Item: SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Rating: 10
Author: Ted Sadler

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use IPAM to manage our extremely large network of statically assigned subnets, VLANs, and addresses. The network we manage is carrier-scale and stretches over a thousand square miles, with each device on the network having its address manually assigned. Without being able to rely on DHCP pools, we are left to manage our addressing scheme and assignments by hand, which was previously done by spreadsheet. Now, with IPAM, we can easily track what devices have what IPs, what subnets are available for assignment/expansion, and what addresses can be retired or recycled without needing to manage a large, unruly Excel file.

Pros and Cons

Organizing networks, subnets, and addresses logically using intuitive folders and hierarchical structure.
Tracking and displaying statistics for subnet allocation usage, available space, and exceeded capacity.
Providing details necessary for future network expansion.
Making it easy to associate an occupied address with the assigned device in npm.

The interface is DHCP-heavy, so if you don't use that feature it can be annoying.
The interface assumes that full = bad, so if you have well-utilized subnets with lots of assigned devices, you'll also have lots of warning icons, which can be annoying.
If your network is SNMP-heavy, having to manage SNMP credentials in both npm and IPAM can be irritating.

Return on Investment

I'm not privy to our internal or client-level ROI figures but we've saved a ton of time by switching to IPAM over our original spreadsheet management method.

Alternatives Considered

I have not used any product that does the kind of thing IPAM offers.

Support Rating

The SolarWinds team (and thwack community) is always helpful and willing to lend a hand. With that said, IPAM's interface is intuitive enough that we haven't really needed any help with it!

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (npm), SolarWinds Log Analyzer (LA), SolarWinds ipMonitor

Likelihood to Recommend

IPAM is great for seeing where you are in your subnet assignments. If you have a DHCP pool that you suspect is getting too full, IPAM will tell you. If you're manually assigning devices and need to see if another subnet needs to be created, IPAM will tell you.

However, the scanning feature is not the kind of thing you'd want to use for full device discovery. Those kinds of functions are best performed by SolarWinds NPM.

SolarWinds IP Address Manager - the best tool there is for keeping your network organized!

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)