Weird behavior with device creation script

[llamafilm]

I have a custom script to create devices. I noticed a problem where new devices created this way do not show any power ports, outlets, and interfaces in the GUI, although they do exist, and the API shows counts of 0, for example /api/dcim/devices/8178/ shows:

"power_port_count": 0,
"power_outlet_count": 0,
"interface_count": 0,

The script runs like this (simplified)

# create device
dev = Device(site=xxx, status='active'...)
dev.full_clean()
dev.save()

# create IP address
ipaddr = IPAddress(address=data["primary_ip"])
ipaddr.full_clean()
ipaddr.save()

# assign primary IP to device
iface = Interface.objects.get(device_id=dev.id, name='Ethernet1')
iface.ip_addresses.set([ipaddr])
ipaddr = IPAddress.objects.get(id=ipaddr.id)
dev.primary_ip4 = ipaddr
dev.full_clean()
dev.save()                    

It turns out, I have to run dev = Device.objects.get(id=dev.id) after saving the device, and that fixes the issue.

[kkthxbye-code]

Do dev.refresh_from_db() like shown here:

# create device
dev = Device(site=xxx, status='active'...)
dev.full_clean()
dev.save()

# create IP address
ipaddr = IPAddress(address=data["primary_ip"])
ipaddr.full_clean()
ipaddr.save()

# assign primary IP to device
iface = Interface.objects.get(device_id=dev.id, name='Ethernet1')
iface.ip_addresses.set([ipaddr])
ipaddr = IPAddress.objects.get(id=ipaddr.id)

dev.refresh_from_db()
dev.primary_ip4 = ipaddr
dev.full_clean()
dev.save()

Netbox added a half-baked caching implementation of component counts recently. This means that whenever you save a device, a signal is executed afterwards for calculating the count, meaning that the device object will always have to be reloaded after save to make sure you are not overwriting any post-save changes.

[rizlas]

Check this netbox-community/customizations#100 (comment)

[rizlas]

That make sense and in a part of my code where i was modifying the device adding refresh_from_db fixed the count. It does not work in another part where, for example, I'm only adding a rear/console ports to the device without any further modification to the device.

Here a part of the code:

def _setup_default_ports(self, dev_obj):
    try:
        device_rp = RearPort.objects.get(
            device=dev_obj,
            name__startswith=f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}",
        )
    except RearPort.DoesNotExist:
        device_rp = RearPort(
            device=dev_obj,
            description=f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}",
            type="other",
            name=f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}",
        )
    except Exception as e:
        self.log_warning(f"Error getting RearPort for {dev_obj.name} {e}")
        return (None, -1)

    changed = False
    self.obj_snapshot(device_rp)

    if not device_rp.description:
        device_rp.description = f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}"
        changed = True
    if not device_rp.type:
        device_rp.type = "other"
        changed = True
    if device_rp.positions != 256:  # noqa: PLR2004
        device_rp.positions = 256
        changed = True
    if changed:
        device_rp.full_clean()
        device_rp.save()

    cp, _ = ConsolePort.objects.get_or_create(device=dev_obj, name="Console - RE0")

[candlerb]

Note that

        device_rp = RearPort(
            device=dev_obj,
            description=f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}",
            type="other",
            name=f"Backplane {dev_obj.name}",
        )

does not create a RearPort in the database until you save it. So I think you need to set changed=True here (and move changed=False earlier, obviously; you also only need to snapshot the device if it already exists and you read it from the database)

The console port, however, should be fine, as long as you don't call dev_obj.save() after this point.

[rizlas]

Of course I'm saving them. Also, weirdly enough neither console port is shown :-| I'm completely clueless.
I've also tried to leave only console port creation and remove the rest. Only interfaces tab appears.

[rizlas]

Ok find it..

def _setup_default_ports(self, dev_obj):

dev_obj is a Device instance (get or created) at the start of the script.

adding dev_obj.refresh_from_db() and then the snapshot fixed the problem.

[rizlas]

Thanks for the explanation and help :)