Azure Native IP Address Management (IPAM) is a tool in Azure cloud environments, particularly when setting up your network IP address for the landing zones. Understanding when and why to utilise this resource can significantly enhance the efficiency and organisation of the cloud environment. Let’s dive in and discover how Azure Native IPAM can transform your approach to cloud management!
What is the Azure Cloud IPAM feature?
Azure Native IP Address Management (IPAM) is a new feature of the Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) service and an essential tool for managing IP address allocations within Azure Landing Zones (Virtual network). It helps streamline the process of addressing network resources efficiently and securely.
Using an IPAM tool can assist organisations with IP address planning in Azure as it provides centralised management and visibility, preventing overlaps and conflicts in IP address spaces.
Azure Native IP Address Management (IPAM) is a tool in Azure cloud environments, particularly when setting up your network IP address for the landing zones. Understanding when and why to utilise this resource can significantly enhance the efficiency and organisation of the cloud environment. Let’s dive in and discover how Azure Native IPAM can transform your approach to cloud management!
What is the Azure Cloud IPAM feature?
Azure Native IP Address Management (IPAM) is an innovative feature integrated into the Azure Virtual Network Manager (AVNM) service. It is designed to enhance the management of IP address allocations within Azure Landing Zones (Virtual Networks). This tool is pivotal for efficiently and securely managing network resources.
Implementing an IPAM (IP Address Management) tool is essential for organisations to effectively plan their IP addresses in Azure. This solution provides centralised management and visibility, eliminating any risk of overlaps or conflicts in IP address spaces of Azure Virtual networks and hybrid networks. Azure IPAM empowers network administrators by guaranteeing non-overlapping IP prefixes and automating the assignment of IP addresses to Azure resources within the specified subnets. This is a critical step in maintaining organised and efficient network operations.
The IP address management (IPAM) feature in Azure Virtual Network Manager is currently in preview and available in selected regions.
Why to use IAPM?
The Reasons to use Azure IPAM:
1. Centralised Management: Azure IPAM provides a single interface for managing IP addresses across multiple regions and simplifying administrative tasks.
2. Integration with Azure Services: Its seamless integration with other Azure services enhances operational efficiency, allowing for automated updates and compliance with best practices.
3. Enhanced Security: By leveraging native tools, you can incorporate Azure’s robust security features, helping to protect your network configuration from unauthorised access. Provides improved visibility and control over IP address assignments, enhancing network security.
4. Scalability: The Azure cloud uses the cloud landing zone and different regions, so Azure IPAM enables you to efficiently manage many IP addresses without losing control or flexibility.
How to use Azure IPAM?
Effective planning for IP address allocation across various VNets is essential to prevent overlaps between on-premises locations and the Azure cloud. Overlapping IP spaces can result in conflicts that hinder network performance and connectivity. This process can be simplified by using Azure Virtual Network Manager – IPAM, which streamlines the management of IP address spaces and helps ensure smooth integration between on-premises and cloud environments.
With Azure IPAM, network administrators can delegate control of IP address management to landing zone owners after creating IP address pools tailored to different requirements (such as production, non-production environments or specific regions) in the cloud. These IP address pools logically group CIDR ranges for various networking purposes.
Landing zone owners can then use IPAM to allocate the necessary CIDR blocks for their workloads within the VNETs. This capability simplifies identifying where IP ranges are deployed, which aids in troubleshooting and planning. IPAM is an ideal solution as it allows network administrators and landing zone owners to manage their respective areas of the network while providing visibility to authorised members and preventing IP address overlap.
The Azure IP Address Management (IPAM) feature allows users to create an IP pool with a larger CIDR while establishing a smaller child IP address pool. This flexibility enables effective IP address management. Additionally, users can associate existing virtual networks with the relevant IP address pools within the IP Address Management (IPAM) system. This integration ensures organized and efficient IP address management across different virtual networks.
Tuturoials for Creation of IPAM
In this section, let’s create an IPAM in AVNM and allocate an IP address pool for a virtual network.
- Log in to the Azure portal, select the existing Azure AVNM instance or create a new one.
- On the AVNM instance, select IP address pools (Preview) under IP address management (Preview).
3. To create a new IP address pool, click Create. Provide a valid name for the IP address pool and select the region. Since we are creating a new first pool, the parent pool is selected as none. The parent pool must be chosen appropriately while creating a child pool.
4. Select Next, select IPv4 or IPv6 and provide the appropriate IP address range (CIDR) to the IP addresses tab.
5. Provide the required tags and Click next.
6. Select Review + Create and then Create to create the IP address pool.
The new IP address pool has been created. By associating it, we can create a new virtual network.
In summary, employing Azure Native IPAM for landing zones ensures streamlined management, security, and scalability within your cloud infrastructure.
Santhosh has over 15 years of experience in the IT organization. Working as a Cloud Infrastructure Architect and has a wide range of expertise in Microsoft technologies, with a specialization in public & private cloud services for enterprise customers. My varied background includes work in cloud computing, virtualization, storage, networks, automation and DevOps.
