The Github repository houses the components needed to build Netbox as a Docker container. Images are built using this code and are released to Docker Hub once a day.
Do you have any questions? Before opening an issue on Github, please join the Network To Code Slack and ask for help in our #netbox-docker channel.
To get Netbox up and running:
git clone -b master https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox-docker.git
cd netbox-docker
docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -dThe application will be available after a few minutes.
Use docker-compose port nginx 8080 to find out where to connect to.
$ echo "http://$(docker-compose port nginx 8080)/"
http://0.0.0.0:32768/
# Open netbox in your default browser on macOS:
$ open "http://$(docker-compose port nginx 8080)/"
# Open netbox in your default browser on (most) linuxes:
$ xdg-open "http://$(docker-compose port nginx 8080)/" &>/dev/null &Alternatively, use something like Reception to connect to docker-compose projects.
Default credentials:
- Username: admin
 - Password: admin
 - API Token: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567
 
This project relies only on Docker and docker-compose meeting this requirements:
- The Docker version must be at least 
1.13.0. - The docker-compose version must be at least 
1.10.0. 
To ensure this, compare the output of docker --version and docker-compose --version with the requirements above.
You can configure the app using environment variables.
These are defined in netbox.env.
Read Environment Variables in Compose to understand about the various possibilities to overwrite these variables.
(The easiest solution being simply adjusting that file.)
To find all possible variables, have a look at the configuration.py and docker-entrypoint.sh files.
Generally, the environment variables are called the same as their respective Netbox configuration variables.
Variables which are arrays are usually composed by putting all the values into the same environment variables with the values separated by a whitespace (" ").
For example defining ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost ::1 127.0.0.1 would allows access to Netbox through http://localhost:8080, http://[::1]:8080 and http://127.0.0.1:8080.
The default settings are optimized for (local) development environments. You should therefore adjust the configuration for production setups, at least the following variables:
ALLOWED_HOSTS: Add all URLs that lead to your Netbox instance, space separated. E.g.ALLOWED_HOSTS=netbox.mycorp.com server042.mycorp.com 2a02:123::42 10.0.0.42 localhost ::1 127.0.0.1(It's good advice to always allow localhost connections for easy debugging, i.e.localhost ::1 127.0.0.1.)DB_*: Use your own persistent database. Don't use the default passwords!EMAIL_*: Use your own mailserver.MAX_PAGE_SIZE: Use the recommended default of 1000.SUPERUSER_*: Only define those variables during the initial setup, and drop them once the DB is set up. Don't use the default passwords!REDIS_*: Use your own persistent redis. Don't use the default passwords!
You may run this image in a cluster such as Docker Swarm, Kubernetes or OpenShift, but this is advanced level.
In this case, we encourage you to statically configure Netbox by starting from Netbox's example config file, and mounting it into your container in the directory /etc/netbox/config/ using the mechanism provided by your container platform (i.e. Docker Swarm configs, Kubernetes ConfigMap, OpenShift ConfigMaps).
But if you rather continue to configure your application through environment variables, you may continue to use the built-in configuration file. We discourage storing secrets in environment variables, as environment variable are passed on to all sub-processes and may leak easily into other systems, e.g. error collecting tools that often collect all environment variables whenever an error occurs.
Therefore we strongly advise to make use of the secrets mechanism provided by your container platform (i.e. Docker Swarm secrets, Kubernetes secrets, OpenShift secrets). The configuration file and the entrypoint script try to load the following secrets from the respective files. If a secret is defined by an environment variable and in the respective file at the same time, then the value from the environment variable is used.
SUPERUSER_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/superuser_passwordSUPERUSER_API_TOKEN:/run/secrets/superuser_api_tokenDB_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/db_passwordSECRET_KEY:/run/secrets/secret_keyEMAIL_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/email_passwordNAPALM_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/napalm_passwordREDIS_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/redis_passwordAUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD:/run/secrets/auth_ldap_bind_password
Please also consider the advice about running Netbox in production above!
Since v2.1.0 NAPALM has been tightly integrated into Netbox. NAPALM allows Netbox to fetch live data from devices and return it to a requester via its REST API. To learn more about what NAPALM is and how it works, please see the documentation from the libary itself or the documentation from Netbox on how it is integrated.
To enable this functionality, simply complete the following lines in netbox.env (or appropriate secrets mechanism) :
NAPALM_USERNAME: A common username that can be utilized for connecting to network devices in your environment.NAPALM_PASSWORD: The password to use in combintation with the username to connect to network devices.NAPALM_TIMEOUT: A value to use for when an attempt to connect to a device will timeout if no response has been recieved.
However, if you don't need this functionality, leave these blank.
Netbox includes customized reporting that allows the user to write Python code and determine the validity of the data within Netbox.
The REPORTS_ROOT variable is setup as a mapped directory within this Docker container to /reports/ and includes the example directly from the documentation for devices.py.
However, it has been renamed to devices.py.example which prevents Netbox from recognizing it as a valid report.
This was done to avoid unnessary issues from being opened when the default does not work for someone's expectations.
To re-enable this default report, simply rename devices.py.example to devices.py and browse within the WebUI to /extras/reports/.
You can also dynamically add any other report to this same directory and Netbox will be able to see it without restarting the container.
When using docker-compose, all the python scripts present in /opt/netbox/startup_scripts will automatically be executed after the application boots in the context of ./manage.py.
The execution of the startup scripts can be prevented by setting the environment variable SKIP_STARTUP_SCRIPTS to true, e.g. in the file env/netbox.env.
That mechanism can be used for many things, e.g. to create Netbox custom fields:
# docker/startup_scripts/load_custom_fields.py
from django.contrib.contenttypes.models import ContentType
from extras.models import CF_TYPE_TEXT, CustomField
from dcim.models import Device
from dcim.models import DeviceType
device      = ContentType.objects.get_for_model(Device)
device_type = ContentType.objects.get_for_model(DeviceType)
my_custom_field, created = CustomField.objects.get_or_create(
    type=CF_TYPE_TEXT,
    name='my_custom_field',
    description='My own custom field'
)
if created:
  my_custom_field.obj_type.add(device)
  my_custom_field.obj_type.add(device_type)Initializers are built-in startup scripts for defining Netbox custom fields, groups, users and many other resources.
All you need to do is to mount you own initializers folder (see docker-compose.yml).
Look at the initializers folder to learn how the files must look like.
Here's an example for defining a custom field:
# initializers/custom_fields.yml
text_field:
  type: text
  label: Custom Text
  description: Enter text in a text field.
  required: false
  filter_logic: loose
  weight: 0
  on_objects:
  - dcim.models.Device
  - dcim.models.Rack
  - ipam.models.IPAddress
  - ipam.models.Prefix
  - tenancy.models.Tenant
  - virtualization.models.VirtualMachineTo get an up-to-date list about all the available permissions, run the following command.
# Make sure the 'netbox' container is already running! If unsure, run `docker-compose up -d`
echo "from django.contrib.auth.models import Permission\nfor p in Permission.objects.all():\n  print(p.codename);" | docker-compose exec -T netbox ./manage.py shellYou can also build your own Netbox Docker image containing your own startup scripts, custom fields, users and groups like this:
ARG VERSION=latest
FROM netboxcommunity/netbox:$VERSION
COPY startup_scripts/ /opt/netbox/startup_scripts/
COPY initializers/ /opt/netbox/initializers/The docker-compose.yml file is prepared to run a specific version of Netbox.
To use this feature, set the environment-variable VERSION before launching docker-compose, as shown below.
VERSION may be set to the name of
any tag of the netboxcommunity/netbox Docker image on Docker Hub.
export VERSION=v2.2.6
docker-compose pull netbox
docker-compose up -dYou can also build a specific version of the Netbox image. This time, VERSION indicates any valid
Git Reference declared on the 'netbox-community/netbox' Github repository.
Most commonly you will specify a tag or branch name.
export VERSION=develop
docker-compose build --no-cache netbox
docker-compose up -dHint: If you're building a specific version by tag name, the --no-cache argument is not strictly necessary.
This can increase the build speed if you're just adjusting the config, for example.
The images tagged with "-ldap" contain anything necessary to authenticate against an LDAP or Active Directory server.
The default configuration ldap_config.py is prepared for use with an Active Directory server.
Custom values can be injected using environment variables, similar to the main configuration mechanisms.
This section is a collection of some common issues and how to resolve them. If your issue is not here, look through the existing issues and eventually create a new issue.
- You can see all running containers belonging to this project using 
docker-compose ps. - You can see the logs by running 
docker-compose logs -f. Runningdocker-compose logs -f netboxwill just show the logs for netbox. - You can stop everything using 
docker-compose stop. - You can clean up everything using 
docker-compose down -v --remove-orphans. This will also remove any related data. - You can enter the shell of the running Netbox container using 
docker-compose exec netbox /bin/bash. Now you have access to./manage.py, e.g. to reset a password. - To access the database run 
docker-compose exec postgres sh -c 'psql -U $POSTGRES_USER $POSTGRES_DB' - To create a database backup run 
docker-compose exec postgres sh -c 'pg_dump -cU $POSTGRES_USER $POSTGRES_DB' | gzip > db_dump.sql.gz - To restore that database backup run 
gunzip -c db_dump.sql.gz | docker exec -i $(docker-compose ps -q postgres) sh -c 'psql -U $POSTGRES_USER $POSTGRES_DB'. 
As a first step, stop your docker-compose setup.
Then locate the netbox-nginx-config volume and remove it:
# Stop your local netbox-docker installation
$ docker-compose down
# Find the volume
$ docker volume ls | grep netbox-nginx-config
local               netbox-docker_netbox-nginx-config
# Remove the volume
$ docker volume rm netbox-docker_netbox-nginx-config
netbox-docker_netbox-nginx-configNow start everything up again.
If this didn't help, try to see if there's anything in the logs indicating why nginx doesn't start:
docker-compose logs -f nginxWhen connecting to the Netbox instance, I get a "Bad Request (400)" error.
This usually happens when the ALLOWED_HOSTS variable is not set correctly.
How do I update to a newer version of netbox?
It should be sufficient to pull the latest image from Docker Hub, stopping the container and starting it up again:
docker-compose pull netbox
docker-compose stop netbox netbox-worker
docker-compose rm -f netbox netbox-worker
docker-compose up -d netbox netbox-workerFirst make sure that the webhooks feature is enabled in your Netbox configuration and that a redis host is defined.
Check netbox.env if the following variables are defined:
WEBHOOKS_ENABLED=true
REDIS_HOST=redisThen make sure that the redis container and at least one netbox-worker are running.
# check the container status
$ docker-compose ps
Name                           Command               State                Ports
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
netbox-docker_netbox-worker_1   /opt/netbox/docker-entrypo ...   Up
netbox-docker_netbox_1          /opt/netbox/docker-entrypo ...   Up
netbox-docker_nginx_1           nginx -c /etc/netbox-nginx ...   Up      80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:32776->8080/tcp
netbox-docker_postgres_1        docker-entrypoint.sh postgres    Up      5432/tcp
netbox-docker_redis_1           docker-entrypoint.sh redis ...   Up      6379/tcp
# connect to redis and send PING command:
$ docker-compose run --rm -T redis sh -c 'redis-cli -h redis -a $REDIS_PASSWORD ping'
Warning: Using a password with '-a' option on the command line interface may not be safe.
PONGIf redis and the netbox-worker are not available, make sure you have updated your docker-compose.yml file!
Everything's up and running? Then check the log of netbox-worker and/or redis:
docker-compose logs -f netbox-worker
docker-compose logs -f redisStill no clue? You can connect to the redis container and have it report any command that is currently executed on the server:
docker-compose run --rm -T redis sh -c 'redis-cli -h redis -a $REDIS_PASSWORD monitor'
# Hit CTRL-C a few times to leaveIf you don't see anything happening after you triggered a webhook, double-check the configuration of the netbox and the netbox-worker containers and also check the configuration of your webhook in the admin interface of Netbox.
From time to time it might become necessary to re-engineer the structure of this setup.
Things like the docker-compose.yml file or your Kubernetes or OpenShift configurations have to be adjusted as a consequence.
Since April 2018 each image built from this repo contains a NETBOX_DOCKER_PROJECT_VERSION label.
You can check the label of your local image by running docker inspect netboxcommunity/netbox:v2.3.1 --format "{{json .ContainerConfig.Labels}}".
Compare the version with the list below to check whether a breaking change was introduced with that version.
The following is a list of breaking changes of the netbox-docker project:
- 0.17.0: Updated the python image to 
python:3.7-alpine3.10in #144. Fixed the permissions and group scripts for Netbox 2.6. in #148. - 0.16.0: Update the Netbox URL from "github.com/digitalocean/netbox" to "github.com/netbox-community/netbox"
 - 0.15.0: Update for Netbox v2.6.0.
The 
configuration/configuration.pyfile has been updated to match the file from Netbox.CORS_ORIGIN_WHITELISThas a new default value ofhttp://localhost. To provide a nice development environment,CORS_ORIGIN_ALLOW_ALLadded toenv/netbox.envwith a default value ofTrue. There are also new options:REDIS_CACHE_DATABASECACHE_TIMEOUT(set to 0 to disable caching)CHANGELOG_RETENTIONCORS_ORIGIN_REGEX_WHITELIST(space separated list of regular expressions)EXEMPT_VIEW_PERMISSIONS(space separated list)METRICS_ENABLED
 - 0.14.0: Improved caching strategy #137 #136.
New 
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPEenvironment variable #135. - 0.13.0: 
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORDcan now be extracted into a secrets file. #133 - 0.12.0: A new flag 
REDIS_SSL=falsewas added to theenv/netbox.envfile. #129 - 0.11.0: The docker-compose file now marks volumes as shared (
:z). This should prevent SELinux problems #131 - 0.9.0: Upgrade to at least 2.1.5
 - 0.8.0: Alpine linux was upgraded to 3.9 #126
 - 0.7.0: The value of the 
MAX_PAGE_SIZEenvironment variable was changed to1000, which is the default of Netbox. - 0.6.0: The naming of the default startup_scripts were changed. If you overwrite them, you may need to adjust these scripts.
 - 0.5.0: Alpine was updated to 3.8, 
*.envmoved to/envfolder - 0.4.0: In order to use Netbox webhooks you need to add Redis and a netbox-worker to your docker-compose.yml.
 - 0.3.0: Field 
filterable: <booleanwas replaced with fieldfilter_logic: loose/exact/disabled. It will default toCF_FILTER_LOOSE=loosewhen not defined. - 0.2.0: Re-organized paths: 
/etc/netbox -> /etc/netbox/configand/etc/reports -> /etc/netbox/reports. Fixes #54. - 0.1.0: Introduction of the 
NETBOX_DOCKER_PROJECT_VERSION. (Not a breaking change per se.) 
./build.sh can be used to rebuild the Docker image. See ./build.sh --help for more information.
New Docker images are built and published every 24h on the Docker Build Infrastructure.
DOCKER_HUB.md contains more information about the build infrastructure.
To run the tests coming with Netbox, use the docker-compose.yml file as such:
docker-compose run netbox ./manage.py testThis repository is currently maintained and funded by nxt.