SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) is a broad IP address management (IPAM) solution that offers consolidated management and monitoring of all organisation’s IP addresses, subnets, as well as DHCP/DNS services from a single, easy-to-use web console. SolarWinds IPAM includes functionality for automating IP address management, simplifying network management, and improving overall operational efficiency, saving IT administrators’ valuable time and efforts.
SolarWinds IP Address Manager software gives the capability to prevent IP conflicts with powerful IPv6 and IPv4 address management. This system also as an option, integrates with other SolarWinds tools, including SAM, UDT and NPM. It can delegate IP administration to systems and networks utilising role-based access. An also can stop issues by monitoring and receiving alerts about IP conflicts and scope/subnet depletion. Other benefits include managing a variety of servers, from BIND DNS servers to Cisco and Microsoft servers, as well as saving time reclaiming or provisioning IP addresses with DNS and DHCP integration.
SolarWinds® IPAM provides you with detailed real-time IP address status reports to help you head off common network connectivity and security issues. If your IP records aren’t up to date, it’s possible for an IP address to be reassigned, resulting in a duplicate IP address assignment.
Another common error occurs when an admin sends an unanswered ping request and assumes the address is available, even though the lack of a response could be due to a temporary problem or offline system. Only an automated IP scanner tool can offer the insights you need for effective IP management.
Don’t lose track of IP address health across your network. SolarWinds IP Address Manager helps you stay on top of dynamic network changes and IP status. You can automatically conduct periodic IP scans, whether every 10 minutes or once per week.
Use IP scans to build and maintain documentation of your IP address blocks and gain historical insights into network health. Gather IP data and relevant hostname details using IPAM’s periodic ICMP. Leverage information provided by the SNMP polling feature—including MAC addresses and system info—to view performance stats and topology.
The IPAM network scanner makes it possible to integrate the management of both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses into a single interface. IPAM will automatically discover IPv4 addresses, while IPv6 discovery uses the neighborhood discovery protocol (NDP).
You can use the step-by-step wizard to create an IPv6 global prefix or subnet, allowing you to organize and assign IPv6 addresses. You can then enable an automatic IP network scanner for both IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks to provide insights about the IP address status, MAC address, system name and description, or vendor details.
Subnets are smaller, typically more efficient network segments admins create within a larger business network. With SolarWinds IP Address Manager as your subnet scanner, it’s easy to create subnets and hierarchies using the Subnet Allocation Wizard, then schedule and perform automated IP address scans across your network subnets.
You can use the IPAM interface to search across all your subnets, a group of subnets, or within a specific subnetwork. Admins can configure new scans or edit existing subnet scans within the Manage Subnets & IP Addresses screen. It’s easy to set the subnet scanner interval to any frequency between every 10 minutes and every seven days.
Using an IP range scanner, admins can set a specified range of addresses to automatically discover active IP addresses within that range. This can be especially useful within large subnets. IPAM helps admins detect used devices through Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping sweeps. With this feature, admins can quickly search for a defined range of IP addresses across managed nodes and poll devices for response time, status, and availability.
IPAM offers control over IP range scanning—admins can use Orion® Polling Settings to set schedules separately for nodes, interfaces, and volumes.
If you rely on spreadsheets or other insufficient tools, scanning an entire network for IP addresses and issues can eat up valuable time. Leveraging IPAM as your IP network scanner enables you to scan your entire network automatically on an ongoing basis. Use IPAM to monitor and manage DHCP servers, DNS servers, and IP addresses from a single interface.
IPAM also allows you to manage your Infoblox environment, VMware, and cloud resources, and allows you to scan your network while leveraging user-defined fields like asset tag and serial number to facilitate precise network device management.
SolarWinds® IP Address Manager (IPAM) is designed to eliminate the need to manually manage IP address data with complicated spreadsheets. By quickly identifying and updating device information, an automated IP address discovery tool can help make IP discovery quicker and a more accurate process.
SolarWinds IPAM is built to scan your network for all IP addresses, checks their statuses, and reports the details. IP Address Manager also uses automated subnet discovery and neighbor discovery techniques to help identify and accurately manage IP subnets, address blocks, and connected hosts to present real-time IP address information.
Especially for large networks, manually updating device data can run a high risk of human error.
An automated discovery process helps ensure the IP discovery process won’t be subject to any of the unnecessary risks associated with manual data collection. IP Address Manager uses Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and neighbor discovery to automatically locate devices and collect comprehensive device details.
SolarWinds IPAM offers an Automated Subnet Discovery wizard for you to discover routers and easily poll them for subnets using related IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
If you wish to use the wizard to scan unmonitored routers, you can manually add routers to your discovery scan. The discovery wizard will then import your subnet configurations into your IPAM settings, which can help you avoid the time-consuming process of manually importing subnets from spreadsheets.
Monitor your Amazon and Azure DNS records from a single pane of glass without having to login to separate management consoles. You can also monitor multiple Amazon or Azure cloud accounts. IPAM’s interface is searchable, and can be filtered based on record type.
Centrally monitor and manage Microsoft and BIND DNS services, including the ability to create, edit, or remove DNS zones and records. All DNS changes you make in IPAM are seamlessly propagated to the respective servers. IPAM will also automatically detect DNS forward and reverse record mismatches, and the creation of DNS/PTR records when registering new devices into DNS zones.
IP Address Manager can generate automated custom DNS record reports, which can be scheduled to automatically run to help you track changes to records.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) provides end-to-end visibility of your business-critical applications running on private, public, and hybrid cloud environments. This includes automated alerts for application failures. Since SAM and IPAM are both part of the Orion® Platform, you can quickly access DNS records to verify if broken or missing records are the cause without having to login to another console.
Reporting and alerting is included with IP Address Manager Infoblox support and leverages the intuitive, easy-to-use Orion® Platform. The ability to alert on scopes and subnets that are approaching capacity helps keep admins ahead of performance issues. Out-of-the-box Infoblox reporting tracks subnet utilization to help with capacity planning.
Save time viewing Infoblox network views by having all routing domains displayed in a single, unified view. Quickly identify conflicting IP addresses as well as DNS forward and reverse mismatches to reduce connectivity issues and network downtime.
Admins can avoid “swivel chair” monitoring of multi-vendor DNS and DHCP environments with a centralized management console. The integrated and unified view also provides valuable resources to track IP address usage, including top 10 DHCP subnet/scopes by utilization, IP address conflicts, and DNS records mismatches.
Automated IPv4 and IPv6 Address Scanning
IPAM is designed so you can easily set up scheduled, automatic scanning for both your IPv4 and IPv6 address space. This can reduce manual errors and help ensure that your network’s IP address information is always up to date.
Integrated IP, DHCP, and DNS Management
Admins can quickly find available addresses and easily configure them on DHCP and DNS systems.
Multi-Vendor DHCP and DNS Services
Admins can save time by managing Microsoft® ,Cisco® , and ISC open source DHCP servers, as well as your BIND and Microsoft DNS servers, from a single management console.
Cloud DNS Monitoring
Be able to monitor both your Amazon Web Services™ (AWS® ) Route 53™, and Azure® DNS zones and records from a centralized console. This can enable the immediate troubleshooting of broken or missing DNS records in hybrid environments.
Infoblox® Monitoring
IP Address Manager can monitor your Infoblox 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 workflows. Automating these tasks can help enable virtual environments to scale dynamically.
API Support
IPAM can offer API support with CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations to help enable two-way
integration with third-party software, including automation, orchestration, inventory.
Release date: November 5, 2019
IPAM 2019.4 is an Orion Platform product and uses Orion Platform 2019.4.
IPAM 2019.4 includes the following features:
Advanced Import/Export functionality
Miscellaneous improvements
Release Date: November 5, 2019
With this release, SolarWinds IPAM no longer supports the SWIS v2 schema, and the SWIS v3 schema is used instead. The IPAM.AttrDefine and IPAM.Conflict entities now have different structures as shown below:
<entity name=”IPAM.AttrDefine” base=”System.Entity”>
<property name=”TargetTable” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”Name” type=”System.String” />
<verb name=”AddCustomProperty” method=”AddCustomProperty” codebehind=”SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.V3.Verbs.CustomPropertyManagement, SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.v3″></verb>
<verb name=”UpdateCustomProperty” method=”UpdateCustomProperty” codebehind=”SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.V3.Verbs.CustomPropertyManagement, SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.v3″></verb>
<verb name=”DeleteCustomProperty” method=”DeleteCustomProperty” codebehind=”SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.V3.Verbs.CustomPropertyManagement, SolarWinds.Data.Providers.Orion.IPAM.v3″></verb>
</entity>
<entity name=”IPAM.AttrDefine” base=”System.Entity”>
<property name=”AttrId” type=”System.Int32″ key=”True” />
<property name=”AttributeTypeID” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”ColumnName” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”DisplayName” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”LinkTitle” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”DisplayOrder” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”Description” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ValueRtType” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ValueDbType” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ValueConstraint” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”TableParticipants” type=”System.String” />
</entity>
<entity name=”IPAM.Conflict” base=”System.Entity” >
<property name=”ConflictId” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”IPNodeID” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”IPAddress” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”IPAddressN” type=”System.Guid” />
<property name=”SubnetId” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”ConflictType” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”ConflictTimeUTC” type=”System.DateTime” />
<property name=”ConflictStatus” type=”System.Byte” />
<property name=”AssignedMac” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”AssignedRawMac” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”AssignedSourceType” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”AssignedSourceText” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictingMac” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictingRawMac” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictingSourceType” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”ConflictingSourceText” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictTypeText” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictTypeIcon” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”AssignMACVendIcon” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”ConflictMACVendIcon” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”SubnetAddress” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”GroupType” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”SubnetStatus” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”IPStatus” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”SubnetAddressN” type=”System.Guid” />
<property name=”AccountID” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”Role” type=”System.String” />
</entity>
<entity name=”IPAM.Conflict” base=”System.Entity”>
<property name=”ConflictId” type=”System.Int32″ key=”True” />
<property name=”ObjectId” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”Time” type=”System.DateTime” />
<property name=”UserName” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”Type” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”IPAddress” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”IPAddressN” type=”System.Guid” />
<property name=”Description” type=”System.String” />
<property name=”DeletedOn” type=”System.DateTime” />
</entity>
<entity name=”IPAM.ConflictData” base=”System.Entity”>
<property name=”ConflictId” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”DataBy” type=”System.Int32″ />
<property name=”Data” type=”System.String” />
</entity>
The following table lists software requirements and recommendations for a SolarWinds installation on both physical and virtual computers.
SolarWinds recommends that SolarWinds Orion administrators have local administrator privileges on the Orion server to ensure full functionality of local SolarWinds tools.
SolarWinds Orion user accounts limited to the Orion Web Console do not require local administrator privileges.
RPC ports > 1024 (TCP, bidirectional) are used by the Job Engine v2 process to communicate with Windows nodes.
| Port | Protocol | Direction | Description | Encryption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | TCP | Used for zone transfers, DNS record polling | ||
| 161 | UDP | bidirectional | Statistics collection | |
| 17777 | TCP | bidirectional | Orion module traffic. Open the port to enable communication from your poller to the Orion Web Console, and from the Orion Web Console to your poller.
High Availability Service. Used for communication between the main server and pool members. Job Engine V2, Collector Service, Business Layer, and Information Service v2,23. Used for communication between the services. The port used for communication between the Orion Web Console and the poller. |
RSA handshake, AES 256 communication using WCF |
| 17778 | TCP | Required to access the SolarWinds Information Service API and agent communication
SolarWinds Information Service API |
SSL |
The following table lists minimum hardware requirements and recommendations for a single standalone instance of IPAM.
| IP1000/4000 | IP16000 | IPX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Speed
Dual processor, dual core is recommended. |
2.0 Ghz | 2.4 GHz | 3.0 GHz |
| Hard drive space | 2 GB | 5 GB | 20 GB |
| Memory | 4 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
Because Orion uses SNMP to monitor your network, if you are unable to dedicate a network interface card to your Orion server, you may experience gaps in monitoring data because of the low priority generally assigned to SNMP traffic.
The following table lists software and hardware requirements for your SolarWinds Orion database server using SolarWindsNPM license levels.
The Orion server and the SolarWinds Orion database must use separate servers.
If you install on a virtual machine, you must maintain your SQL Server database on a separate, physical drive.
As of Orion Platform 2019.2, you can use Azure SQL as your database server.
As of Orion Platform 2018.2, you can use Amazon RDS as your database server.
| IP1000 | IP16000 | IPX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server | Express, Standard, or Enterprise versions of the following:
|
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End-of-support notice: Orion Platform products are no longer compatible with SQL Server 2012, 2012 SP1, 2012 SP2, 2012 SP3, and 2012 SP4. To use new features introduced since Orion Platform 2018.4, upgrade your environment at your earliest convenience. Recommendations
|
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| SQL Server collation |
We support CI database on an CS SQL Server. We do not support case-sensitive databases. |
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| CPU | Dual quad core processor, 3.0 GHz or better | Dual quad core processor, 3.0 GHz or better | Dual quad core processor. 3.0 GHz or better |
| Hard drive space | 2 GB minimum | 5 GB minimum | 20 GB minimum |
|
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| Memory | 4 GB minimum
8 GB recommended |
8 GB minimum
16 GB recommended |
16 GB minimum
32 GB recommended |
| Authentication | Either mixed-mode or Windows authentication. If you require SQL authentication, you must enable mixed mode on your SQL server. | ||
| Other software | SolarWinds recommends you install the SQL Server Management Studio component on your Orion server.
The Installation wizard installs the following required x86 components if they are not found on your Orion database server:
You cannot share the SolarWinds Orion database with Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, and with Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry servers. |
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For requirements for deploying SolarWinds Orion products to the Amazon cloud, see the Orion Platform system requirements.
For requirements for deploying SolarWinds Orion products to the Azure cloud, see the Orion Platform system requirements.
SolarWinds Orion IPAM 2020.2 supports DHCP and DNS servers running:
