Share via

IPAM High Availability

stuart townsend 0 Reputation points
2023-09-07T06:22:05.6166667+00:00

Hi,

I’m currently looking at Microsoft IPAM and cannot find any information on how to provide high availability or fault tolerance should the IPAM server fail. I have asked colleagues and it doesn’t seem that Microsoft IPAM has been deployed in any of our enterprise customers. Is there a way to provide high availability or fault tolerance as a single IPAM server seems a single point of failure?

Windows Server
Windows Server
A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.
12,635 questions
Windows DHCP
Windows DHCP
Windows: A family of Microsoft operating systems that run across personal computers, tablets, laptops, phones, internet of things devices, self-contained mixed reality headsets, large collaboration screens, and other devices.DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). A communications protocol that lets network administrators manage centrally and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network.
1,035 questions
0 comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Limitless Technology 44,121 Reputation points
    2023-09-08T07:16:10.4933333+00:00

    Hello Stuart,

    Thank you for your question and for reaching out with your question today.

    Microsoft IP Address Management does not inherently provide built-in high availability or fault tolerance features. It's true that a single IPAM server can become a single point of failure in your network management infrastructure. However, you can design an HA or fault-tolerant solution for IPAM by using various strategies and technologies:

    1. One way to achieve high availability for IPAM is to implement Windows Failover Clustering. You can set up multiple IPAM servers in a cluster, where one server becomes the active node while the others are on standby. In case the active node fails, another server takes over.
    2. Implementing load balancing for IPAM servers can distribute traffic and provide fault tolerance. You can use a load balancer to distribute client requests across multiple IPAM servers. This ensures that if one server fails, the load balancer redirects traffic to a healthy server.
    3. IPAM data is stored in an SQL Server database. You can set up database replication to maintain a copy of the IPAM database on another server. This approach provides fault tolerance for the database, and in case of a failure, you can switch to the replicated database.
    4. Regularly back up your IPAM server's configuration and database. In the event of a failure, you can restore the IPAM server using the backup. While this doesn't provide real-time fault tolerance, it helps in disaster recovery.
    5. If your organization uses Azure, consider using the Azure IPAM extension. This extends IPAM into Azure, providing additional capabilities and integrating IP address management with Azure resources.
    6. If your IPAM implementation relies on DNS and DHCP servers, ensure that these services are themselves highly available. Windows Server provides clustering and failover solutions for both DNS and DHCP.

    If the reply was helpful, please don’t forget to upvote or accept as answer.