How to Manage IP Addresses (IPAM)

What IPAM does

Monitoring → IP Addresses is where every subnet and IP address you look after is recorded: what's in use, by what, what's reserved and what's free.

You don't have to type it all in. Plenix keeps IPAM up to date from what it sees on the network:

• New subnets found by your agents and scanners are added automatically. They're marked Discovered.
• Every address a scanner or agent sees is recorded, with its hostname, MAC address and vendor, and linked to the device or printer it belongs to.
• Two devices using the same address are flagged as a conflict.
• Addresses not seen for a while (30 days by default) are marked stale. Automatically discovered ones go back to the free pool.

This runs twice an hour. To run it now, click Update from network. The Network map button opens the same customers on the map.

Plan: Business and above (the Monitoring module).

The IPAM hub

Choose a customer at the top to see just their subnets, or leave it empty to see everything you have access to.

The tiles across the top are clickable:

Tile	Shows
Subnets	How many subnets, and how many were found automatically
Addresses used	How much of your address space is in use
Nearly full	Subnets over their alert level
IP conflicts	Addresses used by more than one device
Unidentified hosts	Devices on the network that couldn't be identified. Opens them on the network map
Not seen for 7 days	Addresses that have gone quiet. Opens the activity log

Subnets tab

Lists every subnet with its customer, purpose, VLAN, where it came from (added by hand, found by an agent or discovered by a scan) and a usage bar that turns amber, then red, as it fills. Search, filter by source, or tick Needs attention only to see only full subnets and subnets with conflicts. Click a subnet to open it.

Planner tab

Plan new subnets without overlapping what you already have:

1. Choose a customer at the top (or leave it empty for unassigned subnets).
2. Enter an Address block, for example 10.0.0.0/16.
3. Under Split into, choose the size of the subnets you want, for example /24, and click Plan.
4. Plenix shows what is already used inside that range, the largest free blocks, and every possible subnet of that size, marked free or taken.
5. Click a free one to create it.

Activity tab

A running log of what changed: subnets added, addresses allocated and released, conflicts found and cleared, subnets filling up, and addresses going stale. Click an entry to go to that address.

Adding a subnet

1. Click New subnet.
2. Enter the range in CIDR form, for example 192.168.10.0/24. As you type, Plenix shows the usable range and the number of addresses, and warns you if the range overlaps another subnet at the same customer. If you enter something like 192.168.10.7/24, it's corrected to the network address.
3. Choose the customer, and optionally a name, purpose (for example servers, users, voice, guest, management or IoT), VLAN, gateway, DNS servers and DHCP range.
4. Set the alert level, the percentage used at which the subnet is flagged as nearly full. The default is 80%.
5. Click Save.

Working with a subnet

Open a subnet to see:

• its range, mask, gateway, DHCP pool, DNS servers and usage;
• warnings if it's nearly full, has conflicts, or overlaps another subnet;
• smaller subnets inside it, if any.

The address map

For subnets of up to 1,024 addresses, every address is shown as a square:

Colour	Meaning
Green	Seen on the network
Blue	Allocated
Amber	Reserved
Light blue	Part of the DHCP pool
Grey	Free

A red outline marks a conflict, and the gateway is outlined in the accent colour. Hover over a square to see the address and hostname, and click it to open its details. Switch to the list view for bigger subnets, or when you want a table.

Use the status chips and search box to filter. Everything that doesn't match fades out on the map.

Address details

Click an address to see its hostname, MAC address, vendor, device type, when it was first and last seen, and the device or printer it belongs to. From there you can:

• Edit the hostname, note or status;
• Release the address, which clears it and returns it to the free pool;
• Mark a conflict as resolved once you've fixed it;
• Show on the network map;
• Allocate or reserve it, if it's free.

Allocating an address

Click Allocate. Plenix fills in the next free address; click Next free to get another. Choose Allocated or Reserved, add a hostname, MAC address and note if you like, and save.

Reserving a range

Click Reserve range, enter the first and last address, and choose Reserved, DHCP pool or Free (to clear reservations). Addresses already in use are left alone.

Other actions

• On the map: opens the customer's network map, focused on this subnet.
• Export CSV: downloads every address record in the subnet.
• Edit and Delete. Deleting a subnet removes its address records from IPAM. It doesn't affect the devices themselves.

Who can do what

• Anyone with access to IP Addresses can view subnets and addresses for the customers they can see.
• People with edit access can add and change subnets and allocate, reserve and release addresses.
• Deleting subnets needs delete access.

Related

• Read the network map
• Network discovery and scanner agents