cancel an IP address reservation

»» Create a new subnet

»» Add a DNS ‘A’ record for an IP address

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

»» Change a DNS ‘A’ record for an IP address

»» Remove a DNS ‘A’ record for an IP address

»» Add an ‘A’ record with an associated PTR for a zone

»» Add PTR to a DNS ‘A’ record

»» Create an IP address reservation on a DHCP server

»» Remove an IP address reservation from a DHCP server

»» Get an ‘A’ record and PTR records for a DNS zone

»» Create a custom property

»» Update a custom property

»» Reorder a custom property

»» Delete a custom property

»» CRUD operations for subnets

»» CRUD operations for IP addresses

Learn More:
SWISS API to perform IPAM operations

ACTIVE ALERTING AND MONITORING

It’s difficult to know where or how IP addresses are being used if you don’t have alerting and
monitoring features in place. IP data can help admins make informed decisions. Without it, admins
may not be aware of conflicts until users report connectivity issues. The frequency of IP duplication
is higher in manual IP management because there is no means to know when IP resources are
low, which can lead to a higher probability of network issues.

You can use IPAM to:

»» Monitor and alert when there is an IP conflict in the network

»» Monitor and alert when DHCP scopes exceed utilization thresholds

»» Automatically detect DNS forward and reverse mismatches

»» View real-time status of IP address availability and IP address details

»» View event history to determine if an IP address has recently changed

»» Perform active IP address conflict detection

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Monitoring
Your main resource for monitoring will be My Dashboards > IP Addresses > IPAM Summary

The IPAM summary page is built to provide a single plane of glass for monitoring subnets, DHCP
scopes, IP address conflicts, DNS records mismatches, and more. Giving us a clear and
accurate record of the state
of our IP addressing. IP
Address Manager will notify
us when a subnet is close
to capacity allowing us to
provision a larger subnet in
a planned fashion before it
becomes a service affecting
issue.

— Network
Administrator, State &
Local Government
4

4 Source: TechValidate. TVID: 8D8-0AA-1A9 (Published: May, 2015)

Alerting
IPAM is designed to offer many predefined alerts for common problems, such as IP address
conflicts or high subnet usage.

By default, alerts appear in the Active Alerts resource on the Orion Platform homepage.

To see all alerts, you can click the All Active Alerts button in the Active Alerts resource, or you can
go to Alerts and Activities ➔ Alerts. On this page, you can:

»» Click on any alert to go to the Alert Details page for more information

»» Click Manage Alerts to enable/disable, add or edit any alert

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

COLLABORATIVE IP MANAGEMENT
IPAM allows each team to manage their own subnets, address blocks, and DHCP and DNS services
without impacting each other. Role-based administration can help streamline user delegation and
reduce downtime due to human errors.

You can use IPAM to:

»» Grant varying privilege levels and custom roles for enhanced control and security

»» Create and edit role definitions down to the subnet level to restrict user access

»» Define user access roles per subnet, group, or supernet

To add or edit user roles or permissions go to Settings ➔ All Settings ➔ IPAM Settings ➔
Manage Roles and Permissions

Learn More:

User Role Delegation

IPAM Licensing
IPAM is licensed in accordance with the number of IP addresses you manage in one of three
statuses: Used, Reserved, and Transient. Unused and available IPs do not count towards managed
IP count. IPAM licensing works in the same way for both IPv4 and IPv6.

The following licensing tiers of IPAM are currently available:

LICENSE MANAGED IP ADDRESSES

IPAM IP1000 Up to 1024

IPAM IP4000 Up to 4096

IPAM IP16000 Up to 16384

IPAM IPX Unlimited

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EVALUATION GUIDE: IP ADDRESS MANAGER

Ready to Buy?
Generate a quote online—easy and fast!

On our Contact Us page, you can find a listing of toll-free numbers for a number of countries,
as well as a web form to contact our sales team. We will be more than happy to answer any of
your questions.

For direct technical support with installation, configuration, setup, operation, or other product-
related issues, you can Submit a Ticket via our Customer Portal (even without a SolarWinds
Customer ID).

AMERICAS FEDERAL, FEDERAL RESELLER, RESELLER, VARS, DISTRIBUTORS

Phone: 866.530.8100 AND SYSTEM INTEGRATORS Phone: +1 512.682.9877
Fax: 512.682.9301 Phone: +1 877.946.3751 Fax: +1 855.498.4155
Email: sales@solarwinds.com +1 512.682.9884 Email: reseller@solarwinds.com
Email: federalsales@solarwinds.com

EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST EUROPE NATIONAL/CENTRAL/

AND AFRICA FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Phone: +353 21 500 2900 Phone: +353 21 2330440
Email: sales@solarwinds.com Email: nationalgovtsales@solarwinds.com

ASIA
Phone: +65 6422 4123
Email:apacsales@solarwinds.com

PACIFIC
Phone: +61 2 8412 4910
Email:apacsales@solarwinds.com

Additional Resources
Getting Started Guide Release notes – latest, historical
Administrator’s guide IPAM Success Center

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About SolarWinds
SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) provides powerful and affordable IT management software to custom-
ers world- wide, from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses, managed service providers
®

(MSPs), government agencies, and educational institutions. We are committed to focusing ex-
clusively on IT, MSP, and DevOps professionals, and strive to eliminate the complexity that our
customers have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. Regardless
of where the IT asset or user sits, SolarWinds delivers products that are easy to find, buy, use,
maintain, and scale while providing the power to address key areas of the infrastructure from
on-premises to the cloud. This focus and commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT
performance management has established SolarWinds as the worldwide leader in both network
management software and MSP solutions, and is driving similar growth across the full spectrum
of IT management software. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base,
which interacts in our THWACK online community to solve problems, share technology and
®

best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today
at www.solarwinds.com.

© 2018 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC
or its affiliates, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other
countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common law marks or are registered or pending
registration. All other trademarks mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may
be registered trademarks) of their respective companies.
This document may not be reproduced by any means nor modified, decompiled, disassembled, published or distributed, in whole or in
part, or translated to any electronic medium or other means without the prior written consent of SolarWinds. All right, title, and interest in
and to the software, services, and documentation are and shall remain the exclusive property of SolarWinds and its respective licensors.
SOLARWINDS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS OR OTHER TERMS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE,
ON SOFTWARE, SERVICES, AND DOCUMENTATION FURNISHED HEREUNDER INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES
OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SO-
LARWINDS, ITS SUPPLIERS, NOR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER ARISING IN TORT, CONTRACT OR ANY
OTHER LEGAL THEORY EVEN IF SOLARWINDS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
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