Light IPAM can read and write CSV in NetBox's column format so you can move prefixes, IP addresses, and devices between the two systems. Select NetBox as the format on the Import / Export page (or use the Export NetBox links). A NetBox upload is translated into Light IPAM's native columns and then runs through the exact same dry-run preview and all-or-nothing apply as a native CSV — nothing changes until you confirm, and an invalid file is never partially applied.
Import order still matters: import devices, then subnets (prefixes), then addresses, so device links and subnet containment resolve.
The object models do not line up perfectly. NetBox prefixes have no name (only a description), and NetBox devices require a role / type / site that Light IPAM does not model. The IPAM core — prefixes ↔ subnets and IP addresses — maps cleanly; the edges below are intentionally lossy and documented.
| NetBox column | Light IPAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
prefix |
cidr |
Required. IPv4 only. |
vlan_vid (or vlan_id, vlan) |
vlan |
Optional VLAN id. |
site |
site |
Matched to an existing site by name. |
description |
name and description |
NetBox prefixes have no name, so the description becomes the Light IPAM subnet name (and is kept as the description). If description is empty, the prefix string is used as the name. |
status, tenant, vrf, role, … |
— | Ignored on import. |
On export, Light IPAM emits prefix, status, vlan_vid, site, description with
status fixed to active and the subnet name placed in description so it
round-trips back as the name. A separate free-text Light IPAM description is not
represented in a NetBox prefix CSV.
| NetBox column | Light IPAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
address |
address |
Required. The /mask suffix is stripped (Light IPAM stores host addresses); the containing subnet is located automatically and must already exist. |
status |
state |
active/dhcp/slaac/empty → assigned; reserved → reserved; deprecated → deprecated. |
dns_name |
hostname |
|
description |
notes |
|
| interface / assigned object | — | NetBox interface assignment is not mapped to a Light IPAM device. |
On export, Light IPAM emits address, status, dns_name, description; the address
carries the containing subnet's mask (e.g. 10.0.0.5/24, falling back to /32), and
assigned/available/conflict all map to NetBox active (NetBox has no
available/conflict status).
| NetBox column | Light IPAM | Notes |
|---|---|---|
name |
name |
Required; keyed by name (a match updates, otherwise creates). |
description (or comments) |
description |
|
device_role, device_type, manufacturer, site, … |
— | Ignored on import. |
On export, Light IPAM emits name, status, description with status fixed to
active. Because NetBox device import requires a role, type, and site that Light IPAM
does not store, a Light IPAM device export is not directly importable into NetBox
without adding those columns; the prefix and IP-address exports are the directly
round-trippable ones.
Every translated row is validated against the same rules as the native importer and the
on-screen forms: IPv4 CIDRs (including /31 and /32), global subnet-overlap blocking
(a matching CIDR is an update), the sparse address model with containment, the
address-state enum, and exact-name device links. The dry-run preview shows the
translated Light IPAM values per row so you can see exactly how the NetBox file was
interpreted before applying.