An external network profile specifies settings for an existing network. This network profile points to one or more networks or ranges in NIOS. These networks and ranges are used for allocating external IP addresses in NIOS while creating VMs.
To create an external network profile:

1. In vRealize Automation, click Infrastructure –> Reservations –> Network Profiles –> New –> External.
2. On the General tab, specify the network profile details, including the name of the IPAM endpoint created earlier.
   

3. Click the Network Ranges tab.

4. In Address space, select a network view in NIOS from those made available by the Infoblox IPAM endpoint. If you do not select a specific network view, IPAM Plug-In uses the default network view from NIOS.

5. In the Select Network Range dialog, specify the search criteria and click the Search icon. For how to search using filters, see 17662186.
   
   

   You can select more than one item from the search results. It means that if the first network range is exhausted while allocating IP addresses for VMs, the next one will be used for IP allocation.
   Note that by default, the search returns no more than 1000 network ranges. You can modify the default max value of “1000” in the endpoint properties to accommodate your environment. For more information, see Creating an Infoblox IPAM Endpoint. If the results count is more than the specified limit, a warning message in displayed in the first row of the result table. However, if the number of results is too big, the operation may fail due to the 30 seconds vRealize Automation timeout. In this case, the Select Network Range dialog displays no or old results. You can use filters to refine the search results and avoid both these problems. For more information, see 17662186.

6. Select the appropriate network ranges.

7. Click Apply, and then OK.

Using Network Range Filters

To refine the network range search results, you can use the following filters in the Search field of the Select Network Range dialog:

• max: Specifies the number of the network ranges to retrieve from NIOS. This parameter takes higher priority over the value specified in the properties of the Infoblox IPAM endpoint (see Creating an Infoblox IPAM Endpoint). For example, max=500 means that first 500 network and ranges will be retrieved from NIOS and displayed in the Select Network Range dialog. If NIOS contains more than 500 networks and ranges in the specified network view, a warring message is displayed in the first row of the results table. Then you can use additional filters described below to narrow down the number of results and finally be able to select the required network ranges.
  
  
  

• network: Refines the results by the network mask. You can use one of the two methods for specifying network mask:
  — Simple syntax. You can use the “*” special character only. For example, network = 172.10.*
  — Regular expression syntax. You may need this syntax type to retrieve a specific span of network ranges. For example, network~=^[1]{1,2}\.

• type: Refines the results by specifying the type of object in NIOS. There are two possible values for this option:
  — network, for example, type = network
  — range, for example, type = range

• Extensible attributes: Filters network ranges by EAs that were set for them in NIOS. Enter the extensible attribute name and its value. You can use more than one extensible attribute. For example, Country = USA and Building = 3111.
  

  Additionally, you can use the “ea” prefix preceding an extensible attribute name in order to differentiate the EA name from a filter name. For example, network = 172.10.* and ea:network = wireless. If your extensible attribute contains special characters such as a space, use double quotes (“ “) to paraphrase the name and/or value. For example, ea:“Room Name” = “Spider Man”.

To combine filters, use the “and” operator. For example, type = network and network = 172.10.* and max = 10. To further refine your search, you can filter columns. To do so, click a column header and select Filters from the drop-down menu. In the text field, enter a string you want to use as the filter. For example, if you want to locate network ranges with prefix 20, enter ‘20.’ in the text field. The dialog displays only the network ranges that match your filtering criteria.