It is imperative to swiftly provision and de-provision networks and servers across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures to accommodate continuously evolving business requirements. Provisioning critical network services, such as DNS records and IP addresses, using traditional, manual methods is increasingly time-consuming as it involves multiple service requests to various siloed teams in hybrid, multi-cloud setups. Infoblox provider plugin for Terraform by HashiCorp integrates with the Infoblox DDI platform and automates the DNS and IP address provisioning across hybrid, multi-cloud environments. The integration improves operational efficiency, reduces errors and ensures consistency across hybrid, multi-cloud deployments.
Hybrid, Multi-Cloud Automation Challenges
The limitation of manual management of critical network services across hybrid, multi-cloud environments lead to the following challenges, which are unsuitable for agile infrastructure as code (IaC) processes:
- Manual IP Address Allocation Causes Conflicts: Finding available IP addresses becomes challenging without clear IP visibility. Using spreadsheets for tracking is slow and error-prone, making it difficult to manage dynamic network infrastructure effectively.
- Delays in DNS Provisioning Hinder Efficiency: Manually provisioning DNS records for services is time-consuming and cannot keep up with the pace of resource creation and decommissioning. This often leads to outdated records or missing records for currently required services.
- Vendor-Specific Plugins Add Complexity: Lacking a centralized automation layer across multiple public cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, necessitates multiple deployment configurations. Relying on vendor-specific plugins for each cloud provider adds to the complexity and administrative burden.
Infoblox and Terraform Integration
The Infoblox Plugin for the IaC platform automates the provisioning and deprovisioning of critical network services across hybrid, multi-cloud environments. It extends IP address management (IPAM) and DNS services across various cloud and virtualization platforms and integrates with the existing continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline.
Terraform is an open-source IaC tool for building, changing and versioning infrastructure across multiple clouds and platforms. As a Terraform-approved provider, Infoblox enables the automation of cloud deployments through Terraform IaC. This integration addresses multiple use cases:
- Automate IP Address Allocation: Allocate IP addresses efficiently as part of IaC deployments. Ensure they are documented within Infoblox to prevent IP conflicts that could cause outages. Facilitate the release of IP addresses that are no longer in use.
- Add and Update DNS Records in Real Time: Automate the creation of DNS records for new services upon deployment and the decommissioning of DNS records when resources are no longer required.
- Utilize a Single Plugin for Hybrid, Multi-Cloud Environments: Manage DNS across both on-premises, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure by leveraging a single provider plugin. This eliminates the need for multiple plugins for on-premises and public cloud providers.
Figure 1. Example “Before” and “After” scenario of DNS and IP address provisioning without and with Infoblox and Terraform integration
Benefits
Organizations leveraging the integration reap benefits:
- Improve Efficiency: Automates the allocation of IP addresses and the provisioning of DNS records, reducing the time and effort required for manual processes
- Reduce Errors: Eliminates the risk of IP conflicts and other errors associated with manual IPAM and DNS management
- Enable Scalability: Supports the rapid deployment of resources in hybrid, multi-cloud environments, ensuring that network services can scale with the needs of the organization
- Ensure Consistency: Ensures that IPAM and DNS records are consistently updated and maintained across all cloud platforms, improving the reliability and accuracy of network services
- Enhance Visibility: Provides real-time visibility into network resources, allowing IT teams to quickly locate and manage tagged network and IP data
Real-World Impact
Success stories from Infoblox’s customer base demonstrate the benefits of leveraging Infoblox and Terraform integrations.
A large financial services firm in the United States tasked its IT team with creating application landing zones for teams migrating applications to the cloud. Each landing zone had to be deployed across two regions and three availability zones in the public cloud to ensure resiliency. Additionally, the landing zone needed to support three application tiers and three environments. Initially, the team required six to eight weeks to create these application landing zones in their AWS environment. Using the Terraform provider plugin, they reduced the time needed to create the application zones from eight weeks to 15 minutes. The faster deployment of applications enables quicker innovation.
Automate Application Provisioning with Infoblox HashiCorp Terraform Integration
Organizations can use out-of-the-box Infoblox Terraform provider plugins to enable automation, streamline operations and improve efficiency. This solution not only automates the allocation of IP addresses and the provisioning of DNS records but also reduces the potential for errors and ensures consistent updates across hybrid, multi-cloud environments.
Terraform provider plugins are available with the Infoblox Universal DDI™ Product Suite and NIOS platform. Explore Infoblox automation plugins to achieve agility, drive operational excellence and support the demands of modern hybrid, multi-cloud environments:
- Infoblox Universal DDI Plugin for HashiCorp Terraform
- Infoblox NIOS DDI Plugin for HashiCorp Terraform
