DCIM CSV

The example provider's DCIM CSV is a single multi-section CSV that describes a whole inventory — roles, statuses, locations, racks, devices, modules, interface metadata, and cabling — in one file. It is the reference format for bootstrapping inventories and exercising the full ETL pipeline.

cani alpha import example --csv ./dcim.csv

A file is treated as a DCIM CSV (rather than a flat BOM CSV) when its header contains a Section column. Detection lives in IsDcimCSV and parsing in ParseDcimCSV (pkg/provider/example/import/dcim_csv.go); transformation in TransformDcim (pkg/provider/example/transform/dcim.go).

Pipeline

import (ParseDcimCSV)  ->  transform (TransformDcim)  ->  merge  ->  datastore
        buckets by Section      passes -> TransformResult        cmd/import

Phase	Code	Responsibility
Extract	import/dcim_csv.go ParseDcimCSV	Group rows into per-section buckets
Transform	transform/dcim.go TransformDcim	Roles/Statuses → Locations → Racks → Devices → Modules → Interfaces → Connections
Load	cmd/import	Merge the TransformResult and save

Header

The header names the columns; the parser maps by column name (order-independent, common aliases accepted), so a file only needs the columns its sections use. The full set of recognized columns is:

Section,PartNumber,Name,Qty,Rack,Position,Face,Role,Status,Serial,Device,Bay,ADevice,APort,BDevice,BPort,Color,Length,LengthUnit,Location,ContentTypes,MacAddress,Description,LocationType

Sections

Each data row starts with a Section value that selects the record type:

Section	Key columns	Notes
_defaults	Status (or any field)	Optional single row; values fill blanks for all rows. Per-section <section>_defaults rows also work
role	Name, ContentTypes, Color, Description	Define roles before devices reference them. ContentTypes is comma-separated (e.g. dcim.device,dcim.rack)
status	Name, ContentTypes, Color, Description	First-class status catalog (e.g. Active, Planned)
location	Name, LocationType, Location, ContentTypes	LocationType = type slug (dc, level, section); Role is accepted as a legacy alias. Location = parent location name. Define parents before children
rack	PartNumber, Name, Qty, Status, Location	PartNumber = rack-type slug. Location = location name to assign the rack to
device	PartNumber, Name, Qty, Rack, Position, Face, Role, Status, Serial	Face = front or rear. Position = U number (omit for zero-U like PDUs)
module	PartNumber, Qty, Device, Bay, Serial	Device = parent device name, Bay = module bay name from the device type (e.g. GPU0, PCIe5)
interface	Device, Name, MacAddress	Annotates an existing device/module interface with a MAC address
connection	PartNumber, ADevice, APort, BDevice, BPort, Color, Length, LengthUnit	PartNumber = cable-type slug. Ports support brace expansion: HSN {0..3}

Rules

• Comments: lines starting with # are ignored.
• Order: roles/statuses → locations → racks → devices → modules → interfaces → connections (each section can reference items from earlier sections, and hardware imported in an earlier run).
• Content types: bare model names are normalized to Nautobot form — device → dcim.device, prefix → ipam.prefix; already-qualified values pass through.
• Defaults: the _defaults row fills blanks globally; <section>_defaults (e.g. device_defaults) overrides for one section.
• Qty: defaults to 1 if omitted. For Qty > 1, names get -1, -2, … suffixes.
• Empty columns: leave unused columns empty; rows are matched by header name, not position.
• Brace expansion: connection ports like {0..3} expand to 0,1,2,3. Both A and B sides expand in lockstep (zip).

Minimal Example

Section,PartNumber,Name,Qty,Rack,Position,Face,Role,Status,Serial,Device,Bay,ADevice,APort,BDevice,BPort,Color,Length,LengthUnit,Location,ContentTypes,MacAddress
_defaults,,,,,,,,Active,,,,,,,,,,,,,
role,,ComputeNode,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dcim.device,
status,,Active,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,dcim.device,
location,,MyDC,,,,,dc,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
location,,Zone-A,,,,,section,,,,,,,,,,,,MyDC,"dcim.rack,dcim.device",
rack,hpe-48u-800mmx1200mm-g2-enterprise-shock-rack,rack1,1,,,,,Available,,,,,,,,,,,Zone-A,,
device,hpe-xd670,node1,1,rack1,34,front,ComputeNode,Active,,,,,,,,,,,,,
module,nvidia-h100-sxm-gpu,,1,,,,,,,node1,GPU0,,,,,,,,,,
interface,,iLO,,,,,,,,node1,,,,,,,,,,,aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:01
connection,hpe-3m-cat6-stp,,,,,,,,,,,node1,iLO,switch1,1,blue,3,m,,,

Finding Valid PartNumbers

PartNumber values are slugs from the device-type library under pkg/devicetypes/. Browse the YAML files there for available rack types, device types, module types, and cable types.