The running environment is the communication engine between Automation Assembler and the external IPAM system. Integrators of external IPAM systems work with the tools provided by the running environment to build a set of scripts and workflows that can execute IPAM operations.

You implement one script or workflow for each operation that the IPAM service supports. The IPAM service sends requests in a properly defined format to the running environment and asks it to perform a certain IPAM operation, such as Allocate IP for VM or Obtain a list of IP ranges.

To complete the IPAM operation, the running environment executes the respective script or workflow that performs that specific task.

Currently, the only supported running environment is actions-based extensibility or ABX. You create ABX workflows in Automation Assembler.

With ABX, you can use the full potential of FaaS services such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and OpenFaaS (action-based extensibility on-prem). Author the source code scripts in Python, NodeJS, or any other language that ABX supports.

For more information about creating a running environment within the context of a sample external IPAM integration workflow, see the following product documentation: