Prefixes¶

A prefix is a block of address space written in CIDR form — for example 10.0.10.0/24. This page covers creating, editing, and deleting prefixes, and the time-saving inheritance that fills in context for you.

Add a prefix¶

There are three ways into the prefix form, and each carries different context with it:

You start from…	The new prefix inherits…
The Add prefix button on the prefix list	Nothing — it starts as a top-level block.
The Add child prefix button on a prefix's detail page	The site, VLAN, and VRF of the parent prefix.
A free slot in the Children tab, or a free chip in the Space map	The site, VLAN, and VRF of the smallest existing prefix that contains the new block.

When inheritance applies, the form shows a small green chip confirming what's being carried over, so you can see at a glance where the values came from:

✓ Inheriting site + VLAN from parent 10.0.10.0/24

Fill in the remaining fields — status, role, description, gateway, tags — and save.

Let the children inherit

Building out a network under a parent? Use Add child prefix instead of the global Add prefix button. You'll skip re-picking the site, VLAN, and VRF every time, and you won't accidentally split a block across the wrong VRF.

A site's address scope¶

A site can own one or more prefix ranges — together they're the site's address scope. Site-scoped editors (see Permissions → Site roles) can only carve child prefixes inside those ranges, so the scope doubles as a guardrail.

Open a site and use its Prefixes tab (the address scope is also summarised on the site's Edit form). Two ways to populate it:

Add prefix range — create a brand-new prefix already assigned to this site.
Assign prefix — pull an existing prefix into the site. Search, pick one, and it's moved into the site's scope. You can assign several in a row.

To remove a range from a site, edit that prefix and clear its site.

Edit a prefix¶

Open the prefix and click Edit. The form opens populated with the prefix's current values, including its tags. Change what you need and save.

Delete a prefix¶

Open the prefix and click Delete. You'll be asked to confirm.

Deleting takes the IPs with it

Deleting a prefix also removes the IP addresses recorded inside it. Move or confirm you no longer need those addresses first.

What gets validated¶

Danbyte checks a few things when you save, so your data stays clean:

Rule	What it means
Valid CIDR	The block must be a real network (for example `10.0.0.0/24`). It's stored in its canonical form.
Valid gateway	If you set a gateway, it must be a valid IP address.
No duplicates in a VRF	The same block can't exist twice in the same VRF. The same block can exist in two different VRFs — that's expected and supported.

Carving a subnet re-homes its IPs¶

Each IP belongs to exactly one prefix. When you create a child prefix (from the detail page's Add child prefix, the space map, or the API), Danbyte automatically moves the IP addresses it now most-specifically contains onto the new prefix — pulling them down from the broader parent so they aren't stranded. It never steals IPs that belong to an existing more-specific child, and only affects the same tenant + VRF.

Add a pool of addresses¶

Rather than adding hosts one at a time, the Add pool button on a prefix's IPs tab bulk-creates every address across a range in one step. It appears on enumerable leaf prefixes (not containers or prefixes with child prefixes).

The dialog takes a start and end address, an optional status, role, and description applied to every address, and a Populate from shortcut that fills the range from:

a DHCP scope pool on the prefix (see Windows DHCP & DNS sync), or
the whole prefix (its usable host range).

Addresses that already exist are skipped, and the prefix's network and broadcast addresses are never created. A single pool is capped at 1024 addresses — add a wider span in smaller ranges. Each address is created individually, so it lands in the change log and history like any other IP.

Gateway autospawn¶

If you leave the gateway field blank and the prefix's site has a gateway policy set, Danbyte creates the gateway address for you automatically when you save. See Gateway autospawn for how to set that up.