Usage Examples

This guide provides practical examples of using the NetBox MCP Server with various LLM clients.

Common Queries

Infrastructure Discovery

1. List all sites

   What sites do we have in NetBox?
   

2. Find devices in a specific site

   Show me all devices in the London datacenter
   

3. Get rack information

   List all racks in DC1 that are less than 80% utilized
   

IP Management

1. IP Address Usage

   Show me all IP addresses in the 10.0.0.0/8 network
   

2. VLAN Information

   What VLANs are configured in the production environment?
   

3. Prefix Utilization

   Show me utilization of all IPv4 prefixes
   

Device Management

1. Device Search

   Find all Cisco switches in the network
   

2. Interface Status

   Show me all interfaces on device core-switch-01
   

3. Hardware Inventory

   List all devices with serial numbers and purchase dates
   

Circuit Management

1. Provider Information

   Show me all circuits from provider AT&T
   

2. Circuit Capacity

   List circuits with utilization over 80%
   

Virtualization

1. VM Inventory

   Show all virtual machines running on cluster prod-cluster-01
   

2. Resource Usage

   List VMs with more than 8 CPUs and 16GB RAM
   

Advanced Usage

Complex Filtering

1. Multi-criteria Search

   Find all devices that are:
   - Manufactured by Cisco
   - Located in the NYC datacenter
   - Have 10G interfaces
   

2. Status-based Queries

   Show me all devices that are:
   - Currently active
   - Have maintenance due in the next 30 days
   - Are running IOS version 15.x
   

Reporting Queries

1. Capacity Planning

   Generate a report showing:
   - Rack space utilization per site
   - Power consumption trends
   - Network interface utilization
   

2. Asset Management

   List all devices with:
   - Purchase date
   - Warranty status
   - Support contract details
   

Network Analysis

1. Connectivity Mapping

   Show me the network path between:
   - Source: web-server-01
   - Destination: db-server-02
   

2. Security Zones

   List all devices in the DMZ with their:
   - IP addresses
   - Connected interfaces
   - Security group assignments
   

Write Operations

Creating Objects

1. Create a new device

   Create a new device called "app-server-05" with device type "R640 Server", role "Application Server", and site "NYC"
   

2. Add an IP address

   Add IP address 192.168.100.25/24 with description "New application server" and status "active"
   

3. Create a new VLAN

   Create VLAN 200 named "Dev Environment" in VLAN group "Office" with status "active"
   

Updating Objects

1. Update device status

   Change the status of device "core-switch-01" to "maintenance"
   

2. Modify IP address description

   Update the description of IP 10.0.0.1/24 to "Primary Gateway"
   

3. Add tags to devices

   Add tags "migration" and "2023-upgrade" to all devices in the London datacenter
   

Deleting Objects

1. Remove a decommissioned device

   Delete device "old-server-03" from NetBox
   

2. Clean up unused IP addresses

   Remove all IP addresses in prefix 192.168.50.0/24
   

Bulk Operations

1. Create multiple IP addresses

   Create the following IP addresses in NetBox:
   - 10.10.10.1/24 with description "Router"
   - 10.10.10.2/24 with description "Core Switch"
   - 10.10.10.3/24 with description "Firewall"
   

2. Update status of multiple devices

   Change the status of all devices in rack R101 to "active"
   

Best Practices

1. Be Specific

   • Include relevant details in your queries
   • Use exact names when known
   • Specify filters clearly

2. Use Natural Language

   • Queries can be written in plain English
   • No need for special syntax
   • The LLM will interpret your intent

3. Iterative Refinement

   • Start with broad queries
   • Refine based on results
   • Ask follow-up questions

Troubleshooting Queries

1. Validation

   Verify the configuration of device core-switch-01
   

2. Connectivity

   Show me all connections to server web-01
   

3. Audit

   List all changes made to the network in the past week
   

For more detailed API information, see the API Reference page.