Bridging the Gap Between Inventory and Reality

A FlowWeaver workflow that audits NetBox against Infoblox and tags every device by DNS status.

The Problem: Inventory Drift Maintaining a "Source of Truth" (SoT) like NetBox is only valuable if the actual network state reflects it. A common operational gap occurs when devices are provisioned in NetBox but lack corresponding Host records in Infoblox. This drift isn't just a data entry error—it’s a root cause for failed deployments, monitoring blind spots, and hours of manual troubleshooting. Manual audits are slow, prone to human error, and obsolete by the time the report is finished.

FlowWeaver canvas for the Audit DNS workflow: fetch-netbox-devices, reconcile-dns, apply-netbox-tags

Execution Logic

How It Works

FlowWeaver automates this audit using a closed-loop workflow. The process moves from data gathering to classification and, finally, to operational signaling:

Discovery: The workflow queries NetBox to pull all devices with an "Active" status, specifically capturing their names and primary IP addresses.

Validation: It performs a cross-system lookup in Infoblox, searching for Host records that match the NetBox device names.

Classification: Logic nodes compare the results. If a match exists, the device is marked as In Sync. If not, it is flagged as Missing DNS.

Operational Tagging: Instead of just generating a passive report, the workflow writes back to NetBox. It applies the tag dns-verified or missing-dns to each device. This turns a simple audit into machine-readable intent that other automation scripts can act upon.

Artifact Distribution: The system generates a timestamped CSV report and emails it to the infrastructure team, providing a clear audit trail.

Logic You Can Read

The reconcile-dns node

FlowWeaver can expose the decision logic inside a workflow node as a Mermaid diagram, so engineers review the behavior and the output contract visually instead of reading implementation code.

The node receives the NetBox device list, iterates over each device, queries the corresponding Infoblox Host record and follows an explicit match or missing-record branch. Inputs, branching and outputs are all part of the visual contract: the diagram starts with the NetBox device list, shows the Host-record decision directly, and ends with rows, updates, counts and the report attachment.

Deterministic Governance for Infrastructure Data

Static audits are no longer sufficient for maintaining modern network infrastructure. This reconciliation workflow demonstrates how FlowWeaver bridges the operational gap between intent (NetBox) and implementation (Infoblox) by automating the identification and signaling of data drift.

How this runs in FlowWeaver today: the graph must pass simulation before it can be marked ready; the tag write-back to NetBox runs only from an approved Production version; the audit runs on a schedule, with the assistant outside the execution path; and every run keeps per-step logs, inputs and outputs.

By converting audit findings into machine-readable tags within the Source of Truth, the process moves beyond simple reporting into active operational enforcement. This ensures that your inventory remains a high-fidelity foundation for the rest of your automation stack, significantly reducing the risk of outages caused by stale or inconsistent DNS records.

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