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Working with IP Blocks

IP Blocks are edited and managed in either the IPAM Manage page or IPAM Gadget. Both IPAM Manage and IPAM Gadget have customizable column names, order, and visibility, as well as options for user-defined meta columns. For details on setting up customization of the IPAM Manage / IPAM Gadget block list, see IPAM Lists Management.

Common tasks in IPAM include creating IP Aggregates, Auto Split / Clean up an aggregate, setting alerts, and managing individual blocks.

Adding/Deleting IP Aggregates

On the main IPAM Tab, expand the "Add Aggregate" module.

Once clicked, you get a more detailed screen to add an aggregate block. Enter in the CIDR and RIR, at minimum, and Region, Tags, Resource, Domain, VLAN, and subassignment status if desired. 

When done, click "Add Aggregate". The Aggregate will be listed under the Host Utilization and Aggregate Blocks list of the IPAM Tab.

Open IPAM Manage for an Aggregate

Open IPAM Manage for a block by:

  • Searching for the block in the Global search, and clicking on the resulting CIDR
  • Clicking the "Open" link in the aggregate blocks list
  • Clicking on the CIDR header of the Aggregate Block Host Utilization module, or selecting "Edit" from the module's Gear Icon


Working in IPAM Manage

In IPAM Manage, you can manage aggregate level actions, such as Split , Clean Up, Alerts, and Export, as well as viewing and managing individual blocks. 

Aggregate Actions

Open up aggregate level actions in IPAM Manage by clicking on the "Actions" link in the Manage Aggregate header. Three options are available - Auto Split, Clean Up, and Manage Alerts.

Auto Split Aggregate

Auto Split an available aggregate into blocks of a specific size, up to a specific quantity of blocks by selecting "Size" and "Limit" under "Auto Split". 

The block limit must be a power of two, or an error will appear. When done, click "Split".

Clean Up Aggregate

Clean up an Aggregate into fewer blocks of a specific size, by selecting your desired block size and clicking "ignore assignments" (if blocks have assignments that would prevent merging).

When done, click the "Clean Up" button. All blocks will be merged to the set size and reset to available. 

Set Aggregate Alerts

Enable or clear aggregate alert emails for the aggregate by setting an email address and utilization percentage level.

When the aggregate is utilized to the set percent, an email alert will be sent to the provided address.


Note: the "IPAM Alerts" task must be created and set to the desired notification frequency in the Admin Scheduler Tab in order for the emails to be sent.


When done, click "Save Alert".  To clear an existing alert, hit "Clear Alert", and the alert information will be removed and status saved. 

Architecting IP Address Blocks

Splitting/Merging blocks manually

To split a block manually - While in the IPAM Mange screen, click on the Action Menu (Gear icon), or right-click anywhere in the row for the available block you wish to modify.

In the menu that appears, select the "Split" function. To aggregate blocks, select "Merge" from the same menu. 

Splitting/Aggregating blocks with Templates

Templates for a block are available under the Action Menu (wrench icon or right-click) for that block.

There are two templates available: Cleanup (Only available for parent blocks) which auto-aggregates the block, and Auto-split. 

Select the available template action, the mask, and the limit. When done, click the "Apply" button.

You can also use the "Templates" option from the Action Menu on the IPAM Manage screen for the specific block. 


IP Block parameters and Editing Attributes

Select the "Edit" option from the Action Menu (or double click on the block row) for a given block to get the Edit Attributes menu. 

To edit multiple blocks at a time, shift-click each block you wish to edit - they will highlight in blue. Once selected, right-click on any highlighted block to open the multi-edit attributes screen.

Once selected, right-click on any highlighted block to open the multi-edit attributes screen.

From here you can set a variety of attributes for a given block. These values are also customizable from the Admin screen - see IPAM Administration and IPAM Parameters to customize, enable, or disable the available parameters. 

After editing the desired attributes for the block, simply hit "Save". 

Edit Attributes Overview:

RIR: The RIR associated with the aggregate / block.

LIR: If LIRs are set up in IPAM Admin for the associated RIR, they will be selectable in this dropdown. See LIR Management and Use.

Domain: The VLAN Domain to associate with the block.  To set up domains in ProVision,  see VLAN Administration.

VLAN: VLAN information for the block, must have domain selected to view available VLANs.

Generic: This is a customizable text field that can be used to track information specific to your needs. It can be filtered in the IPAM Manage screen.

The header, display, and enable/disable settings for this field are set under IPAM Configuration in the IPAM Administration section. 

ASN: The ASN to associate with the block.

Region: Select the region from the drop down menu. Regions can be added and customized in the IPAM Admin section of ProVision - see IPAM Administration and IPAM Parameters. 

Tags: Tags can be set under Edit Tags in the IPAM Administration section. 

Notes: Freeform text field for additional information you wish to capture. 

Resource: The resource assigned to the block.

Metadata1 - Metadata 10:  User-defined text fields,  as set in IPAM Administration Edit Columns.


Allow Subassignments: When editing a block that has been assigned, toggling this setting to "On" allows for further subassignments, indicated by a blue arrow next to the assignment in the Manage screen. Note: Subassign status cannot be changed if a block has children. 

Propagate Attributes to Children: Toggle this setting to "On" when editing a parent block to carry through attribute changes to all children of that block. To view parent blocks, simply ensure that top level or all masks are selected in the Filter menu in the IPAM Manage screen.

Note: The VLAN of a child cannot be different from that of its parent, so for mutil-level situations (Parent -> Child -> Grandchild), VLAN should be updated at the top tier parent level.

Assigning IP Space

There are two areas where you can assign IP Space: in the IPAM Gadget for the particular Resource, or through IPAM Manage for manually assigning a block to a resource. The IPAM Gadget allows for more detailed assignment options including Direct Assign, Smart Browse, and Smart Assign with advanced options, and is the primary tool for space assignment. 

Assigning Space from the IPAMv2 Gadget

The IPAM Gadget is accessed from a Resource Entry page, once enabled for the Section (to add Gadgets, see Customizing Sections and Add Gadgets to your Section).

For additional details on the IPAMv2 Gadget, see Gadgets.

You have three options for assigning IP space using the IPAM Gadget: Direct Assign, Smart Assign, and Smart Browse.

Direct Assign:



Simple Direct Assign:

Expand the "Direct Assign" module of the IPAMv2 Gadget by clicking the "Expand" arrow on the right side of the header.


Type the desired CIDR to assign in the CIDR input box, then click "Assign". A message will appear to confirm success, or provide details on an error.

Advanced Direct Assign:

In some cases, you make need the ability to further specify a block to direct assign - such as if you have duplicate 1918 blocks. The "Advanced Options" filters allow for further detail to be provided to ensure ProVision assigns the specific block that is intended.

Expand the "Advanced Options + " link to the right of the "Direct Assign" module header.

Then, add in the desired CIDR, and set your additional filter criteria, such as RIR, region, LIR, VLAN, and so forth. When done, hit "Assign".


Smart Assign / Smart Browse:



Expand the "Smart Assign" module in the IPAMv2 by clicking the expansion arrow in the right side of the Smart Assign header.

For a basic assignment, enter at least the IP type, RIR, and block size.

IP Tag filters are optional. IP Tag filters exist in three modes:

Standard - checks to see if the selected tag is associated with the block

Strict: limits results to blocks with exactly the selected tag(s)

Exclude - blocks without the selected tag(s)

For Advanced Options, Click the "Advanced Options +" expansion link in the top right of the header. Additional filter criteria will be available to apply to both Smart Browse and Smart Assign.

Then click "Smart Browse" or "Smart Assign".

For Smart Assign, you will receive a message indicating a successful assignment, or information regarding an error. If no blocks are available meeting the criteria, the message will say so. In this case, try removing one or more of your filter criteria and try again.

For Smart Browse, a screen will pop up showing blocks meeting your criteria. Browse to the block you want to assign, and click either "Assign this block", or "Assign from this block"(splits a larger block down).

Successful assignments will be added to the "IP Blocks" list in the IPAMv2 Gadget, and are able to be managed in the IPAM Gadget, IPAMv2 Gadget, or IPAM Manage Screen.


Manually Assigning Space from the IPAM Manager

You can also assign blocks manually using the "Assign" function from the IPAM Manager screen (accessible from the IPAM Tab). Open the Action Menu for a block, then select "Assign".

Assignments may also be performed for multiple blocks at a time, by shift-clicking the desired blocks, and right-clicking on any highlighted row to open the multi-block menu (choose "Assign Selected Blocks") :


Then, search for / select the Resource to assign the block. A filter tool is provided to narrow the list to a particular Section type. 

When the correct resource has been selected, click the "Assign" button. If needed, a new resource can be created by clicking the "New Resource" button.

After assigning, you can further edit the block attributes or subassign space.  

'Reserving' IP Space

If you need to create a 'reserved' pool from which to assign blocks, you can achieve this by creating a "Reserved" Section. Create a Section called "Reserved", add the IPAM gadget to it, then create an Entry with that Section to be the address group. From there, use the IPAM gadget and the IPAM Manage page to assign and unassign IP space from that pool.

For more details, see the FAQ entry: "How do I 'reserve' IP Space?"

 

Sub Assigning IP Space

To allow sub assignments, just toggle the "Allow sub assignments" button to "On" under Edit block.  

Once the allow sub assignments box is checked, the block may be further split and assigned to other resources.  Split blocks may also be re-claimed to the originally assigned resource and re-aggregated.  When allow sub assignments is checked, the block is counted as allocated, but not assigned - various statistics in IPAM, on the dashboard, and reporting will reflect this.

 Sub assignments can be useful for tracking IPs assigned to a customer with multiple subsidiaries, or locations.

If a block is subassignable, a blue arrow will display in the "Assigned To" field in IPAM Manage.

In the IPAM gadget, subassignable blocks display a blue arrow in the 'Address' field.

 

Unassigning IP Space

When a block is assigned, you will have the option of unassigning the block from the resource and returning it to the Holding Tank.

To unassign the block, simply open on the Action Menu for the block and select "Unassign". You may also chose "Unassign, Skip Hold", which unassigns the block and immediately returns it to available, bypassing the holding tank. 

After unassigning blocks / skipping holding, newly available blocks will be merged upon next page refresh.

To return IP space in the Holding Tank to the Available Pool, process the Holding Tank via the Admin screen under IPAM Admin (this will only process blocks that were present for the specified number of days).

For more information on the Holding Tank, see Holding Tank Management.

Sort, Filter, and View Block Hierarchy in IPAM Manage

Sort the IPAM Manange blocks list by clicking on any header the in list - the items will toggle between ascending and descending order. 

Filter the block list in IPAM Manage by toggling the "Filter +" link in the top right corner of the aggregate header. 

A flyout will appear with filter criteria options.Type in or search for the term under your desired field, and hit "Apply". When done, click "clear". To hide the filter flyout, just click the "filter -" link again.

To view parent blocks / IP block hierarchy, in the "Filter" menu, check the "Select All Masks" checkbox and click "Apply".

Once all masks are enabled to view, the block list changes to include the "Parent" blocks, showing all masks throughout the assignment tree. 

A parent block with children will show "Has Children" in the column where assignment status is shown, and the block CIDR will show as a clickable link.

Clicking on the CIDR for a block that has children will open "Block Tree" view, showing the hierarchy of blocks and their assignments.




Additional Information

For additional information on working with the IPAM system in ProVision, see the following areas:

 

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