NetBox Interface Name Rules Plugin

Automatic interface renaming when modules are installed into NetBox device bays.

What it does

When a module (transceiver, line card, converter) is installed into a module bay, NetBox creates interfaces using position-based naming from the module type template. This often produces incorrect names — e.g., Interface 1 instead of et-0/0/4.

This plugin hooks into Django's post_save signal on the Module model to automatically apply renaming rules based on configurable templates.

Features

• Signal-driven — rules fire automatically on module install, no manual step needed
• Template variables — {slot}, {bay_position}, {bay_position_num}, {base}, {channel}, etc.
• Arithmetic expressions — {8 + ({parent_bay_position} - 1) * 2 + {sfp_slot}}
• Breakout support — create multiple channel interfaces from a single port (e.g., QSFP+ 4x10G)
• Scoping — rules can be scoped to specific device types, parent module types, or be universal
• Bulk import/export — YAML-based rule management via the UI or API

Supported scenarios

Scenario	Example
Converter offset	GLC-T in CVR-X2-SFP → GigabitEthernet3/10
Breakout channels	QSFP-4X10G-LR → et-0/0/4:0 through et-0/0/4:3
Platform naming	QSFP-100G-LR4 on ACX7024 → et-0/0/{bay_position}
UfiSpace breakout	QSFP-100G on S9610 → swp{bay_position_num}s{channel}

Installation

pip install netbox-interface-name-rules

Add to configuration.py:

PLUGINS = ['netbox_interface_name_rules']

Compatibility

• NetBox ≥ 4.2.0
• Python ≥ 3.12

License

Apache 2.0

Documentation

• Full documentation — installation, configuration, examples
• DeepWiki — AI-generated codebase overview

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to submit code or interface name rules.

Community-contributed rules for various vendors are in the contrib/ directory.