Option to render device with interfaces in Virtual Device Context as separate nodes.

[LuPo]

NetBox version

v4.2.6

Topology Views version

v4.2.1

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

A Virtual Device Context represents a logical partition within a physical device that behaves like a separate physical router. In Juniper, for example, Logical Systems are virtualized instances of JunOS with assigned interfaces. Visualizing these entities as separate nodes can be beneficial, for example, when tracking routing loops.
In particular, notwithstanding there might be other implementations for different vendors, implementation proposes the following:

1. Node name can consist of VDC name plus device name. Interfaces not assigned to any VDC should stay with the main device node.
2. Connections between VDCs can be made either through physical external ports (obvious implementation) or logical ports like "lt-*" ports that connect through device backplane. The latter can be modeled as well as physical interfaces that connects to another VDC. These interface types could be one of the existing Netbox Ethernet Backplane group.

Use case

In data center context there are large devices that can have assigned multiple roles and thus can be partitioned to act like separate devices. Being able to visualize how these are interconnected can lead to better understanding of the overall network topology.

External dependencies

Do not foresee additional dependencies.