I've been under the understanding for years now that when IPAM scans an IP, if it does not respond, IPAM would place the IP into the Transient state. It would stay in the Transient state, as long as it didn't respond to ping, for the duration specified in the Subnet Scan settings. If the option of Unlimited Duration was checked, then they would stay in Transient indefinitely, until it started responding to ping again, at which point it would be returned to Used.
However, on this page:
Configure subnet scan settings manually
It says the following:
IPAM continuously scans all managed IP addresses on your network. If a device fails to respond to any SNMP or ICMP requests for the duration entered here, IPAM will change the status of the unresponsive IP address from Used to Available. Any associated custom attribute is overwritten. If Unlimited Duration is selected, unresponsive devices will retain the status of Used until manually updated.
This seems to contradict my understanding. This seems to remove any condition in which an IP would be automatically placed into Transient state.
Can someone clear things up for me? I want it to be as I thought I understood it - I have checked the Unlimited Duration, because in my Enterprise environment, I NEVER want IPAM to change an IP from any status to 'Available' on its own, but if an IP stops responding, I'd like it to automatically move it to Transient state, and to stay transient, until it either gets manually set to Available, or starts responding to ping again.
Running version 4.3.1, if that makes any difference.
Thanks,