central-mcp-server

Community MCP server for HPE Aruba Networking Central. This exposes your Central data as tools that AI assistants can query directly.

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[!WARNING] Unofficial Community Project

This is not an officially supported product of HPE. It is provided as-is, with no warranty or guarantee of fitness for any purpose.

• Review your organization's corporate device and data policies before connecting this server to any AI assistant.
• Never share credentials (API secrets, API keys) with AI model providers unless your security policy explicitly permits it.
• All read operations query live data from your HPE Aruba Networking Central instance. Recommended to test MCP server use in non-production or lab environments where possible before running on production.

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Getting Started
  • Getting Your Credentials
  • Installation
  • MCP Client Configuration
    • Claude Desktop
    • Claude Code
    • GitHub Copilot (VS Code)
    • HTTP Transport (Streamable HTTP)
• What You Can Ask
• Dev Setup

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Overview

central-mcp-server wraps Central REST APIs and exposes them as MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools. Once configured, AI assistants like Claude or GitHub Copilot can answer questions like:

• "Which sites have poor health scores right now?"
• "Show me all failed wireless clients at HQ in the last 24 hours."
• "Show me all online access points at the Chicago office."
• "What events happened on switch SW-CORE-01 yesterday?"

See the full overview guide for a deeper look at capabilities, limitations, and how the server works.

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Getting Started

Getting Your Credentials

You need three values to connect this server to Central's REST APIs: CENTRAL_BASE_URL, CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID, and CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET.

API Gateway Base URL (CENTRAL_BASE_URL)

The API gateway base URL for your Central account (e.g. https://us5.api.central.arubanetworks.com).

For instructions on how to locate your base URL, see Finding Your Base URL in Central.

API Client Credentials (CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID & CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET)

OAuth credentials created through the HPE GreenLake Platform:

1. Log in to your HPE GreenLake account and open Manage Workspace.
2. Click Personal API clients.
3. Click Create Personal API client.
4. Give it a nickname (e.g. central-mcp-server) and select your HPE Aruba Networking Central instance from the service dropdown.
5. Click Create personal API client.
6. Copy both the Client ID and Client Secret immediately. The platform does not store the secret and it cannot be retrieved later.

Full guide: Generating and Managing Access Tokens

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Installation

Install uv if you haven't already. It's the only prerequisite.

Using an MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot)? No install command needed. Jump to MCP Client Configuration, the client fetches and runs the server automatically via uvx.

Want the server as a persistent CLI tool on your PATH?

uv tool install --prerelease=allow central-mcp-server

--prerelease=allow is required because this server depends on pycentral, which currently only has a pre-release version on PyPI. uv skips pre-releases by default.

See the full setup guide for prerequisites, troubleshooting, and step-by-step instructions.

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MCP Client Configuration

Replace the placeholder values with your actual credentials in all examples below.

Optional: Code Mode Transform (DYNAMIC_TOOLS)

DYNAMIC_TOOLS is optional and only affects startup behavior:

• Code Mode is enabled only when DYNAMIC_TOOLS is set to true (case-insensitive).
• Code Mode is disabled when DYNAMIC_TOOLS is not set or set to any other value.
• Variable name is strict: use DYNAMIC_TOOLS (plural). DYNAMIC_TOOL is ignored.

When enabled, the server starts with CodeMode() and exposes Code Mode meta-tools to the client. When disabled, the server runs without the transform and exposes the normal registered tool catalog directly. Recommended to use CodeMode() when you have multiple MCP servers running to preserve your context window.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "central-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--prerelease=allow", "central-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "CENTRAL_BASE_URL": "your-central-base-url",
        "CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

See the Claude Desktop setup guide for full steps and troubleshooting.

Claude Code

claude mcp add central-mcp \
  -e CENTRAL_BASE_URL=your-central-base-url \
  -e CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  -e CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
  -- uvx --prerelease=allow central-mcp-server

See the Claude Code setup guide for full steps and troubleshooting.

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add .vscode/mcp.json to your workspace root and add that path to .gitignore to keep credentials out of version control:

{
  "servers": {
    "central-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--prerelease=allow", "central-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "CENTRAL_BASE_URL": "your-central-base-url",
        "CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to .gitignore:

.vscode/mcp.json

See the GitHub CoPilot setup guide for full steps and troubleshooting.

HTTP Transport (Streamable HTTP)

By default the server runs over stdio, which is the right choice for most MCP clients. If you need to run the server as a persistent HTTP process — for example, to share it across multiple clients or to connect via a remote URL — you can switch to the streamable-http transport.

Step 1 — Install the server as a CLI tool (if you haven't already):

uv tool install --prerelease=allow central-mcp-server

--prerelease=allow is required because this server depends on pycentral, which currently only has a pre-release version on PyPI.

Step 2 — Create a .env file in your working directory with your credentials and transport settings:

CENTRAL_BASE_URL=your-central-base-url
CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
MCP_TRANSPORT=http
MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1
MCP_PORT=8000

Variable	Default	Description
MCP_TRANSPORT	stdio	Transport mode: stdio or http
MCP_HOST	127.0.0.1	Host to bind when using HTTP transport
MCP_PORT	8000	Port to listen on when using HTTP transport

Step 3 — Start the server:

# If installed via uv tool install:
central-mcp-server

# If running from source:
python server.py

The MCP endpoint will be available at http://<MCP_HOST>:<MCP_PORT>/mcp.

Step 4 — Connect your MCP client to the running server:

claude mcp add central-mcp --transport http --url http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp

Or add it to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "central-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Note: Credentials must be set in the server's environment (via .env or OS env vars) before starting it. They are not passed through the HTTP client config.

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What You Can Ask

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant questions like:

• "Give me a health overview of all sites."
• "Which sites are in poor health right now?"
• "Show me all access points at the Chicago office."
• "What critical alerts are active across the network?"
• "Find all failed wireless clients at HQ in the last 24 hours."
• "What events happened on switch SW-CORE-01 yesterday?"
• "Ping 8.8.8.8 from switch SW-CORE-01."
• "Run 'show version' and 'show interfaces brief' on switch SG43KN5017."
• "Bounce PoE on port 1/1/6 of switch SG43KN5017."

See Central MCP Server in Action for real query examples across all supported clients.

Tool Categories

%%{init: {'theme':'base', 'themeVariables': {'background': '#0b0f1a'}}}%%
graph TD
    MCP["Central MCP Server"] --> Sites["Sites"]
    MCP --> Devices["Devices"]
    MCP --> Clients["Clients"]
    MCP --> Alerts["Alerts"]
    MCP --> Events["Events"]
    MCP --> APMon["AP Monitoring"]
    MCP--> WLAN["WLAN"]
    MCP --> Troubleshooting["Troubleshooting"]

    classDef mcp fill:#05cc93,color:#001b14,stroke:#000000,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef tool fill:#0070f8,color:#ffffff,stroke:#000000,stroke-width:1.5px;

    class MCP mcp;
    class Sites,Devices,APMon,Clients,Alerts,Events,WLAN,Troubleshooting tool;

    linkStyle default stroke:#ffffff,stroke-width:2px;

Tools

Sites

Tool	Description
central_get_sites	Detailed health metrics for one or more sites (device/client/alert counts, health score)
central_get_summary	Lightweight mapping of all site names to IDs and health scores

Devices

Tool	Description
central_get_devices	Filtered list of devices — filter by type, site, model, serial number, and more
central_find_device	Look up a single device by serial number or device name

AP Monitoring

Tool	Description
central_get_aps	Filtered list of access points — filter by site, serial number, status, model, firmware version, deployment, or cluster
central_get_ap_statistics	AP CPU, memory, and power statistics for a given AP serial number within a selected time window
central_get_ap_wlans	WLANs that are broadcasted from a given AP

WLAN

Tool	Description
central_get_wlans	Configured WLANs (SSIDs) with optional filtering by WLAN name, site, and sort fields
central_get_wlan_stats	Throughput trend samples (tx/rx bps) for a specific WLAN over a selected time window

Clients

Tool	Description
central_get_clients	Filtered list of clients — filter by connection type, status, VLAN, WLAN, and more
central_find_client	Look up a single client by MAC address

Alerts

Tool	Description
central_get_alerts	Active, cleared, or deferred alerts for a site — filter by device type or category

Events

Tool	Description
central_get_events	Events for a site, device, or client within a time window
central_get_events_count	Event count breakdown by type with response_mode="full" (counts) or response_mode="compact" (ranked event id/name pairs + lists)

Troubleshooting

Tool	Description
central_run_network_test	Run a live network diagnostic (ping, traceroute, http, https, tcp, nslookup) against a device — device family resolved automatically from serial number
central_run_show_commands	Execute show commands on a device; auto-validates against the device's supported command catalog and returns the catalog on any mismatch
central_bounce_port	Bounce ports or toggle PoE on CX/AOS-S switches and gateways — fetches live interface state and requires user confirmation before executing

LLM Workflow for Events

Use this sequence for faster, lower-token event investigations:

1. For site-level queries, call events tools with site_id only.
2. For device/client queries, pass site_id plus context_type and context_identifier.
3. Call central_get_events_count with response_mode="compact" to get ranked event_names (each with event_id + event_name), source_types, and categories.
4. Pick the top category/source/event name as your likely starting point.
5. Call central_get_events with targeted filters (category, source_type, and/or event_id) to fetch detailed records.
6. Use central_get_events_count with response_mode="full" only when exact per-item counts are required.

Guided Prompts

The server includes 12 built-in prompts to help AI assistants run common workflows:

Prompt	Description
network_health_overview	Full network health overview across all sites
troubleshoot_site	Deep-dive troubleshooting for a specific site
client_connectivity_check	Investigate connectivity status for a client by MAC address
investigate_device_events	Review recent events for a specific device
site_event_summary	Summarize all events at a site within a time window
failed_clients_investigation	Find and diagnose all failed clients at a site
site_client_overview	Overview of client connectivity at a site
device_type_health	Health check for all devices of a specific type at a site
top_event_drivers	Identify dominant event drivers at a site and pull supporting evidence
critical_alerts_review	Review all active critical alerts across the network
wlan_health_check	Assess WLAN health using client failures and related events over a time window
compare_site_health	Compare health metrics side-by-side across multiple sites

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Dev Setup

git clone <Github Server URL>
cd central-mcp-server

Create and activate a virtual environment, then install dependencies:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync

Create .env with your credentials:

CENTRAL_BASE_URL=your-central-base-url
CENTRAL_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
CENTRAL_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret

Run the server:

python3 server.py

To install and test the package locally before publishing:

uv tool install .