MAC Address Validator & API Payload Generator

MAC Address Validator & API Payload Generator

Network agents reboot modems by calling custom hardware APIs. These APIs crash if the input parameters (IP Address or MAC Address) are syntactically malformed.

Write a function generate_reboot_payload(raw_mac, raw_ip, command) that:

1. Validates the MAC address: supports standard forms separated by colons (e.g. 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E) or hyphens (e.g. 00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E), or plain hex (001A2B3C4D5E). Returns a normalized MAC in uppercase with colon dividers.
2. Validates the IP Address (must be standard IPv4 e.g. 192.168.1.1).
3. If either is invalid, raises a ValueError with description details.
4. Returns a payload dictionary: {"mac": normalized_mac, "ip": raw_ip, "action": command}.

Example

generate_reboot_payload("00-1a-2b-3c-4d-5e", "192.168.1.100", "reboot")
# Returns: {"mac": "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E", "ip": "192.168.1.100", "action": "reboot"}