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IPAM

Pools, Auto-Assign, the editable Interfaces table, and the rules that check the plan against the device.

Relevant for:Enterprise / NetOpsProfessional Services
Where to find itCanvas toolbarIPAM

Define IP pools — supernets for loopbacks, point-to-points, user VLANs and the rest — and let the platform allocate from them. Every address it hands out is tracked back to its pool, and the drawer is also where you read and edit the plan the design already has.

Pool types#

The type does two things: it decides how big a slice each allocation takes, and it tells Auto-Assign which links and interfaces it is allowed to serve.

Management (/32)One host address per device for the management plane.
User (VLAN) (/24)Access subnets behind SVIs — the VLANs users and servers actually sit on.
WAN Interconnect (/31)Router-to-router and router-to-firewall links inside your own network.
ISP / Public (/30)Provider-issued space on an internet-facing handoff. Entered, not invented.
MPLS (/30)Carrier-issued space per MPLS circuit. Reported and consumed here; the carrier owns the numbering.
Loopback (/32)Stable per-device addresses for routing protocols, management and source-interface bindings.
Server (/32)Host addresses for attached servers and appliances.
Note
Point-to-point sizing is not uniform. A WAN Interconnect link takes a /31 (RFC 3021 — two hosts, no waste), while ISP / Public and MPLS links carve a /30, because a provider handoff is normally delivered that way. A pool can override its own prefix per pool.

The five views#

Auto-AssignPick the categories present in this design and let the platform fill them in. It plans first and shows you the counts before anything is written.
InterfacesEvery addressable interface in the design as one editable table — management ports, SVIs, loopbacks and routed links together, whatever tab or panel they normally live behind.
By DeviceThe same addresses grouped per device, for reading a single box.
By SubnetGrouped by subnet, which is where a carrier-issued MPLS or public prefix gets entered by hand.
AdvancedPool and allocation records directly, including VLAN pinning, loopback pinning by role, and Cisco secondary subnets.

Any view exports to CSV, so the plan can leave with you.

Auto-Assign#

The wizard offers only the categories this topology actually has — a design with no internet-facing link is never asked for a public prefix. By default it fills empty interfaces only, so re-running it after adding a site leaves every existing address alone; reassigning everything is a deliberate, separate choice.

  • Loopbacks are written into the device's own configuration, not just the ledger, so they reach the generated config and anything that sources from them.
  • A management interface is named the way its platform names it — mgmt0, Management1, GigabitEthernet0 or MGT — rather than one invented name for all of them.
  • Attached endpoints (servers, load balancers, end-user networks) get no management row. They have no NOS to manage, so an address there would render nowhere.
  • An internet-facing link is never addressed out of private space. If no ISP / Public pool exists it is left unaddressed and reported, rather than quietly given a transit /31.

What validation checks#

The IP plan and the interfaces are checked together, so a pool that disagrees with what is configured on the device is itself a finding:

alloc-address-invalidIPAM addresses that aren’t usable hosts
duplicate-ip-extendedAddresses used twice (incl. loopbacks & IPAM)
ipam-config-driftIP plan disagrees with the interface
subnet-overlapOverlapping subnets
gateway-off-subnetGateways on no connected subnet
nexthop-off-subnetNext-hops on no connected subnet
vlan-subnet-conflictVLANs addressed as two subnets
vlan-undefinedVLANs referenced but never defined
prefix-unusablePrefixes the interface can’t carry
mtu-mismatchMismatched MTU across a link
interface-no-ipInterfaces with no IP address
Why
Address conflicts are the most expensive “simple” mistake in networking — they pass every syntax check and then take down two segments at once. Pool-based allocation makes conflicts structurally impossible for managed ranges; these rules catch the hand-typed stragglers, and the drift rule catches the case where the plan and the box have quietly diverged.
Tip
Size per-site pools for growth — a /20 per site for user VLANs, a /24 of /31s for point-to-points. VLAN-to-subnet conflicts are judged per site, so two sites may reuse a VLAN id without arguing.