Feature: optional speed input for resource apstra_datacenter_generic_system.links

[kimcharli]

The resource apstra_datacenter_generic_system.links requires target_switch_if_transform_id which is foreign to the users. It would be more user-friendly to accept speed, like speed 10g, instead of transform_id 2.

The transform_id can be deduced from the device profile with the interface name and the speed. Only in the cases when the speed is not unique for the interface, the transform_id can (should) be provided in addition to the speed.

[chrismarget-j]

Hi Charlie,

Thank you for opening this issue!

(I'm fully enumerating the context below so we'll have a record of what we did and why)

There are cases where two different transform IDs yield the same speed. For example, the Cisco_3172PQ_NXOS device profile has these two:

{
  "is_default": true,
  "interfaces": [
    {
      "state": "active",
      "setting": "{\"interface\": {\"speed\": \"\"}, \"global\": {\"port_index\": -1, \"speed\": \"\", \"module_index\": -1}}",
      "speed": {
        "unit": "G",
        "value": 10
      },
      "name": "Ethernet1/1",
      "interface_id": 1
    }
  ],
  "transformation_id": 1
}

...and...

{
  "is_default": false,
  "interfaces": [
    {
      "state": "active",
      "setting": "{\"interface\": {\"speed\": \"10000\"}, \"global\": {\"port_index\": -1, \"speed\": \"\", \"module_index\": -1}}",
      "speed": {
        "unit": "G",
        "value": 10
      },
      "name": "Ethernet1/1",
      "interface_id": 1
    }
  ],
  "transformation_id": 2
}

In the case of apstra_interface_map resource, the transformation_id attribute is optional. We use the logical device interface details (which include speed) to auto-select the transformation when it is possible to do so. When there are multiple choices we produce an error indicating the user must select a transformation.

We can implement similar logic here:

• Introduce a new target_switch_if_speed link attribute
• organize input validation so that exactly one of target_switch_if_speed and transformation_id is required (allowing both introduces possible exception cases which can be easily avoided)
• collect the target switch device profile (along with some provider-managed cache to speed things up) when the user specifies the speed rather than the transformation
• error with a message indicating that a transformation ID must be selected when more than one transformation supports the desired speed