VCF Networking 9.1: Seamless DDI Integration with Infoblox

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) provides a robust suite of self-service networking capabilities (as covered in our VCF Networking 9.1 post Network Services), including native IP Address Management (IPAM).

However, the reality for many enterprise environments is that they already rely on an established, third-party tool to manage the IP addresses and DNS records across their broader data centers. One of the most popular industry standards for this is Infoblox.

In this post, we are highlighting a highly anticipated feature introduced in VCF 9.1: Native Integration with Infoblox.

The Challenge of Disconnected IPAM

Historically, keeping a cloud environment synced with an external IPAM solution meant friction.

When application owners requested new networks or workloads, it often required manual helpdesk tickets, waiting on network teams to allocate IP blocks, and manually updating DNS entries.

This disconnected approach slowed down self-service provisioning and increased the risk of IP conflicts.

A Unified DDI Experience

With VCF 9.1, VMware bridges this gap by delivering a unified DDI (DNS, DHCP, and IPAM) experience directly integrated with Infoblox.

This integration empowers your cloud teams while keeping your network and security teams happy. Here is how it transforms the provisioning workflow:

• A Single Source of Truth: You no longer have to manage split IPAM databases. Infoblox remains the central, synchronized authority for all IP addresses across your entire data center.
• Autonomous Provisioning: vCenter administrators and VCF Automation (VCF-A) tenants can autonomously provision networks on demand. VCF handles the background communication with Infoblox to automatically allocate and reserve the necessary IP blocks.
• Self-Service DNS: It is not just about IP addresses. When VCF-A tenants deploy workloads, Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) entries are automatically registered and provisioned in Infoblox DNS.

Ultimately, this integration allows you to maintain the strict governance and centralized visibility of Infoblox, while fully unlocking the agile, self-service cloud consumption that VCF is designed to deliver.

VCF 9.1 VCF Integration with Infoblox Demo

Want to see how this integration looks under the hood?
Check out our quick demo video below showing the automated provisioning process in real-time.