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# IP Address Management

This next section will demonstrate how to:

- Create a Regional Internet Registry
- Create a Prefix
- Create assignable IP addresses
- Assign an IP address to an Interface on a Device

These type of operations fall under an umbrella called IP Address Management (IPAM).

## Creating a Regional Internet Registry (RIR)

A RIR allocates globally-routeable IP address space. There are five top-level RIRs, each responsible for a particular section of the globe. Nautobot also considers RFCs 1918 and 6589 to be RIR-like because they allocate private IP space.

Nautobot requires any IP allocation be attributed to a RIR.

To create a RIR:

1. Click on IPAM in the left sidebar menu
2. Find RIRs and click on the +; this takes you to the `Add a new RIR` form
3. Specify the RIR `Name`
4. There is a checkbox to flag `Private` (internal use) only
5. Click on the `Create` button

## Creating a Prefix

A Prefix is an IPv4 or IPv6 network and mask expressed in CIDR notation (e.g. 192.0.2.0/24). Each Prefix can be assigned to a particular Location, an RIR and virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) instance.

To create a prefix:

1. Click on IPAM in the left sidebar menu
2. Look for Prefixes and click on the +
   - This will take you to the `Add a new prefix` form
3. Populate the `Prefix` in CIDR notation
4. If all addresses in the Prefix are usable, change the `Type` to "Pool"
5. Select a `Status` from the drop-down selector
6. Optionally select a `RIR` from the drop-down selector
7. Click on the `Create` button (not shown)

## Creating IP Addresses

To create an IP address:

1. Click on IPAM in the left side navigation menu
2. Find IP Addresses and click on the +
   - This will take you to the `Add a new IP address` form
3. In this example, we are going to create multiple individual addresses, so click on the `Bulk Create` tab
4. Populate an Address pattern
   - This example uses `10.10.10.[0-1,2-3,6-7]/31` to create 3 non-contiguous /31's
   - The specified mask should be exactly as would be configured on the Device's Interface
5. Select `Global` for `Namespace` from the drop-down selector
6. Select `Host` for `Type` from the drop-down selector
7. Select `Active` for `Status` from the drop-down selector
8. Click on the `Create` button

## Assigning IP Addresses

To assign an IP Address to a specific Device and Interface:

1. Click on Devices in the left side navigation menu
2. Click on Devices to go to the main page for Devices
3. Find the Device whose Interface you wish to associate to an IP Address and click on it, for example `ams01-leaf-01`
4. Go to the `Interfaces` tab and look for the row with the Interface you are interested in, such as `Ethernet3`
5. Click on the edit button for the Interface (a pencil icon)

Once on the `Editing Interface` page:

1. Select an `IP Address` from the drop-down selector, such as `10.0.1.0/32`
2. Click on the `Update` button
   - This will take you back to the Interfaces page for the Device, where you will see the assignment shown under the `IP Addresses` column

## Finding an IP Address for an Interface

1. Click on Devices in the left side navigation menu
2. Click on Devices to go to the main page for Devices
3. Search for the Device you are interested in (`ams01-edge-01` in this example) and click on the link to go to the main page for the Device
4. Go to the `Interfaces` tab and look for the row with the Interface you are interested in; find the IP Address(es) in the IP Addresses column in the row

## Finding IP Addresses in a Prefix

To find information on a particular Prefix:

1. Click on IPAM in the left side navigation menu
2. Click on Prefixes to get to the Prefixes main page
3. Find the Prefix you are interested in and click on the link, such as `10.10.10.0/24`
4. To view the available and allocated IP Addresses, click on the `IP Addresses` tab