IPAM IP Address Manager Review - Free Network Utility

This CG will put you in charge of controlling changes to network routers and other SNMP devices.

Orion IPAM (IP Address Manager)

IPAM and IPAT are two packages which will assist with managing your IP addresses. To let you into a secret, both utilities are fun to use, even if you don't have a pressing need to manage your IP address space.

Review of IPAM and IPAT

Firstly, remember that the Orion IPAM has ALL the elements, whereas IPAT, the free 'IP Address Tracker', only contains the basic features. One factor that may sway you to install IPAM is that you already have other utilities in the ORION suite.

Assuming you are using IPAM, and not the IP Address Tracker, seek out the 'Manage Subnets and IP Addresses' tab. It's incredible the way you can organise the subnets, you can even create supernets by dragging and dropping the elements.

IP4 and IP6, reports by default, create own, changing state Add top 10 lists,

Subnet Calculator

Many have spent longer than we care to admit in customizing an Excel Spreadsheet to manage our IP addresses allocations. Thus it's worth getting a copy of IPAM just to save time tracking which server has been been allocated to which IP address, or which building uses a particular subnet. Best of all, the subnet allocation wizard works out the address ranges for you.

Guy's Review of the IPAM Install

It's a force of nature that whenever you want to achieve something complicated there will be set-backs on the journey of discovery. One of my secrets of learning is to build on success, and it is for this reason that I recommend you test the IP Address Tracker before moving on to its 'Big Brother' Orion IPAM.

The killer feature of Orion IPAM is integration with the rest of the Orion suite, in particular linking with the Performance Monitor. Also, scanning subnets automatically is a real time-saver on big networks.

My first installation failed. The Orion IPAM needs IIS, thus I had to get that web service working before I could install the more sophisticated Orion IPAM. After some fiddling I got the Orion IPAM running smoothly and I was impressed with this utility. However, being an SNMP expert, my old friend 'Mad' Mick wanted more. To be objective, if you are a relative newbie, such as me, then you will be impressed, whereas if you are a hard-hearted veteran such as Mike, then you may be critical because it does not read your mind.

What Mick complained of was that IPAM allowed him to create duplicate IP ranges (Silly Mick, Guy says). It also would not perform all the import and exports that Mick wanted.

Summary of Orion IPAM

The difference? IPAM is the all singing all dancing version, while the IP Address Tracker is the free basic version.