You can create a provider-specific external IPAM integration point to manage the IP addresses used in your cloud template deployments. When using an external IPAM integration point, IP addresses are obtained from and managed by the designated IPAM provider rather than from vRealize Automation.

You can create a provider-specific IPAM integration point to manage IP addresses and DNS settings for cloud template deployments and VMs in vRealize Automation.

For information about how to configure the prerequisites, and an example of how to create a provider-specific external IPAM integration point within the context of a sample workflow, see Add an external IPAM integration for Infoblox in vRealize Automation. Note that this workflow is for an Infoblox IPAM integration but can be used as reference for any external IPAM vendor.

For information about how to create the needed assets to enable external IPAM partners and vendors to integrate their IPAM solution with vRealize Automation, see How do I use the IPAM SDK to create a provider-specific external IPAM integration package for vRealize Automation.

Prerequisites

  • 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.
  • Verify that you have access to a deployed integration package for the IPAM provider, such as Infoblox or BlueCat. The deployed package is initially obtained as a .zip download from your IPAM provider or the VMware Marketplace and then deployed to vRealize Automation.
  • Verify that you have access to a configured running environment for the IPAM provider.
  • If you are using an actions-based extensibility (ABX) On-Prem Embedded running environment, verify that you have an HTTP proxy server in the vRealize Automation network that is able to pass outgoing traffic to external sites such as gcr.io and storage.googleapis.com. For details, see Pulling Docker images behind proxy in vRealize Automation 8.x (75180).
  • Verify that you have the required user credentials to access and use the IPAM vendor product. See your integration vendor's product documentation for information about required user permissions.

Procedure

  1. Select Infrastructure > Connections > Integrations and click Add Integration.
  2. Click IPAM.
  3. In the Provider drop-down, select a configured IPAM provider package from the list.

    If the list is empty, click Import Provider Package, navigate to an existing provider package .zip file, and select it. If you do not have the .zip file, you can obtain it from the VMware Marketplace.

  4. Enter your administrator user name and password credentials for your account with the external IPAM provider, along with all other (if any) mandatory fields, such as the host name of your provider.
  5. In the Running Environment drop-down list, select an existing running environment, such as on-premises actions-based extensibility integration point.

    The running environment supports communication between vRealize Automation and the IPAM provider.

    The IPAM framework only supports an actions-based extensibility (ABX) On-Prem Embedded running environment.

    Note: If you use an Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure cloud account as the integration running environment, be sure that the IPAM provider appliance is accessible from the Internet and is not behind a NAT or firewall and that it has a publicly resolvable DNS name. If the IPAM provider is not accessible, the Amazon Web Services Lambda or Microsoft Azure Functions cannot connect to it and the integration will fail.
  6. Click Validate.
  7. When prompted to trust the self-signed certificate from the external IPAM provider, click Accept.
    After you accept the self-signed certificate, the validation action can continue to completion.
  8. Enter a name for this IPAM integration point and click Add to save the new IPAM integration point.
    A data collection action is imitated. Networks and IP addresses are data-collected from the external IPAM provider.