First Steps

An important first step is determining what items you currently are (or will be) tracking, and what relationship they have with each other.

ProVision's flexible resource system allows you create and customize detailed entries for any type of item you may want to track: customers, contacts, data centers, routers, VMs, and more. These types of resources are labeled as "Sections" in ProVision. Once a Section is made, individual items (resources) may be created as a part of that Section. Each Section may have different Gadgets selected, which then provide additional functionality on a resource entry page. 

See: Resources, Customizing Sections, Gadgets

The resource hierarchy structure in ProVision allows for "child" resources to be created under a parent resource (for example: servers as children under a datacenter resource entry, or subsidiaries under a parent company, who then share IP aggregates). The structure decided upon will influence how resources are set up in ProVision, as well as the behaviors of functions while working with items such as IP blocks or DNS zones. 

See: Resources, The Resource System

In ProVision, standard user permissions are set by resource and functional area (IPAM, Resource, Peering, etc), with fine-grained permissions able to be set for specific resources.

Global Admin permissions give access to additional functions such as configuration settings, importing, and Scheduler tasks. Determine which users will require administrative access, and which will have access to only specific resources or functional areas. You will need to get more specific later, but having some high level groups to work with is a great start.

See: Users & Permissions

Excel / Spreadsheets:

May be used to import: Resources, IP Aggregates/ Blocks, DNS BIND Zones

If you currently use Excel or other spreadsheet program for tracking, you will need to verify that your spreadsheets are "cleaned up" according to the information on the Importing Your Data page under "Preparing for Data Import":

• Make sure that you use UTF-8 encoding, remove extraneous blank rows, and compare your data to the data fields available in ProVision, shown under "Which Import Tool Should I Use?".

• Review sample files if desired to see example formats.

• If you plan to track custom types of resources by creating Sections, you will need to create a Section with custom fields, and verify that your spreadsheet contains the same fields.

Once your verification / cleanup is complete, export your spreadsheet as a .csv file. 

See: Importing Your Data, Resources, Import DNS Zones

RIR:

May be used to import: IP Aggregates

No advance preparation is needed for aggregates imported from RIR. ProVision's built-in importer will ask for your ORGID or an IP, and then populate an aggregate list from that information. Simply choose which aggregates you wish to import. 

See: Import Aggregate Blocks

DNS Servers:

May be used to import: DNS Zones

ProVision provides automated tools for importing DNS zones from the following server types: BIND, PowerDNS, InfoBlox, NS One, Dyn DNS, and DNSMadeEasy servers, as well as IPPlan MySQL Databases.

Before importing DNS zones, it is recommended that a DNS Group be created to hold the zones being imported, and that the DNS server be added into ProVision so that zone updates may be pushed.

For general DNS task, see: DNS Administration, DNS Tab, Working with DNS Groups, Working with DNS Servers

For specific DNS zone import instructions for each DNS server type, see: Import DNS Zones

Manually Add Data:

ProVision allows manual adding of data at any time. We recommend verifying that the item has not already been added beforehand (to prevent duplicates), and keeping your desired data structure in mind.

Importing or creating your resources first allows subsequent items to be associated with those resources. 

Import customers, physical devices, locations, and so forth through the Resource Import from CSV tool. If you wish for additional customization, you may create a custom Section, add the desired fields, and import resources under that Section through the Resource Import Tool. 

Adding resources manually may be done at any time under the Resources tab, by clicking the "Add Entry" button. 

See: Resources, Importing Your Data

Import your IP Aggregates through the Import from RIR tool, or from a .csv file via IP Import from CSV. 

The Import from CSV tool will create Top-Level Aggregates and place blocks under those aggregates based on the following method:

First, the importer will parse through the provided data, order all blocks from largest to smallest, then attempt to split the largest block out of an existing block matching the IP space and RIR. If that fails (no larger block exists), then that block is added in the system as its own Top-Level-Aggregate. Subsequent blocks will undergo the same process. 

This method ensures that your list of IP blocks does not need to be organized in any particular order.

See: Importing Your Data

Note: Adding DNS servers requires administrative access.

Servers are added under the DNS tab of ProVision, under "DNS Servers". Click on "Add Server" and fill out the server information. See: Working with DNS Servers. Information for specific server types and options is available under DNS Administration.

After creating the applicable servers in ProVision, you may import or manually add DNS zones. 

ProVision offers multiple DNS zone import options, available under the Data Import tab in the Admin section:

• BIND Zone Import: Imports using the named.conf configuration file tied to the zones you are uploading, a .zip or .tar file of the zones themselves, and an optional .csv file mapping zones to customers.

• PowerDNS Zone Import: Option is available after configuring a PowerDNS server with a MySQL backend.  Connects to the selected server and imports all zones.

• InfoBlox Zone Import: Imports DNS zones using a provided host, username, and password. The InfoBlox import pulls all zones on the InfoBlox LOCAL grid and adds them to a designated group. It is advised to create a DNS Group prior to the import with default parameters and NS records to be inherited by the imported records.

• NS One Zone Import: Imports DNS zones using a NS One API Key. It is advised to create a DNS Group prior to the import with default parameters and NS records to be inherited by the imported records. 

• Dyn DNS Zone Import: Imports DNS zones using a Dyn DNS customer name, username, and password. It is advised to create a DNS Group prior to the import with default parameters and NS records to be inherited by the imported records. 

• DNSMadeEasy Zone Import: Imports DNS zones using a DNSMadeEasy API Key and API Secret. It is advised to create a DNS Group prior to the import with default parameters and NS records to be inherited by the imported records. 

• IPPlan Zone Import: Imports DNS zones using IPPlan MySQL database options. It is advised to create a DNS Group prior to the import with default parameters and NS records to be inherited by the imported records. 

Manually adding zones may be done at any time from the  DNS tab. For more information on importing DNS zones, see Importing your Data and Import DNS Zones.