Item: SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
Rating: 8
Author: Steve Jenovai

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use IPAM both internally and to monitor IP usage for several of our customers. We provide industrial IT solutions to municipalities and other large industries. One of the frequent problems we run into is undocumented devices. IPAM allow us to scan the environment and locate any connected device that has an IP address associated with it. Because IPAM also records the last response, we can also look for devices that may have been removed or gone down since they were scanned.

IPAM also makes it easy to organize subnets via folders and subfolders that contain named ranges. Because we are often dealing with customers that have multiple sites with multiple IP ranges, IPAM has been a good tool to simplify management of these subnets. IPAM also integrates with the rest of the Solarwinds suite, meaning that clicking on an address in IPAM will link to any monitored details.

Pros and Cons

Because of the integration with the Solarwinds suite, IPAM not only scans for devices, but links to any monitored details for that device. This is particularly nice when you have multiple sites and subnets that you are tracking
IPAM allows you to populate DNS. Since many of the devices we work with are non-standard non-windows devices, it allows us to update DNS as soon as a device is discovered and identified
Provides a great way to manage IP addresses, since IP addresses can be reserved and commented on. We use IPAM as our definitive source for finding available static IP addresses.

IPAM alerting is limited. Ideally, I'd like to be able to set up notifications for events such as a reserved IP address becoming active.

Return on Investment

Much better customer service. We are able to easily identify every active IP address on our customer networks. Many times we identify devices they never knew they had.
Reduces our time in mapping a customer environment
Allows us to easily add DNS entries for devices that do not autopopulate DNS

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer, SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, SolarWinds Network Device Monitor, SolarWinds Virtualization Manager, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor

Likelihood to Recommend

IPAM is a good fit for environments with multiple sites and multiple subnets. It is also a useful tool when determining available static IP addresses. At my last company, we replaced cumbersome subnet spreadsheets with IPAM, and suddenly we actually knew if the address was really available. It may not be as sophisticated as the other SolarWinds tools, but it just as useful.

Users and Roles

5 - Customer Service, Engineering Support, Help Desk

Support Headcount Required

5 - IPAM is fairly simple to understand. But it is most often used by IT admins or engineers with some networking knowledge. An understanding of DNS, and our company strategy for naming is also important.

Business Processes Supported

Identification and alerting for oversubscribed IP ranges
Rapid understanding of customer IP environment
Troubleshooting of remote sites where we need to know location and customer

Innovative Uses

ability to update DNS directly from IPAM. This feature has made it possible to quickly and efficiently update DNS for the many devices we deal with that do not autopopulate DNS

Likelihood to Renew

IPAM is an integral tool for helping us understand our customer's environment.

Implementation Rating

Know the full scope of what you will be installing. Solarwinds can be a very complex installation. IPAM is just one fairly simplistic piece.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal - The solarwinds upgrade process is not trivial. There is a recommended order and version requirement that is laborious, and if done improperly can cause issues or break the product. Make backups/snapshots at every step. Monitoring of solarwinds was managed by a secondary product during the upgrade.

Implementation Issues

Documentation is overly complex. The "quick installation" guide (for the whole suite) is 98 pages. Even when you strip out the legalese and marketing bs, it is still too wordy and needlessly complex
Solarwinds really needs MS-SQL standard or better. It works with express, but in most environments, you will be purchasing MS-SQL if you don't already have an instance.

Support Rating

IPAM issues where simple to answer. However with more complex questions, there can be a tendency for Solarwinds to not dig deeply enough to give the full answer. I have heard "That can't be done" a couple of times only to figure out that the item in question can in fact be done, just not easily.

SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Support understands my problem Quick Initial Response	None

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Scanning of IP ranges automatically
Updating DNS with unresolved IP addresses directly from IPAM
Alerting on subnet overusage

Difficult Tasks

IP specific alerting

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes, but I don't use it

IPAM - Simple, but very useful

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds IPAM