The vRealize Automation (vRA) Cloud Infoblox Plugin 1.3 is available at VMware Marketplace, released in December 2020.  This article describes plugin compatibility with previous versions of vRA and why users of vRA and/or vRA Cloud using earlier versions of the plugin may want to upgrade. 

Note: This article addresses several compatibility and usage concerns.

The IPAM plugin officially supports vRA Cloud and will be supported by vRA 8.3 when it is released. It can still be used with vRA 8.1 and 8.2 but there are some risks and it should be used with caution.

Problem:

The version 1.3 plugin allows network data collection filtering.  This reduces the incoming payload of networks by data collecting only those networks that apply to vRA and vRA Cloud improving performance in both vRA and Infoblox.

Risks:

When used with with vRA 8.1 and 8.2, the version 1.3 plugin introduces the unintended potential to delete valid and needed networks and IP Ranges from the vRA database.  Specifically, if you use any of the optional filtering parameters and the plugin does not discover networks in Infoblox, it assumes they are no longer needed and deletes associated IP ranges from the vRA database, even if they are part of network profiles.  However, if vRA 8.1 and 8.2 is used with the version 1.3 plugin, and the filtering options are NOT used, the plugin can be safely used.  The problem described here does not apply to the current iteration of vRA Cloud.

Note!  It is NOT ADVISED that vRA Cloud Infoblox Plugin 1.3 be used with vRA 8.1 and 8.2.

You can upgrade to vRA Cloud Infoblox 1.3 for vRA 8.1 and 8.2 per below:

• Greenfield organizations - This is the best option if you want to use this version of the plugin on vRA 8.1 and 8.2.  This mitigates the chance of deleting valuable data and will allow full functionality of the plugin.
• Brownfield organizations - If the plugin is used in an environment which has previously collected networks, network containers or DHCP IP Ranges from Infoblox, extra caution is required.  If you apply filters for data collection on such environment, only the networks that the filter matches will be preserved.  All the networks that did not match the filter will be deleted from the vRA database, this includes network objects that might be in use or are part of Network profiles.  In this situation, you must know which search filters Infoblox supports, so that you can apply the available filtering parameters safely and precisely.

vRA Cloud and vRA 8.3 (not yet released) performs additional checks using the data collection filters to ensure that networks specified in existing subnets and network profiles are not deleted.

The latest version of the plugin can be downloaded from the following link:  vRA Cloud Infoblox Plugin 1.3