General DNS - Configuration Guide

Overview

In this how to, we will explore some basic scenarios around configuring the SovLabs DNS module and how you can even disable DNS if required.

Scenarios

1 Single IPAM / DNS setup and standard deployment

• Configure a single domain for DNS using Infoblox

2 Single IPAM / DNS setup and setting DNS to Disabled

• Configure a blueprint with "SovLabs_DisableDNS = true"to disable DNS for that blueprint

3 Single IPAM / DNS setup and dynamically Enable/Disable DNS

• Dynamically set "SovLabs_DisableDNS = true" on your blueprint

4 Multi Domain across different DNS providers 

• Configure a blueprint to select the Domain
• Based on domain, IPAM profile and DNS will trigger the creation of records.
  • This is a mix between Dynamic IPAM profile selection and DNS selection.

Considerations

• Have licensed the appropriate modules for DNS/IPAM
• Have configured service accounts to have the appropriate access to DNS
• Have met all pre reqs for your chosen DNS provider
• Have configured Endpoints for your IPAM/DNS provider
• Have licensed SovLabs Property Toolkit for more advance features

Procedure

Scenario 1

1. In your catalog (1) earch for Add DNS Configuration (2) and click on Request within Add DNS Configuration - SovLabs Modules (3)
   
   
   
2. End a Configuration Label that is meaningful
   
   
   
3. Type in the domain to use (1) and click the green plus (2)
   
   
   
4. In Networks, Enter the IP Address range you are using from your IPAM (1) and click on the green plus (2)
   
   
   
5. In the DNS server type, drop down and select your DNS provider, in this example, we will be using Infoblox
   
   
   
6. In the DNS server endpoint, place a check next to the appropriate endpoint you had already configured
   
   
   
7. Place checks next to all that may apply to create an A record / PTR Record  (1), You can opt to create a Host record (2), Leave use as a default server unchecked in this example (3)
   
   
   
8. Click on Submit
   
   
   
9. You do not have to add anything to your blueprint apart from your IPAM profile. DNS will be picked up automatically based on the IP range and DNS zone in your IPAM profile
   
   
10. You can confirm in vRO that the DNS module has run by looking at SovLabs → DNS → DNS machineBuilding.
    
    
    1. 
    2. 

Scenario 2

1. In your blueprint , go to Properties (1), Custom Properties (2) and click on New (3)
   
   
   
2. In the Name area (1) type in SovLabs_DisableDNS and in the Value (2), type True then click OK (3)
   
   
   
3. Click on Finish
   
   
   
4. You can confirm in vRO that the DNS module has skipped the DNS creation by looking at SovLabs → DNS → DNS machineBuilding.
   1. 
   2. 

Scenario 3

1. Go to Administration (1) → Property Dictionary (2) → Property Definitions (3) and click on New (4)
   
   
   
2. Provide the property with a meaningful name, in this instance, we want to set true/false against the SovLabs_DisableDNS value
   
   
   
3. Provide a label that will be shown on your blueprint
   
   
   
4. Set the Data type to Boolean
   
   
   
5. Select the Display type to Yes/No
   
   
   
6. Click on OK
   
   
   
7. Go back to your blueprint and click on Properties (1) → Customer Properties (2) → and create a new (3)
   
   
   
8. In the name field, start typing the Property Definition we created and select this in the drop down
   
   
   
9. Place a check in the Show in Request
   
   
   
10. Click on OK
    
    
    
11. Click on Finish
    
    
    
12. Now deploy your blueprint, you will see an extra value to enable or disable DNS
    
    
    
13. If you deploy your blueprint and select each option, you will see in vRO one will provision DNS and the other Will skip
    
    
    1. Disabled Example
       
       
       
    2. Enabled Example
       
       
       
       

Scenario 4

1. In vRA click on Administration (1) → Property Dictionary (2) → Property Definitions (3) → New (4)
   
   
   
2. Enter a name for the Domain Selection
   
   
   
3. Enter a Label that will be displayed on your Blueprint
   
   
   
   
4. Enter the data type (1) as String and Required (2) should be Yes
   
   
   
5. Display as DropDown (1) and Values (2) as static
   
   
   
6. Enter in the Name (1) and value (2) as required.. In this example, I am selecting the IPAM Profiles that relate to each domain.  This will allow you to dynamically provision to each different domain
   
   
   
7. Click on OK
   
   
   
8. Click on Administration (1) → Property Dictionary (2) → Property Groups (3) , Scroll down and find a group starting with SovLabs-IPAMProfile_<tenant__<IPAM Profile Name> (4) and click Copy (5)
   
   
   
9. Change the Last section after your <Tenant>_ and make it meaningful to this scenario
   
   
   
10. Change the description to reflect the new name
    
    
    
11. In the properties, Look for SovLabs_IPAMProfile_nic0 and change the value to be templated, this should be the name of the Property Definition you created
    
    
    
12. Click on OK
    
    
    
13. Go back to your blueprint and click on Properties (1) → Custom Properties (2) → and click on New (3)
    
    
    
14. Under name, enter the name of the property definition you created earlier
    
    
    
15. Place a check in Show in request
    
    
    
16. Click on OK
    
    
    
17. Click on Property Groups (1) → then click Add (2)
    
    
    
18. Search for your SovLabs_IPAMProfile-<Tenant>_<IPAMProfileName> (1) and place a check next to it, then click on OK (2)
    NOTE:  Please make sure you only have 1 IPAM Profile attached to your blueprint
    
    
    
19. Click on Finish
    
    
    
20. Now when you deploy your blueprint, you will have a drop down for your domain choice, this will now deploy to your selected IPAM / DNS profile
    
    
    
21. You can confirm this in vRO workflows for DNS, you will see which DNS name / Domain your Machine has built with
    

Additional information

Sovlabs IPAM / DNS Module information: http://docs.sovlabs.com/latest/vRA/7.6/modules/#endpoint-integrations