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Netbox, the open source solution for modeling and documenting modern networks.

What is Netbox used for?

NetBox is an open-source web application designed to manage and document computer networks. Initially developed by the network engineering team at DigitalOcean, NetBox has grown to be widely adopted by various organizations for several key purposes.
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Netbox for Network Automation

1. IP Address Management (IPAM): NetBox allows users to organize and keep track of IP addresses, subnets, and IP ranges in an organized manner. It supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, providing a detailed overview of how IP addresses are allocated and used across the network.

2. Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM): It provides tools to document physical devices, their connections, rack layouts, and data center floor plans. This includes servers, switches, routers, and other networking equipment, along with their physical connections and locations within racks.

3. Circuit and Provider Management: NetBox helps in documenting external network connections and circuits, including their providers, termination points, and bandwidth. This is useful for managing connections between different sites or to the internet.

4. Virtualization: The application includes features to track virtual machines (VMs) and their host devices, allowing for detailed documentation of the virtualization environment alongside physical network infrastructure.

5. Tenant and Service Management: NetBox supports documenting tenants (customers, departments, or otherwise) and the services they utilize, which can help in managing multi-tenant environments or internal billing and allocation processes.

6. Secrets Management: Some versions of NetBox include functionality for storing and accessing sensitive information, such as passwords or SNMP community strings, securely.

7. Automation: With its REST API, NetBox can integrate with automation tools, providing a source of truth for network automation tasks. This allows automated systems to query NetBox for network configurations, IP addresses, and more, ensuring that automation scripts are using up-to-date information.

Netbox

NetBox is particularly popular among network engineers and IT professionals who need a reliable and scalable solution for network documentation, management, and planning. Its role as a “source of truth” for network infrastructure makes it invaluable in complex environments where keeping track of resources manually is impractical.

Can NetBox scan the network?

NetBox itself does not have built-in capabilities to actively scan or automatically discover devices on a network. It is primarily designed as a source of truth for network documentation, meaning it relies on manual input or integration with external tools for data population and updates. NetBox’s strengths lie in its ability to manage and document network configurations, IP addresses, and physical and virtual infrastructure, but it requires that information to be entered and updated by network administrators or through automation scripts that interact with its API.

For network scanning or automatic device discovery, you would typically use other tools that are designed for those purposes, such as Nmap, SNMP-based network management systems, or discovery and monitoring tools like SolarWinds, PRTG, or Zabbix. These tools can scan the network, identify devices, and collect information about them.

Netbox integrations

To integrate NetBox with network discovery processes, you can develop scripts or use existing automation tools (like Ansible, Netmiko, or Nornir) that can gather network data from these scanning tools and then update NetBox using its REST API. This way, NetBox maintains its role as the authoritative source of your network’s documentation, while external tools help automate the process of keeping that documentation up to date.

Is Netbox a CMDB?

NetBox is often compared to a Configuration Management Database (CMDB), but it is more accurately described as an Infrastructure Resource Management (IRM) tool or an IPAM/DCIM tool. The distinction lies in the focus and scope of what NetBox manages versus what traditional CMDBs are designed to do.

NetBox’s Core Features:

IP Address Management (IPAM): Managing IP networks, addresses, and assignments.

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM): Documenting physical infrastructure, like racks, servers, and network devices, including their physical connections.

Circuit Management: Tracking Internet or WAN circuits, including providers and terminations.

Virtualization: Documenting virtual machines (VMs) and their host devices.

Tenancy: Managing information about tenants, including allocations of resources to tenants.

CMDB Core Features:

Configuration Management: Storing detailed information about all IT assets and configurations within an organization.

Relationships and Dependencies: Tracking complex relationships between IT assets, configurations, and services.

Change Management Integration: Often integrated with change management processes to track how changes affect configurations and assets.

Service Impact Analysis: Analyzing how changes or incidents affect IT services, based on the relationships and dependencies stored in the CMDB.

Key Differences:

Scope CMDBs have a broader scope, often encompassing more types of assets (including software and non-network physical assets) and their relationships to IT services and processes. NetBox focuses more narrowly on network infrastructure, IP management, and physical data center assets.

Integration with IT Processes: CMDBs are typically integrated with IT service management (ITSM) processes, like incident management, problem management, and change management. NetBox is more focused on infrastructure documentation and does not inherently include ITSM functionalities.

Purpose: NetBox is designed as a source of truth for network and infrastructure documentation, facilitating network planning, management, and operational visibility. CMDBs aim to support IT service management by providing a comprehensive view of all IT assets and their configurations.

In conclusion, while NetBox shares some functionalities with CMDBs, especially in terms of documenting infrastructure components, it is not a CMDB in the traditional sense. Its design and purpose are specifically tailored to network and data center infrastructure management rather than the broader IT service management focus of CMDBs.

Is Netbox an IPAM?

Who created Netbox?

NetBox was originally developed by Jeremy Stretch as a project while he was working at DigitalOcean. Stretch recognized the need for a comprehensive tool to manage and document network and data center infrastructure, which led to the creation of NetBox. The tool quickly gained popularity in the networking community for its ability to serve as a “source of truth” for network documentation, IP address management (IPAM), and data center infrastructure management (DCIM). Since its initial release, NetBox has evolved with contributions from a broad community of users and developers, becoming an open-source project supported by a wide range of organizations and individuals.

What DB does Netbox use?

NetBox uses PostgreSQL as its database backend. PostgreSQL is an open-source, object-relational database system known for its reliability, feature robustness, and performance. The choice of PostgreSQL for NetBox is due to its strong consistency, extensive feature set, and support for complex queries and data types, which are essential for managing the intricate data structures involved in network and data center management. When setting up NetBox, ensuring that PostgreSQL is properly installed and configured is a key step, as it stores all the data for the NetBox application, including network configurations, IP addresses, device information, and more.

What is the difference between sites and regions in Netbox?

Where does Netbox store data?

Does NetBox do discovery?

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Netbox vs Nautobot

Nautobot and NetBox are both prominent tools in the network engineering community, designed to serve as the source of truth for network infrastructure. While NetBox focuses on IP Address Management (IPAM) and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM), offering a robust platform for network documentation, Nautobot extends these functionalities into the realm of network automation. Originating as a fork of NetBox, Nautobot was developed by Network to Code with the aim of bridging the gap between infrastructure management and network automation.

One of the key differences between Nautobot and NetBox is Nautobot’s emphasis on automation. Nautobot introduces an automation framework that allows network engineers to write and execute custom scripts directly within the platform, facilitating tasks such as network configuration, troubleshooting, and compliance checks. This makes Nautobot particularly appealing to organizations looking to adopt a more automated, code-centric approach to network management.

Furthermore, Nautobot enhances collaboration through its built-in Git integration, enabling version control of network configurations and scripts. This integration supports DevOps practices, allowing teams to better manage changes and collaborate on network automation projects.

Nautobot also offers a plugin architecture, which provides a flexible framework for extending its core functionalities. This opens up possibilities for integrating with other tools and services, tailoring the platform to meet specific organizational needs.

While both tools offer extensive capabilities for managing network infrastructure, the choice between Nautobot and NetBox often comes down to the specific requirements of an organization. NetBox remains a strong choice for those primarily interested in documentation and manual network management, whereas Nautobot is tailored towards organizations seeking to leverage automation and integrate network management with broader IT and DevOps workflows.

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Getting Started with NetBox

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What is NetBox?

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