| Internet Protocol address management (IPAM) is a means of planning, tracking, and managing the Internet Protocol address space used in a network. Most commonly, tools such as DNS and DHCP are used in tandem to perform this task, though true IPAM will glue these services together so that each is aware of changes in the other (for instance DNS knowing of the IP address taken by a client via DHCP, and updating itself accordingly). Additional functionality, such as controlling reservations in DHCP as well as other data aggregation and reporting capability, is also common. IPAM tools are increasingly important as new IPv6 networks are deployed with larger address pools, different subnetting techniques, and more complex 128-bit hexadecimal numbers which are not as easily human-readable as IPv4 addresses. IPv6 networking, mobile computing, and multihoming require more dynamic address management and are causing technical obsolescence of the early generations of IP address management (IPAM) software and spreadsheets used for address management. | Internet Protocol address management (IPAM) is a means of planning, tracking, and managing the Internet Protocol address space used in a network. Most commonly, tools such as [[/glossaire/DNS]] and [[/glossaire/DHCP]] are used in tandem to perform this task, though true IPAM will glue these services together so that each is aware of changes in the other (for instance DNS knowing of the [[/glossaire/IP]] address taken by a client via DHCP, and updating itself accordingly). Additional functionality, such as controlling reservations in DHCP as well as other data aggregation and reporting capability, is also common. IPAM tools are increasingly important as new [[/glossaire/IPv6]] networks are deployed with larger address pools, different subnetting techniques, and more complex 128-bit hexadecimal numbers which are not as easily human-readable as IPv4 addresses. IPv6 networking, mobile computing, and multihoming require more dynamic address management and are causing technical obsolescence of the early generations of IP address management (IPAM) software and spreadsheets used for address management. |
