NetBox plugin to order interfaces more intuitively

⚠️ This plugin hacks into NetBox: This plugin definitely does not follow the supported plugin protocol, and can break NetBox!

Compatibility

This plugin in compatible with NetBox 2.8. Because of the way this plugin hacks into the internals of NetBox compatibility with other versions is not guaranteed.

Installation

First, add netbox_reorder to your /opt/netbox/local_requirements.txt file. Create it if it doesn't exist.

If you are using a local version of the plugin, for example for development, add -e /opt/path/to/plugin instead.

Then enable the plugin in /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py, like:

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_reorder',
]

And finally run /opt/netbox/upgrade.sh. This will download and install the plugin and update the database when necessary. Don't forget to run sudo systemctl restart netbox netbox-rq like upgrade.sh tells you!

Usage

This plugin overrides the default interface sorting algorithm of NetBox.

Ordering of mixed interface type names

Some devices (for example Juniper switches) can have mixed interface type names. By default NetBox orders these as follows:

• ge-0/0/1
• ge-0/0/3
• xe-0/0/0
• xe-0/0/2
• xe-0/0/4
• ge-0/1/1
• ge-0/1/3
• xe-0/1/0
• xe-0/1/2
• xe-0/1/4

This is because the interface type (ge or xe) has precedence over the last part of the interface name. This makes sense when using certain Cisco equipment that has both FastEthernet and GigabitEthernet interfaces with the same numbers:

• FastEthernet0/0
• FastEthernet0/1
• GigabitEthernet0/0
• GigabitEthernet0/1

NetBox has consciously chosen this sorting algorithm. This plugin implements an alternative more intuitive algorithm where the ordering will be:

• xe-0/0/0
• ge-0/0/1
• xe-0/0/2
• ge-0/0/3
• xe-0/0/4
• xe-0/1/0
• ge-0/1/1
• xe-0/1/2
• ge-0/1/3
• xe-0/1/4

The downside is that Cisco equipment with duplicate ports numbers will be less intuitive:

• FastEthernet0/0
• GigabitEthernet0/0
• FastEthernet0/1
• GigabitEthernet0/1

Ordering of virtual chassis interfaces

NetBox orders interfaces first by device name and then by name. This can cause interfaces in a virtual chassis to appear in an unexpected order. Consider for example the following virtual chassis:

When viewing the virtual chassis the intuitive order of interfaces would be first xe-1/x/y, then xe-2/x/y and finally xe-3/x/y.

However, because NetBox by default sorts first on device name, the order will be first xe-1/x/y, then xe-3/x/y and finally xe-2/x/y.

Why? Because "three" comes before "two" alphabetically.

This plugin patches NetBox to implement the intuitive order.