You can configure a network profile to support blocks of IP addresses for an on-demand network when that network profile is used in a vRealize Automation cloud template that uses external IPAM integration.
Using an existing integration for a particular external IPAM provider, you can provision on-demand network to create of a new network in the external IPAM system.
Using this process, you configure a block of IP addresses instead of supplying a parent CIDR (as is done when using vRealize Automation's internal IPAM). The IP address block is used during on-demand network provisioning to segment the new network. The IP blocks are data-collected from the external IPAM provider, provided the integration supports on-demand networking. For example, when using an Infoblox IPAM integration, IP blocks represent Infoblox network containers.
- A network is created in the external IPAM provider.
- A network is also created in vRealize Automation, reflecting the new network configuration from the IPAM provider, including settings such as CIDR and gateway properties.
- The IP address for the deployed virtual machine is fetched from the newly created network.
In this on-demand networking example, you configure a network profile to allow a cloud template deployment to provision a machine to an on-demand network in vSphere by using Infoblox as the external IPAM provider.
For related information, see How do I configure a network profile to support an existing network for an external IPAM integration in vRealize Automation. Both network configuration examples fit within the overall vendor-specific workflow for external IPAM integration at Tutorial: Configuring VMware Cloud on AWS for vRealize Automation.
Prerequisites
While the following prerequisites apply to the person who creates or edits the network profile, the network profile itself would be applicable when used by a cloud template deployment that contains an IPAM integration. To learn about vendor-specific IPAM integration points, see How to configure an external IPAM integration in vRealize Automation.
This sequence of steps is shown in the context of an IPAM provider integration workflow. See Tutorial: Configuring a provider-specific external IPAM integration for vRealize Automation.
- Verify that you have cloud administrator credentials. See Credentials required for working with cloud accounts in vRealize Automation.
- Verify that you have the cloud administrator user role. See What are the vRealize Automation user roles.
- Verify that you have an account with the external IPAM provider, for example Infoblox or Bluecat, and that you have the correct access credentials to your organization's account with the IPAM provider. In this example workflow, the IPAM provider is Infoblox.
- Verify that you have an IPAM integration point for the IPAM provider and that the IPAM package used to create the IPAM integration supports on-demand networks. See Add an external IPAM integration for Infoblox in vRealize Automation.
While the Infoblox IPAM package supports on-demand networks, if you are using an external IPAM integration for a different provider, verify that their IPAM integration package supports on-demand networks.
Procedure
Results
A network profile is created that can be used to provision an on-demand network using the specified external IPAM integration. The following sample cloud template shows a single machine to be deployed to a network that is defined by this new network profile.
formatVersion: 1
inputs: {}
resources:
Cloud_Machine_1:
type: Cloud.Machine
properties:
image: ubuntu
flavor: small
networks:
- network: '${resource.Cloud_Network_1.id}'
assignment: static
Cloud_Network_1:
type: Cloud.Network
properties:
networkType: private
constraints:
- tag: infoblox_ondemandA
networkCidr, as shown below, to manually set a CIDR and override the settings for IP blocks and subnet size that are specified in the associated network profile.
Cloud_Network_1: type: Cloud.Network properties: networkCidr: 10.10.0.0/16
