Inventory-Driven Network Interface Validation

August 10, 2026

Moved network-interface risk detection to the inventory-aware lab health boundary.

Tags: Abbey Root

Inventory-Driven Network Interface Validation

Summary

The risk-reducer recommendation proposed adding interface detection to Abbey Doctor. Reviewing the implementations changed the destination: Doctor is a portable local-project check, while abbey lab check already owns managed-host inventory and gathers interface facts across the fleet.

The resulting check is deliberately opt-in. Each authoritative expectation uses a role and stable MAC address. The known sites01 MAC is the first declaration; hosts without verified hardware identity report SKIP rather than creating false confidence or false alarms.

Accomplishments

• Added reusable expected-interface validation to the lab health playbook.
• Reported present, missing/replaced, observed, and undeclared states.
• Preserved failure-tolerant reporting across every reachable host.
• Added the documented sites01 primary-interface identity to inventory.
• Added and passed a five-case synthetic Ansible regression suite.

Lessons Learned

• Operational ownership matters more than backlog placement: fleet hardware checks belong where fleet inventory and remote facts already meet.
• MAC addresses are suitable replacement signals; interface names are often deployment details that can change independently of hardware.
• Opt-in validation makes incomplete inventory visible instead of silently treating absence of configuration as success.

Next Steps

• Certify the sites01 expectation through a live control-node lab check.
• Add other hosts only after verifying their stable interface identities.