Dell Unity MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Dell Unity storage arrays that automatically generates tools from OpenAPI specifications with a credential-free architecture. Enables AI assistants like Claude and automation platforms like n8n to interact with Unity storage systems.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
🔄 Automatic Tool Generation	Dynamically generates 359+ MCP tools from Dell Unity OpenAPI specs
🔐 Credential-Free Architecture	No stored credentials - pass host/username/password with each tool call
🌐 Multi-Host Support	Manage multiple Unity arrays from a single server
🛡️ Configurable Operations	GET-only by default, configurable to enable POST/DELETE
🔌 Multiple Transports	HTTP/SSE for n8n, stdio for Claude Desktop
📊 Health Monitoring	Built-in health checks and metrics endpoints
🐳 Docker Ready	Production-ready container images

📋 Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Integration
• Available Tools
• Architecture
• Development
• Contributing
• License

🚀 Quick Start

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/sachdev27/dell-unity-mcp-server.git
cd dell-unity-mcp-server
pip install -e .

# Run HTTP/SSE server (for n8n)
export LOCAL_OPENAPI_SPEC_PATH="./openapi.json"
python -m uvicorn unity_mcp.http_server:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# Or run stdio server (for Claude Desktop)
python -m unity_mcp.main

📦 Installation

From Source

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install dell-unity-mcp-server

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/sachdev27/dell-unity-mcp-server.git
cd dell-unity-mcp-server

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On macOS/Linux
# venv\Scripts\activate   # On Windows

# Install in development mode
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Using Docker

# Build the image
docker build -t dell-unity-mcp-server .

# Run with SSE transport (GET-only by default)
docker run -p 8000:8000 dell-unity-mcp-server

# Run with full access (GET, POST, DELETE)
docker run -p 8000:8000 -e ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS="GET,POST,DELETE" dell-unity-mcp-server

Requirements

• Python: 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, or 3.13
• Dell Unity: Any supported version with REST API enabled (v5.x recommended)

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
LOCAL_OPENAPI_SPEC_PATH	Path to OpenAPI specification (required)	-
LOG_LEVEL	Logging level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)	INFO
HTTP_SERVER_PORT	HTTP server port	8000
ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS	Comma-separated list of allowed methods	GET
UNITY_HOST	Default Unity hostname (optional)	-
UNITY_TLS_VERIFY	Verify TLS certificates	false
REQUEST_TIMEOUT	Request timeout in milliseconds	30000
MAX_RETRIES	Maximum retry attempts	3

Example .env File

# Required
LOCAL_OPENAPI_SPEC_PATH=/app/openapi.json

# Server Configuration
HTTP_SERVER_PORT=8000
LOG_LEVEL=INFO

# HTTP Methods (GET = read-only, add POST,DELETE for write operations)
ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS=GET

# Optional Unity defaults
# UNITY_HOST=unity.example.com
# UNITY_TLS_VERIFY=false

Configuring HTTP Methods

By default, the server only exposes GET operations (read-only). To enable write operations:

# Read-only (default) - 359 tools
export ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS="GET"

# Full access - 777 tools
export ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS="GET,POST,PUT,PATCH,DELETE"

⚠️ Important: Unity credentials are NOT stored in configuration. They are passed securely with each tool call.

📖 Usage

HTTP/SSE Mode (for n8n and Web Clients)

# Using uvicorn
python -m uvicorn unity_mcp.http_server:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

# Using the main module
python -m unity_mcp.main --mode http

The server provides:

• SSE Endpoint: http://localhost:8000/sse
• Health Check: http://localhost:8000/health
• Readiness Check: http://localhost:8000/ready
• Liveness Check: http://localhost:8000/live
• Metrics: http://localhost:8000/metrics

stdio Mode (for Claude Desktop)

# Using Python module
python -m unity_mcp.main

Docker Compose

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'
services:
  unity-mcp:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      - ALLOWED_HTTP_METHODS=GET
      - LOG_LEVEL=INFO
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8000/health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

# Start the server
docker-compose up -d

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop the server
docker-compose down

🔗 Integration

n8n AI Agent

1. Add an MCP Client node to your n8n workflow
2. Configure the connection:
   • Transport: SSE
   • URL: http://localhost:8000/sse
3. The 359+ Unity tools will be available to AI agents

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dell-unity": {
      "command": "/path/to/venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "unity_mcp.main"],
      "env": {
        "LOCAL_OPENAPI_SPEC_PATH": "/path/to/openapi.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

Custom MCP Clients

import asyncio
from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.sse import sse_client

async def main():
    async with sse_client("http://localhost:8000/sse") as (read, write):
        async with ClientSession(read, write) as session:
            await session.initialize()

            # List available tools
            tools = await session.list_tools()
            print(f"Found {len(tools.tools)} tools")

            # Get system information
            result = await session.call_tool("systemCollectionQuery", {
                "host": "unity.example.com",
                "username": "admin",
                "password": "password",
                "fields": "id,name,model,serialNumber"
            })
            print(result)

            # Get all LUNs
            result = await session.call_tool("lunCollectionQuery", {
                "host": "unity.example.com",
                "username": "admin",
                "password": "password",
                "fields": "id,name,sizeTotal,pool",
                "per_page": 100
            })
            print(result)

asyncio.run(main())

🔧 Available Tools

The server dynamically generates 359+ tools (GET-only) or 777+ tools (full access) from the Unity OpenAPI specification.

Authentication Parameters

Every tool requires these authentication parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
host	string	Unity hostname or IP
username	string	Unity username
password	string	Unity password

Tool Categories

Category	Example Tools	Description
Storage	lunCollectionQuery, poolCollectionQuery	LUN and pool management
System	systemCollectionQuery, licenseCollectionQuery	System information
Network	ipInterfaceCollectionQuery, fcPortCollectionQuery	Network configuration
File Services	nasServerCollectionQuery, fileSystemCollectionQuery	File storage
Protection	snapCollectionQuery, replicationSessionCollectionQuery	Data protection
Monitoring	alertCollectionQuery, eventCollectionQuery	Alerts and events
Host Access	hostCollectionQuery, hostLUNCollectionQuery	Host management

Query Parameters

All collection endpoints support Unity query parameters:

{
  "host": "unity.example.com",
  "username": "admin",
  "password": "password",
  "fields": "id,name,sizeTotal,health",
  "filter": "name lk 'prod*'",
  "per_page": 100,
  "page": 1,
  "compact": "true"
}

Unity Filter Syntax

Unity uses a specific filter syntax for queries:

Operator	Description	Example
eq	Equals	filter=severity eq 4
ne	Not equals	filter=health.value ne 5
lt	Less than	filter=sizeTotal lt 1073741824
gt	Greater than	filter=sizeTotal gt 1073741824
lk	Like (wildcard)	filter=name lk 'prod*'
and	Logical AND	filter=severity eq 4 and state eq 2

🏗️ Architecture

Credential-Free Design

┌─────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│   AI Client     │────▶│   MCP Server    │────▶│   Dell Unity    │
│ (Claude/n8n)    │     │ (No Credentials)│     │    Array        │
└─────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘
         │                      │
         │   Tool Call with     │   Per-Request
         │   Credentials        │   Authentication
         ▼                      ▼
    {host, user, pass}      Basic Auth Header

Key Design Principles

• No Stored Credentials: Server starts without any Unity connection
• Per-Request Auth: Each tool call includes host/username/password
• Fresh Sessions: New API client created for each request
• Multi-Host Ready: Easily manage multiple Unity arrays
• Configurable Access: Control which HTTP methods are exposed

Module Structure

unity_mcp/
├── __init__.py          # Package initialization and version
├── api_client.py        # Async Unity API client with retry logic
├── config.py            # Configuration management with validation
├── exceptions.py        # Custom exception hierarchy
├── http_server.py       # HTTP/SSE transport server
├── logging_config.py    # Structured logging configuration
├── main.py              # stdio transport entry point
├── server.py            # Core MCP server with tool handlers
└── tool_generator.py    # OpenAPI parser and tool generator

🧪 Development

Setup Development Environment

# Clone and install with dev dependencies
git clone https://github.com/sachdev27/dell-unity-mcp-server.git
cd dell-unity-mcp-server
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

# Run all tests
pytest

# Run with verbose output
pytest -v

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=unity_mcp --cov-report=html

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/test_tool_generator.py -v

Code Quality

# Format code
black unity_mcp tests

# Lint code
ruff check unity_mcp tests

# Type checking
mypy unity_mcp

# Security scan
bandit -r unity_mcp

Building

# Build distribution packages
python -m build

# Build Docker image
docker build -t dell-unity-mcp-server .

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

📚 Additional Resources

• Model Context Protocol Documentation
• Dell Unity Documentation
• Dell Unity REST API Guide
• n8n MCP Integration Guide

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