Infoblox tailors the Universal DDI Management offerings to suit your specific network architecture and deployment needs, recognizing that different scenarios require distinct solutions. The versatile suite of Universal DDI Management includes Universal DNS Management, Universal DHCP Management, Universal IP Address Management, and Universal Asset Insights.

Before taking advantage of the Universal DDI functionality, ensure that you obtain the necessary tokens from Infoblox. For pricing details and how to calculate token allocations, please contact your Infoblox representative.

Management Tokens

Management tokens are mandatory for managing the following object types:

• DDI objects: These are objects used for managing DNS, DHCP, and IPAM.  They include (but are not limited to) DNS Zones/Records, DHCP Ranges, Subnets and DDNS records.  The following table includes the list of supported objects:

• Active IP addresses: These are active IP addresses (IPs) being observed in your networking environment and managed by IPAM. Active IPs are de-duplicated based on the IP Spaces with which they are associated. For example, if an IP address is observed via a DHCP lease and is seen sending DNS queries, it will be counted as a single active IP. Active IPs include unique occurrences across the following:

  • IP addresses found in new or renew DHCP leases

  • Discovered IP addresses

  • Reservations

  • Fixed Addresses

• Managed Assets: A managed asset that is counted against the management tokens is an identified physical or virtual component on the network that has at least one associated IP address.  Sample asset types with IP addresses include virtual machines, gateways, endpoints, firewalls, switches, routers, and servers.  Asset types without associated IP addresses are also discovered, but they will not be allocated against the Management token count.  Sample asset types without IP addresses include security groups, S3 buckets, subnets, and projects.  Assets are de-duplicated to make sure that information from multiple sources is consolidated and only counted as a single asset

Each management token is designed to support a specific number of objects. You can purchase management tokens and allocate them based on the objects that are configured and in-use in your network infrastructure. The tokens are designed to be flexible to support different object types. Instead of buying specific objects in specific quantities, you can use the management tokens to support a mix of object types based on your business requirements.

The following table shows the number of objects that can be managed per object type for each management token. Use the information in this table as guidelines to determine the number of tokens you may need to manage your Universal DDI infrastructure.

Legends

• Native Objects: Objects that are discovered or managed directly from the Infoblox Portal or via NIOS-X virtual servers or NIOS-X as a Service.  If NIOS is not involved in the management or discovery of an object, the object will be classified as a native object.

• NIOS Objects: Objects that are discovered or managed from the Infoblox Portal via the NIOS Grid Manager. These objects are counted separately, such as assets discovered by NIOS Network Insight and sent to the Infoblox Portal via NIOS Grid Connector. This is applicable to all object types: DDI objects, active IPs, and managed assets.

Licenses for NIOS-X Physical Servers

NIOS-X physical servers (formerly B1-105 and B1-212 appliances) will continue to use perpetual licenses as they do today. If your network infrastructure requires NIOS-X physical servers, please contact your Infoblox representatives to obtain perpetual licenses for these servers.

Server Tokens for NIOS-X Virtual Servers

NIOS-X virtual servers are self-hosted, running on customer-provided private cloud, public cloud, or physical servers (both customer-provided or Infoblox physical servers). Infoblox physical servers are formerly referred to as BloxOne servers, which run on physical appliances such as B1-105 and B1-212 physical servers, or as VMs.

You can obtain optional tokens for NIOS-X virtual servers (formerly known as virtual on-prem hosts). These servers are sized by their performance and capacity. The following table describes the supported NIOS-X virtual server form factors, their specifications, and token allocation.

Server Tokens for NIOS-X as a Service

NIOS-X as a Service (NIOS-XaaS) is Infoblox-hosted and can include DDI services and Discovery services. If you are hosting DDI services, each NIOS-X form factor has guardrails for peak DNS query performance (kQPS), peak DHCP lease performance (LPS), and object count.  If you are hosting Discovery services, each NIOS-X form factor has a guardrail for discovered assets. If a guardrail is exceeded, a higher NIOS-X form factor is required. 

The following table shows the supported NIOS-XaaS form factors, their specifications, and token allocation.

Token Usage

The following sections describes how Infoblox calculates token usage and where and what you can see in the usage reports.

Intervals

Minutes

• Every five (5) minutes, a management token allocation snapshot will be taken.  This will reflect the total number of managed DDI objects, IP addresses, and assets at the time of the snapshot.

• Every five (5) minutes, a server token allocation snapshot will be taken.  This will reflect the total count, size, and type of the servers deployed at the time of the snapshot.

• Every five (5) minutes, for each server deployed (NIOS-X virtual Server or NIOSXaaS), DNS queries per second (kQPS), DHCP leases per second (LPS), and capacity count (objects or discovered assets) will be calculated and recorded. 

Calendar Month

• The highest five-minute value for management token allocation across the month will be recorded as the monthly management token high watermark.

• The highest five-minute value for server token allocation across the month will be recorded as the monthly server token high watermark.

• For each server, the highest five-minute value for each of kQPS, LPS, and capacity count (objects or discovered assets) across the month will be recorded as the monthly kQPS, LPS and capacity (object count or discovered asset count) high watermark.

Rolling Three Month Average

• The average of the monthly management token high watermarks, taken across the previous three calendar months, will be recorded monthly as the Management Token rolling three-month average.  This value will be compared with the purchased Management Token count.

• The average of the monthly server token high watermarks, taken across the previous three calendar months, will be recorded monthly as the Server Token rolling three-month average.  This value will be compared with the purchased Server Token count.

• For each server, the average of the monthly kQPS, LPS, and capacity count (objects or discovered assets) high watermark, taken across the previous three calendar months, will be recorded monthly as the server’s kQPS, LPS, and capacity count (objects or discovered assets) rolling three-month average. These values will be compared against the Server size guardrail values for each server.

Usage Reports

The current and historic usage of the following are viewable on the License Entitlement page of the Infoblox Portal.

• Management token usage grouped by DDI objects, IP addresses, and assets

• Server token usage grouped by server size and type (NIOS-X virtual Server or NIOS-XaaS)

• Server and as-a-Service highwater marks on performance (kQPS/LPS) and capacity (per server object count or discovered network device count).