IP Address Management (IPAM)

In its simplest form, IP address management could be assigned, fixed, static IP addresses. You must address adds, deletes and changes of IP addresses. You must be aware of retired devices and recycle their IP addresses. You must be aware of the changes necessary when moving a device from one network to another. This is IP address management, and home or small office environments need no additional mechanized management.

A larger environment will find that an additional investment in DHCP will allows you to manage IP addresses and configuration settings more efficiently.  DHCP will perform IP address assignment and permits static assignment while enabling dynamic assignment.

An even larger environment of multiple DHCP servers and many networks will find an additional investment in an IP Address Management system worthwhile.

Key IPAM capabilities for IPv6 include:

• End-to-end IPv6 Address Management including routing prefixes for global unicast, subnet ID’s and interface ID’s
• IPv6 DNS management – including AAAA and the IPv6.ARPA reverse space
• IPv6 DHCP management – stateless option support (through discovery) for address assignment
• IPv6 network discovery to inventory your IPv4 and IPv6 networks and resources
• Parallel management of IPv6, IPv4 and dual-stacked networks and devices

Infoblox offers a free product. InfobloxIP address management freeware includes the Infoblox IP address manager, Smart Folders, Network Map (with subnet management) and IPv6 capabilities.

See also: Proteus from BlueCat Networks and alternative IP address tracker tools (http://comparite.ch/ipatracktools).