Multicloud IP address management with Microsoft Azure

How to Add Microsoft Azure as a Cloud Service in The Console

In the Men&Mice Console, go to “Cloud Services”, and with a right-click, select “New Cloud Service” (or once “Cloud Services” is highlighted use the green plus symbol).

Here we can then select the type of cloud service required:

Once Azure is selected, we then want to Name our connection, enter a specific Tenant ID, its specific Subscription ID, and then both the Client ID and Client Secret (Value). The configured tenant ID (from the “App registration”) must have the correct role assignment and requisite permissions for the Subscription ID (as previously mentioned).

Note: The “Client Secret” entered above in Figure 3.0 is the Secret “Value” and not the Secret ID.

Micetro will retrieve the data from the cloud provider, save the account information, and then you must select the services required.

Micetro will then synchronize with Microsoft Azure (every 900 seconds) and perform actions on demand. We are now ready for a range of common tasks and workflows including the use of Micetro’s single-layer API to drive automation across our whole DNS namespace and IP footprint.

Note: All sensitive data required for communication with Azure such as IDs and secret values are encrypted both at rest and in transit.

How To Create a Virtual Networks (VNet) in Azure

Creating VNets (Virtual Networks)

Micetro makes creating VNets easy and will also automatically track our IP allocations via the IPAM. Let’s create a VNet in the “europewest” Azure region using the CIDR block of “10.0.4.0/22,” from which we will allocate two separate subnets of “10.0.4.0/24” and “10.0.5.0/24” from the lower /23.

Note: Currently, we use the Men&Mice Console to create VNets in Azure, but shortly this will become available in the web application, including being applicable for the Workflow module.

From the Console, select the appropriate cloud service and then use the green plus (or Ctrl+n) to add a new Cloud Network:

Enter the Name, Resource Group, Location, and Address Blocks required and click Add:

And we can now see our new Demo-VNet listed in Micetro:

We will now create two subnets inside our newly formed Demo-VNet. We use the green plus button (or Ctrl+n) again to add the details we want for each of the new subnets using the details below:

Details (subnet 1): -Subnet: 10.0.4.0/24 -Title: Untrusted-DMZ-Tier -Description: This is our example initial DMZ tier within the VNet. -Cloud Network: Demo-VNet

Address Range: Reserve Network and Broadcast Address

Details (subnet 2): -Subnet: 10.0.5.0/24 -Title: Trusted-DB-Tier -Description: This is our example trusted DB tier within the VNet. -Cloud Network: Demo-VNet -Address Range: Reserve Network and Broadcast Address

This results in our subnets also going live in Azure:

Meanwhile, we can see that our subnets are also being tracked in our unified Micetro IPAM:

Example API Call(s)

You can test the Micetro REST API using cURL with the appropriate user credentials to administer and access objects.

Tip: When using methods other than the default HTTP GET, remember to supply the header Content-Type of “application/json”. We will use cURL to demo some API calls. cURL is available by default in macOS and most Linux distributions, but it is also available as a binary for Windows if you’re using Windows and don’t want to use Powershell.

Let’s use the Micetro API to look up the earlier IPAM record (17.17.17.17) we created (when we added an A record to the “aws.menandmice.cloud.” zone):

Using macOS/Linux:

curl -silent --user <user>:<password> -X GET \ "https://<your_host>/mmws/api/IPAMrecords/17.17.17.17"

Using Windows Powershell:

$cred = Get-Credential Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Cred $cred -Uri "https://<your_host>/mmws/api/IPAMrecords/17.17.17.17" | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 5

Which results in the following JSON blob response containing all the associated data for the IP record (including its DNS records and DHCP information if applicable):

{ 
  "result": { 
    "ipamRecord": { 
      "addrRef": "IPAMRecords/36", 
      "address": "17.17.17.17", 
      "claimed": false, 
      "dnsHosts": [ 
        { 
          "dnsRecord": { 
            "ref": "DNSRecords/64", 
            "name": "aeuw1-w0017.azure.menandmice.cloud. [mnm-azure-dns]", 
            "type": "A", 
            "ttl": "600", 
            "data": "17.17.17.17", 
            "comment": "", 
            "enabled": true, 
            "dnsZoneRef": "DNSZones/12", 
            "customProperties": {} 
          }, 
          "ptrStatus": "Unknown", 
          "relatedRecords": [] 
        } 
      ], 
      "dhcpReservations": [], 
      "dhcpLeases": [], 
      "discoveryType": "None", 
      "lastSeenDate": "", 
      "lastDiscoveryDate": "", 
      "lastKnownClientIdentifier": "", 
      "device": "", 
      "interface": "", 
      "ptrStatus": "Unknown", 
      "extraneousPTR": false, 
      "customProperties": {}, 
      "state": "Assigned", 
      "usage": 4 
    } 
  } 
}

Now, let’s look for the related A record in DNS by specifying the zone and only using a partial search term:

Using MacOS/Linux:

curl -silent --user <user>:<password> -X GET \ "https://<your_host>/mmws/api/DNSZones/azure.menandmice.cloud./DNSRecords?filter=type=A AND name=@aeu"

Or Windows Powershell:

$cred = Get-Credential Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Cred $cred -Uri "https://<your_host>/mmws/api/DNSZones/azure.menandmice.cloud./DNSRecords?filter=type=A AND name=@aeu" | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 5

Which finds (1) record returned:

{ 
  "result": { 
    "dnsRecords": [ 
      { 
        "ref": "DNSRecords/64", 
        "name": "aeuw1-w0017", 
        "type": "A", 
        "ttl": "600", 
        "data": "17.17.17.17", 
        "comment": "", 
        "enabled": true, 
        "dnsZoneRef": "DNSZones/12", 
        "customProperties": {} 
      } 
    ], 
    "totalResults": 1 
  } 
}