NetBox-SLM

When using the Docker version of Netbox, first follow the netbox-docker quickstart instructions to clone the netbox-docker repo and set up the docker-compose.override.yml.

Next, follow these instructions (based on the generic Netbox plugin instructions) to install the Netbox SLM plugin:

Add netbox_slm to the PLUGINS list in configuration/configuration.py.
Create a plugin_requirements.txt with netbox-slm==0.9 as contents.
Create a Dockerfile-SLM with contents:

FROM netboxcommunity/netbox:v3.0.9  # The Netbox SLM plugin currently only works with v3.0.9 of Netbox due to backwards incompatible changes in newer version of Netbox

COPY ./plugin_requirements.txt /
RUN /opt/netbox/venv/bin/pip install --no-warn-script-location -r /plugin_requirements.txt

Create a docker-compose.override.yml with contents:

version: '3.4'
services:
  netbox:
    ports:
      - 8000:8080
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile-SLM
    image: netbox:slm
  netbox-worker:
    image: netbox:slm
  netbox-housekeeping:
    image: netbox:slm

Now, build the image: docker compose build --no-cache

And finally, run Netbox with the SLM plugin: docker compose up

Releasing Guide

To draft a release;

update the setup.py file to reflect the new version, then from the src directory run

$ python setup.py sdist
$ twine upload dist/*

On Github.com create a similar tag and version. These steps could be automated with a github workflow.

n.b. Currently the plugin is configured to use a personal pypi account, this should be changed.

Developer Guide (local installation)

Follow the steps below on your local system to run netbox and the netbox_slm plugin in developer mode

Setup

The goal below is to run all Netbox components in Docker and run a local Netbox Django copy with auto-reload to develop the plugin pointing to the Dockerized postgres and redis instances, basically ignoring the netbox docker runtime server.

Gotcha's

Netbox's exception handler seems to supress initial Exceptions, obfuscating missing imports or other Django related issues by re-raising an opague error, e.g. netbox_slm plugin namespace doesnotexist. It's recommended to often check the runtime server or patch Netbox's global exception handler.

Steps

from your projects directory clone the netbox repository

$ git clone https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox
$ cd netbox
$ git checkout f5356b8 (to pin 3.0.9)

install the virtual environment

$ pipenv shell
$ pipenv install

create and edit netbox/configuration.py (based on the template file) add these lines at the end of the file;

DEBUG = True
SECRET_KEY = 'dummy'
DEVELOPER = True
PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_slm',
]

The Netbox installation above will be used to run Django management commands like runserver, makemigrations and migrate, which will be explained in the next steps below;

from your projects directory clone the netbox-slm repository

$ git clone https://github.com/ICTU/netbox_slm
$ cd netbox_slm
$ ./start-netbox.sh

This will start Netbox locally (requires Docker) and forward the redis and postgres ports to the localhost (make sure there's no processes using these ports or change the dockerfiles accordingly)

Note, you can also start and stop netbox by hand:

$ cd netbox-docker
$ docker-compose up -d

or stop the stack with

$ docker-compose down

# to start fresh:

$ docker-compose down
$ docker volume rm netbox-docker_netbox-postgres-data  # et cetera
$ docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

this will require you to re-run the migrate commando's for netbox-slm, see further down below

Go back to the netbox configuration.py file and update the postgres and redis connection strings (username, password) to the ones the netbox docker backend is using, for example (using default user and passwords from the netbox docker example):

<<collapsed>>

# PostgreSQL database configuration. See the Django documentation for a complete list of available parameters:
#   https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/settings/#databases
DATABASE = {
    'NAME': 'netbox',               # Database name
    'USER': 'netbox',               # PostgreSQL username
    'PASSWORD': 'J5brHrAXFLQSif0K', # PostgreSQL password
    'HOST': 'localhost',            # Database server
    'PORT': '',                     # Database port (leave blank for default)
    'CONN_MAX_AGE': 300,            # Max database connection age
}

# Redis database settings. Redis is used for caching and for queuing background tasks such as webhook events. A separate
# configuration exists for each. Full connection details are required in both sections, and it is strongly recommended
# to use two separate database IDs.
REDIS = {
    'tasks': {
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': 6379,
        # Comment out `HOST` and `PORT` lines and uncomment the following if using Redis Sentinel
        # 'SENTINELS': [('mysentinel.redis.example.com', 6379)],
        # 'SENTINEL_SERVICE': 'netbox',
        'PASSWORD': 'H733Kdjndks81',
        'DATABASE': 0,
        'SSL': False,
        # Set this to True to skip TLS certificate verification
        # This can expose the connection to attacks, be careful
        # 'INSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY': False,
    },
    'caching': {
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': 6379,
        # Comment out `HOST` and `PORT` lines and uncomment the following if using Redis Sentinel
        # 'SENTINELS': [('mysentinel.redis.example.com', 6379)],
        # 'SENTINEL_SERVICE': 'netbox',
        'PASSWORD': 'H733Kdjndks81',
        'DATABASE': 1,
        'SSL': False,
        # Set this to True to skip TLS certificate verification
        # This can expose the connection to attacks, be careful
        # 'INSECURE_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY': False,
    }
}

<<collapsed>>

Now you can run commands from the netbox repository like this;

$ cd netbox/netbox
$ export PYTHONPATH=../../netbox-slm/src/
$ python3 manage.py migrate netbox_slm
$ python3 manage.py runserver 8001

Visit http://127.0.0.1:8001 in the browesr to see the auto reloading version of the netbox UI. Port 8000 is taken by the docker ran variant.