Note: Port control involves two primary operations: network provisioning/de-provisioning and port configurations. These operations are classified as port control tasks that can be monitored and viewed in the Task Manager (Administration –> Workflow –> Task Manager).

Port control enables changes to the interface-level configurations of switches and switch-router devices, and assignment of these resources to network objects defined and created within IPAM.

• Port configurations and network provisioning and de-provisioning use CLI admin credentials, supporting SSH and Telnet. You may test credentials before use, against an IP address or a selected device;
• Port configuration consists of two primary operations: setting admin status for a port, and defining Data VLAN and Voice VLAN assignments (where applicable), along with minor changes such as editing descriptions;
• You can define port configuration blackout periods using the same methods provided for discovery blackouts. These blackout periods also apply to network provisioning and de-provisioning tasks;
• Configuring a port on a device always creates a new port control task that can be viewed and managed in the Task Manager.
• You can separately schedule port control tasks using the same method as for object creation.
• You can edit multiple interfaces at a time (see Editing Multiple Interfaces).
• You can edit interfaces, inline, from the Interfaces, IP Addresses and Assets pages in Grid Manager. These operations generally consist of setting the interface to be Administratively Up or administratively Down, and VLAN assignments (see Inline Interface Editing);

Network provisioning includes the following:

• If a user deletes a discovered network from the system, Grid Manager displays the list of interfaces on which the network is currently provisioned;
• Network provisioning allows you to provision a network on one interface at a time. The network must be in managed status under IPAM;
• The user can also de-provision a network, which removes it from one or more interfaces;
• You can perform network provisioning and de-provisioning tasks on routers and switch-routers.

Devices do not have to be in managed state for some port control operations (setting ports to Admin Up and Admin Down, for example) but some port control operations require it:

• Provisioning a network (through IPAM) onto a port on a managed device;
• De-provisioning a network.

When you create a new object using the wizard, you can configure the port or ports that are associated with the object's port reservation. In this case, two new tasks are created: an object creation task, and a port control task, which can be scheduled separately from the object creation. The port control task is a separate task that may also require administrator approval. When you create a new task, an information feedback panel provides a link to the port control task in the Task Manager.
You may also select and reschedule both tasks. For more information, see Rescheduling Tasks.

Note: If you edit an object, you can only edit an associated port reservation.

Objects are completed in their configuration by Grid Manager before executing a port configuration.
If, for example, a fixed address object is subject to administrative approval, no port control task takes place for that object until the approval is executed and the object is created. This has implications for scheduling: if you schedule the creation of a new host, IPv4 reservation or fixed address, and wish to schedule a port control task for the same object, the scheduled object creation must take place first, and must complete, before the scheduled port configuration executes.
All port configuration operations can be scheduled and subject to administrator approval. For more information, see
Configuring Approval Workflows.

About Port Reservations

You can define a device port reservation for a defined object such as a host, fixed address or IPv4 reservation, or for an Infoblox Grid Member. Port reservations assign device interfaces to Infoblox-managed objects in Grid Manager. The port reservation is a property of each object, such as a fixed address or host record, that you create.
After discovering and cataloguing infrastructure devices, Grid Manager compiles the lists of interfaces and separately tracks available switch ports on each device. When you attempt to reserve a switch port, Grid Manager provides the complete list of available switch ports on the device, automatically preventing possible conflicts over port usage.
Characteristics of port reservations include the following:

• Device Ports can be reserved to Grid Manager objects under IPAM and DHCP;
  • The user can choose to immediately create the new object (IPv4 reservation, IPv4/IPv6 fixed address or host, or a Grid member), and to also immediately assign a device port to the object. In such cases, the object is created and the port is reserved for the object;
  • An object can be scheduled for creation at a later time, and its port assignment scheduled for the same time, or for a different date and time, in the future;
  • A port reservation does not guarantee that the switch interface is in fact available for the assignment.

• You can create port reservations for multiple objects at a time;
• Interface tables show the objects to which they are bound, in a special Reservation column;
• When you delete an IPAM object such as a fixed address, its associated port reservation is automatically deleted.

Once a switch port or other device port is reserved, Network Insight prevents future tasks from trying to use the same port for another reservation.
Device switchports and router interfaces, and other interface types may be assigned to the following types of objects:

• Grid members (including HA Pairs). For more information, see the following sections Defining Port Reservations for an Infoblox Grid Member and Defining Port Reservations for an HA Pair.
• Hosts. For more information about defining hosts with included port configuration, see Adding Host Records.
• IPv4 reservations. For more information, see Adding IPv4 Reservations.
• Fixed addresses (IPv4 and IPv6). For more information, see Adding IPv4 Fixed Addresses and Adding IPv6 Fixed Addresses.
• IP networks (IPv4 and IPv6). For more information, see Adding IPv4 Networks and Adding IPv6 Networks.

Devices involved in these operations must be under managed status in Grid Manager. For more information, see
Converting Unmanaged Devices to Managed Devices.

Editing Interfaces in a Device

Note: Voice VLAN settings are applicable only for Cisco devices.

To speed port configuration workflows, you can select one interface or multiple interfaces for a device to change the admin status, description and VLAN settings. For example, this feature is handy if you want multiple interfaces to participate in the same data VLAN. There are two ways to approach this feature: directly from the Devices page, or by selecting a device on the Devices page, opening its Interfaces page and selecting ports from there.
Editing interfaces is done from the main Data Management –> Devices page.

1. From the Data Management tab, select the Devices tab.
2. Click the Action icon  for a chosen device and choose Interfaces from the popup menu.
3. Select the check box for a specific interface, click the Action icon for the interface and choose Edit. The interface editor appears as shown in Figure 15.12. 
   Figure 15.10 Interface Editor, with editable Admin Status and Description settings

     4. The editable settings are Admin Status (Up or Down) and Description (click inside the field to edit). In some cases, owing to device permissions, the device type or other device settings, you may not be able to edit these values for the selected interface.
     5. To edit VLANs for the chosen interface, click the VLAN tab. Figure 15.12 shows an example. VLAN editing also is subject to permission limitations based on the device, and on the device type.

Figure 15.11 Editing VLANs

    6. Choose a data VLAN to assign to the port from the Data VLAN drop-down menu.
    7. If supported, choose a voice VLAN (Cisco only) from the Voice VLAN drop-down menu.
    8. Click the Extensible Attributes tab to add any attributes that are necessary for the interface.
    9. Click Save & Close to close the interface editor.

Editing Multiple Interfaces

To edit multiple interfaces for a device:

1. From the Data Management tab, select the Devices tab.
2. Click the Action icon for a chosen device and choose Interfaces from the popup menu.
3. Select the check boxes for each interface that you want to edit.
4. Expand the Toolbar and click Edit. The Interfaces editor appears as shown in Figure 15.12.
   Figure 15.12 Editing Multiple Interfaces

       You can select one or more interfaces for configuration, define their settings in the dialog, and then select other interfaces and define different settings for them. 

Note: Once you change Admin Status, Data VLAN or Voice VLAN settings for any selected port, no automatic eversion exists to the original settings from the same editing session. You must cancel out of the Interfaces editor to reject any changes and begin with a new editing session from the Interfaces page. Use the Verify button to verify your changes.

     5. Select the check boxes for one or more ports and define the Port Configuration settings for the following:

1. 1. Admin Status: Select Up or Down from the menu, depending on the current state of the port(s);
   2. Description: Provide a brief description of the port configuration or other information;
   3. DataVLAN: (Hidden if editing a VLAN is not supported) Drop-down list of all data VLANs actively configured in the current device. One of the values can be chosen for the currently select interface(s);
   4. VoiceVLAN: (Hidden if editing a voice VLAN is not supported) Drop-down list of all voice VLANs actively configured in the current device. One of the values can be chosen for the currently select interface(s).

    6. After making configuration changes to all ports, click Verify to check over your changes:

Figure 15.13 Verifying port configuration changes

    7. Click OK. The changes are not committed by doing so.
    8. If the port configuration changes are correct, click Save&Close or click the Scheduling icon at the top of the editor. To schedule this task, click the Schedule icon at the top of the editor. In the ScheduleChange panel, click Later, and then specify a date, time, and time zone. The Schedule icon is green when there is a pending scheduled task. You can reschedule the task if you have the applicable permissions.

When you complete the configuration, all port configurations in the session are combined into a single task by Grid Manager.

Editing Multiple Interfaces from the Devices Page

The Data Management –> Devices page allows you to immediately set the Admin Status, descriptions and VLAN settings for any selection of ports on a single device.

1. Click the Action icon for a chosen device and choose Edit from the popup menu. The Interfaces page appears for the device editor.
2. Select the check boxes for one or more ports and define the Port Configuration settings for the following:
   1. Admin Status: Select Up or Down from the menu, depending on the current state of the port(s);
   2. Description: Provide a brief description of the port configuration or other information;
   3. Data VLAN: (Hidden if editing a VLAN is not supported) Drop-down list of all data VLANs actively configured in the current device. One of the values can be chosen for the currently select interface(s);
   4. Voice VLAN: (Hidden if editing a voice VLAN is not supported) Drop-down list of all voice VLANs actively configured in the current device. One of the values can be chosen for the currently select interface(s).
3. After making configuration changes to all ports, click Verify to check over your changes.
4. Click OK. The changes are not committed by doing so.
5. If the port configuration changes are correct, click Save & Close or click the Scheduling icon at the top of the editor. To schedule this task, click the Schedule icon at the top of the editor. In the Schedule Change panel, click Later, and then specify a date, time, and time zone. The Schedule icon is green when there is a pending scheduled task. You can reschedule the task if you have the applicable permissions.

When you complete the configuration, Network Insight combines all port configurations in the session into a single task.

Inline Interface Editing

You can directly edit a device's interface listings in the Interfaces page. Double-click any table row and the fields that you can edit for the row, which consist of the VLAN ID, Admin Status and Description fields for each interface, open in an inline editing selection field.
Fields are editable as applicable to device types. If you are editing an interface on a L2 switch, for example, the VLAN ID field does not appear.

Figure 15.14 Editing Interface values inline.

Double-clicking a table row opens the editable fields for the selected record.
If editable fields are not present in the table display, you cannot change their values in the Interfaces page.
After making inline changes, click Save on the selected row to commit them. To prevent using any changes, click Cancel. This also de-selects the row.

Note: When you make inline changes to an interface, a new task is created under Grid Manager, which you can view in the Task Manager page (for more information, see Viewing Tasks). A status icon appears next to the interface element you have changed, indicating the status of the new task and providing a link to the Task Manager page. New tasks appear with a status icon of Pending (||). When the new task completes, the icon changes to a green checkmark.