Filtering devices using the q filter takes excessively long when many inventory items are present #1018

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MrUnknownDE · 2026-04-05T19:53:04+02:00

MrUnknownDE commented

2026-04-05 19:53:04 +02:00

Originally created by @jeremystretch on 10/20/2025

NetBox Edition

NetBox Community

NetBox Version

v4.4.4

Python Version

3.12

Steps to Reproduce

Have thousands of devices, each with ~100 or more inventory items installed.
Attempt to search for a device by name using the q filter, e.g.

GET /api/dcim/devices/?brief=true&limit=100&q=foobar

Expected Behavior

The set of matching devices should be returned fairly quickly.

Observed Behavior

The query takes an inordinate amount of time due to the underlying search() method pulling in all installed inventory items:

return queryset.filter(
    Q(name__icontains=value) |
    Q(virtual_chassis__name__icontains=value) |
    Q(serial__icontains=value.strip()) |
    Q(inventoryitems__serial__icontains=value.strip()) |  # Queries *all* inventory items
    Q(asset_tag__icontains=value.strip()) |
    Q(description__icontains=value.strip()) |
    Q(comments__icontains=value) |
    Q(primary_ip4__address__startswith=value) |
    Q(primary_ip6__address__startswith=value)
).distinct()

While I can appreciate the utility in including these, it has a very pronounced impact on performance when many inventory items have been created. I propose removing the inventoryitems__serial__icontains lookup from the search() method, and perhaps introducing a more narrowly-focused filter to search specifically on serial number and/or asset tag of the device and its inventory items.

*Originally created by @jeremystretch on 10/20/2025* ### NetBox Edition NetBox Community ### NetBox Version v4.4.4 ### Python Version 3.12 ### Steps to Reproduce 1. Have thousands of devices, each with ~100 or more inventory items installed. 2. Attempt to search for a device by name using the `q` filter, e.g. `GET /api/dcim/devices/?brief=true&limit=100&q=foobar` ### Expected Behavior The set of matching devices should be returned fairly quickly. ### Observed Behavior The query takes an inordinate amount of time due to the [underlying `search()` method](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox/blob/0b97df098403b24d60889a69a5de9cb2409efe29/netbox/dcim/filtersets.py#L1284) pulling in _all_ installed inventory items: ```python return queryset.filter( Q(name__icontains=value) | Q(virtual_chassis__name__icontains=value) | Q(serial__icontains=value.strip()) | Q(inventoryitems__serial__icontains=value.strip()) | # Queries *all* inventory items Q(asset_tag__icontains=value.strip()) | Q(description__icontains=value.strip()) | Q(comments__icontains=value) | Q(primary_ip4__address__startswith=value) | Q(primary_ip6__address__startswith=value) ).distinct() ``` While I can appreciate the utility in including these, it has a very pronounced impact on performance when many inventory items have been created. I propose removing the `inventoryitems__serial__icontains` lookup from the `search()` method, and perhaps introducing a more narrowly-focused filter to search specifically on serial number and/or asset tag of the device and its inventory items.

MrUnknownDE closed this issue

2026-04-05 19:53:04 +02:00

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21455-sql-indexes-audit

21357-register-model-actions

feature

20924-plugin-ui-components

21766-improve-test-coverage-for-sortable-table-columns

21157-export-template-public-models

21025-pre-render-config-contexts

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feature-ip-prefix-link

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fix_module_substitution

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Reference: github/netbox#1018

Filtering devices using the q filter takes excessively long when many inventory items are present #1018