Migration from infoblox-client¶

infoblox-client is the legacy synchronous Python library for NIOS WAPI. This page covers how to migrate existing scripts to ibx-nios-sdk.

Key differences at a glance¶

Aspect	infoblox-client (old)	ibx-nios-sdk (new)
Execution model	Synchronous	`async/await` only
Entry point	`ibx.client.InfobloxConnector(…)`	`NiosClient(…)`
Auth	Basic auth hardcoded	Session auth by default; Basic with `use_session=False`
Return types	Raw `dict` / `list`	Typed Pydantic models
Ref handling	`_ref` as raw string	Same - `_ref` is still a plain string
Pagination	Manual, no built-in helper	`AsyncPageIterator` with `.all()`
Retry	None	Built-in exponential back-off (`max_retries=3`)
Error handling	Raises `Exception` with message string	Typed exception hierarchy (`NiosError` subclasses)
Field selection	`return_fields=` list	`return_fields=` or `return_fields_plus=`

Method mapping¶

infoblox-client	ibx-nios-sdk	Notes
`connector.get_object("record:a", {"name": "web"})`	`await client.dns.record_a.list(name="web").all()`	Returns typed models, not dicts
`connector.create_object("record:a", {"name": …})`	`await client.dns.record_a.create({…})`	Returns typed model
`connector.update_object(ref, {"comment": …})`	`await client.dns.record_a.update(ref, {…})`	`ref` is still a plain string
`connector.delete_object(ref)`	`await client.dns.record_a.delete(ref)`	-
`connector.call_func("next_available_ip", ref, {})`	`await client.ipam.network.next_available_ip(ref, num=1)`	Typed wrapper returns dict

Before / after: list zones¶

Before (infoblox-client):

import ibx.client as ibx

conn = ibx.InfobloxConnector(
    host="gm.example.com",
    username="admin",
    password="infoblox",
    ssl_verify=False,
)
zones = conn.get_object("zone_auth", {"view": "default"})
for z in zones:
    print(z["fqdn"])

After (ibx-nios-sdk):

import asyncio
from ibx_nios_sdk import NiosClient

async def main():
    async with NiosClient(
        grid_url="https://gm.example.com",
        username="admin",
        password="infoblox",
        verify=False,
    ) as client:
        async for zone in client.dns.zone_auth.list(view="default"):
            print(zone.fqdn)  # typed attribute, not dict key

asyncio.run(main())

Before / after: create A record¶

Before:

ref = conn.create_object("record:a", {
    "name": "web01.example.com",
    "view": "default",
    "ipv4addr": "10.0.0.5",
})
print(ref)  # raw _ref string

After:

async with NiosClient() as client:
    rec = await client.dns.record_a.create({
        "name": "web01.example.com",
        "view": "default",
        "ipv4addr": "10.0.0.5",
    })
    print(rec._ref)  # attribute on typed model

Before / after: next available IP¶

Before:

result = conn.call_func("next_available_ip", ref, {"num": 1})
ip = result["ips"][0]

After:

async with NiosClient() as client:
    result = await client.ipam.network.next_available_ip(ref, num=1)
    ip = result["ips"][0]

Running synchronously¶

ibx-nios-sdk is async-only. If you need to call it from synchronous code:

import asyncio
from ibx_nios_sdk import NiosClient

def list_zones_sync():
    async def _inner():
        async with NiosClient() as client:
            return await client.dns.zone_auth.list().all()

    return asyncio.run(_inner())

Warning

Do not call asyncio.run() from inside an already-running event loop (e.g., Jupyter notebooks or FastAPI handlers). In those contexts, use await directly.

Notes on `_ref` strings¶

The _ref format has not changed - refs from older infoblox-client scripts remain valid in ibx-nios-sdk. You can pass them directly to get(), update(), delete(), and typed function wrappers.

# ref obtained from infoblox-client or from the NIOS UI
old_ref = "record:a/ZG5z.../web01.example.com/default"
rec = await client.dns.record_a.get(old_ref)

Note

The SDK validates the ref prefix matches the resource type. If you call client.dns.record_a.get("network/…"), you'll get a ValueError immediately without a network round-trip.