Unify interface parents?

[candlerb]

Just raising this for discussion.

As of Netbox 3.1, interfaces can now link to three types of related interface:

• Parent
• LAG
• Bridge

I cannot think of any case where you might use more than one of these at once on the same interface.

If this were simplified to just "Parent", the type of relationship would be inferred by the type of the parent interface: i.e. if the parent interface is a LAG or a Bridge, then that would be the same as linking to "LAG" or "Bridge" today.

One benefit of this is that (optionally) the interfaces could be displayed naturally in a tree: nest the child interfaces below the parent. Another benefit would be fewer columns required in the display.

Thoughts?

[candlerb]

Never mind, I found a case where both 'parent' and 'bridge' are required. In netplan-ese:

network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    enp2s0f0:
      wakeonlan: true
      dhcp4: false
      accept-ra: false
      link-local: []
  vlans:
    vlan254:
       id: 254
       link: enp2s0f0
       accept-ra: false
       link-local: []
  bridges:
    br254:
      interfaces: [vlan254]
      parameters:
        stp: false
        forward-delay: 0
      dhcp4: false
      addresses: [10.12.254.5/24]

Here, interface vlan254 is a subinterface of enp2s0f0 (in earlier systems it would be called enp2s0f0.254). However it is also a member of bridge br254. Hence in Netbox:

[DanSheps]

I think you could come across a instance like this too:

Eth0 - Physical
Eth1
Eth.0 - Virtual - Parent Eth0, Lag Eth.1
Eth.1 - Virtual - Parent Eth1, Lag Eth.0

Maybe not this exact scenario but I am sure there is something similar out there.

[candlerb]

"LAG" points to a LAG virtual interface which this port is a member of, and there can be more than 2 ports in the same LAG, for example:

bond0 - LAG
eth0 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth1 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth2 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth3 - Physical, LAG bond0

A LAG can be a member of a bridge, but I don't think a port can be both a member of a LAG and a member of a bridge.

With VLAN subinterface (children), then you could have:

bond0 - LAG
eth0 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth1 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth2 - Physical, LAG bond0
eth3 - Physical, LAG bond0
bond0.100 - Virtual, parent bond0

With bridges, either bond0 could be a member of a bridge, or bond0.100 could be a member of a bridge; that's the same scenario I showed before, i.e. both "parent" and "bridge" are set on bond0.100.

I can't think of any example where you'd set both "LAG" and "Parent" references on the same interface though.