Get Next Available IP and Reserve

[#1]

Does the WAPI allow a single call to get the next available IP and Reserve?

VitalQIP had an API call that would return the next available IP address and immediately reserve it if desired. This is great way to avoid potential race conditions.

I was able to request the next available IP in InfoBlox via: 

/network/<reference>?_function=next_available_ip&num=1

but I don't see any way to immediately reserve it. Is this possible?

Thank you.

   Richard

[#2 · Accepted solution]

This is definitely possible. I shamelessly stole this example from the "Definitive list of REST examples" post here:

https://community.infoblox.com/t5/API-Integration/The-definitive-list-of-REST-examples/td-p/1214

Add a HOST with next_available IP address from a network

 POST /wapi/v1.2/record:host
 Content-Type: application/json

    { "name":"wapi.test.org",
      "ipv4addrs":[
          {
             "ipv4addr":"func:nextavailableip:10.1.1.0/24"
          }
        ]
    }

You can do this with almost any kind of record that uses the "ipv4addr" field such as a fixed address, Host record, A record, etc. There are more details in the post I linked above.

[#3]

Thank you, going to give that a shot!

[#4]

Would you happen to know if there is an XML equivelant payload for this?

I tried this, but it doesn't work:

      <value type="object">
        <name>test.mydomain.org</name>
        <ipv4addrs>
          <list>
            <value type="object">
              <ipv4addr>$func:nextavailableip:10.11.12.0/32</ipv4addr>
            </value>
          </list>
        </ipv4addrs>
      </value>

Error is:

Invalid value for ipv4addr: "$func:nextavailableip:10.11.12.0/32": Invalid IPv4 address

Thank you.

[#5]

I get the same error when trying to run that REST call. Has anyone gotten that one to work properly?

[#6]

Figured out I was using too old of a WAPI version. Was trying v1.2 like most of the examples on the REST examples thread - started using a later version and it worked fine.

[#7]

I have been using this function to retrieve IPs from one of our subnets but I've ran into an issue. After making the rest call three times it fails on the fourth with the following error...

"text": "Cannot find 1 available IP address(es) in this range."

This is strange because if I look at the IP Map in the IPAM view through the web console there are at least 25 unused IPs in the subnet. Why does the WAPI say there are none?

[#8]

If the message indicates there are no more available addresses in the range, you are likely requesting addresses within a DHCP range or a reserved range, and not within the full network.

Can you post an example of the code you're using?

[#9]

Sure, I am doing a POST to the url "/fixedaddress?_return_fields=ipv4addr" with the following JSON payload...

{"name": fqdn,
 "ipv4addr":"func:nextavailableip:10.1.1.11-10.1.1.250",
  'mac':'00:00:00:00:00:00'};

I did it this way to skip the first 10 IPs in the subnet. It is a DHCP range but the web console is showing a lot of unused addresses and the WAPI is still complaining that there are none. Maybe I'm completely misunderstanding the meaning of 'unused' in the Infoblox world.

[#10]

After a little bit more digging I've noticed that the IP addresses that are being picked up from the WAPI call have a Lease state of 'Free' where as all of the other unused IP addresses have a Lease state of 'Abandoned'.

[#11]

s there a way to get one of the 'Abandoned' ones?

[#12]

Abandoned leases are only used when free leases have been exhausted. If you are concerned about abandoned leases, you will want to investigate why they are in this state because these indicate that IP conflicts are being detected by the DHCP server or clients and may point to a problem on your network. It could be that a separate device is responding to lease requests and causing conflicts to occur, roque DHCP server on the network, clients that are configured with static IP's from the DHCP range, or even a device that is responding to ping or ARP broadcast requests that are used to determine if an IP is free or in use.

An easy way to tell if you have an actual problem is to clear the abandoned leases and see if they come back again. Starting in NIOS version 8.4.0, this can be done via the CLI:

Infoblox> delete leases without_ends --state ABANDONED

Otherwise, this can be done via script or individually via the GUI.

Regards,

Tony