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# What is NetBox?
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# The Premiere Network Source of Truth
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NetBox is an infrastructure resource modeling (IRM) application designed to empower network automation. Initially conceived by the network engineering team at [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/), NetBox was developed specifically to address the needs of network and infrastructure engineers. NetBox is made available as open source under the Apache 2 license. It encompasses the following aspects of network management:
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NetBox is the leading solution for modeling modern networks. By combining the traditional disciplines of IP address management (IPAM) and datacenter infrastructure management (DCIM) with powerful APIs and extensions, NetBox provides the ideal "source of truth" to power network automation.
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* **IP address management (IPAM)** - IP networks and addresses, VRFs, and VLANs
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* **Equipment racks** - Organized by group and site
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* **Devices** - Types of devices and where they are installed
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* **Connections** - Network, console, and power connections among devices
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* **Virtualization** - Virtual machines and clusters
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* **Data circuits** - Long-haul communications circuits and providers
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## Built for Networks
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## What NetBox Is Not
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Unlike general-purpose CMDBs, NetBox has curated a data model which caters specifically to the needs of network engineers and operators. It delivers a wide assortment of object types carefully crafted to best serve the needs of network engineers and operators. These cover all facets of network design, from IP address managements to cabling to overlays and more:
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While NetBox strives to cover many areas of network management, the scope of its feature set is necessarily limited. This ensures that development focuses on core functionality and that scope creep is reasonably contained. To that end, it might help to provide some examples of functionality that NetBox **does not** provide:
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* Hierarchical regions, site groups, sites, and locations
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* Racks, devices, and device components
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* Cables and wireless connections
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* Power distribution
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* Data circuits and providers
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* Virtual machines and clusters
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* IP prefixes, ranges, and addresses
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* VRFs and route targets
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* FHRP groups (VRRP, HSRP, etc.)
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* AS numbers
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* VLANs and scoped VLAN groups
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* L2VPN overlays
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* Organizational tenants and contacts
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* Network monitoring
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* DNS server
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* RADIUS server
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* Configuration management
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* Facilities management
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## Customizable & Extensible
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That said, NetBox _can_ be used to great effect in populating external tools with the data they need to perform these functions.
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In addition to its expansive and robust data model, NetBox offers myriad mechanisms through it can be customized and extended.
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## Design Philosophy
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* Custom fields
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* Custom model validation
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* Export templates
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* Webhooks
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* Plugins
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* REST & GraphQL APIs
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NetBox was designed with the following tenets foremost in mind.
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## Always Open
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### Replicate the Real World
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Careful consideration has been given to the data model to ensure that it can accurately reflect a real-world network. For instance, IP addresses are assigned not to devices, but to specific interfaces attached to a device, and an interface may have multiple IP addresses assigned to it.
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### Serve as a "Source of Truth"
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NetBox intends to represent the _desired_ state of a network versus its _operational_ state. As such, automated import of live network state is strongly discouraged. All data created in NetBox should first be vetted by a human to ensure its integrity. NetBox can then be used to populate monitoring and provisioning systems with a high degree of confidence.
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### Keep it Simple
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When given a choice between a relatively simple [80% solution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) and a much more complex complete solution, the former will typically be favored. This ensures a lean codebase with a low learning curve.
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## Application Stack
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NetBox is built on the [Django](https://djangoproject.com/) Python framework and utilizes a [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/) database. It runs as a WSGI service behind your choice of HTTP server.
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| Function | Component |
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|--------------------|-------------------|
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| HTTP service | nginx or Apache |
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| WSGI service | gunicorn or uWSGI |
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| Application | Django/Python |
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| Database | PostgreSQL 10+ |
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| Task queuing | Redis/django-rq |
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| Live device access | NAPALM (optional) |
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## Supported Python Versions
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NetBox supports Python 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10 environments.
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Because NetBox is an open source application licensed under [Apache 2](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html), its entire code base is completely accessible to the end user, and there's never a risk of vendor lock-out. Additionally, NetBox development is an entirely public, community-driven process to which everyone can provide input.
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## Getting Started
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Minor NetBox releases (e.g. v3.1) are published three times a year; in April, August, and December. These typically introduce major new features and may contain breaking API changes. Patch releases are published roughly every one to two weeks to resolve bugs and fulfill minor feature requests. These are backward-compatible with previous releases unless otherwise noted. The NetBox maintainers strongly recommend running the latest stable release whenever possible.
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* Public Demo
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* Installation Guide
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* Docker install
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* NetBox Cloud
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Please see the [official installation guide](installation/index.md) for detailed instructions on obtaining and installing NetBox.
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!!! tip "NetBox Development"
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Interested in contributing to NetBox? Check out our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox) to get started!
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docs/introduction.md
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docs/introduction.md
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# Introduction to NetBox
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## Origin Story
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NetBox was originally developed by its lead maintainer, [Jeremy Stretch](https://github.com/jeremystretch), while he was working as a network engineer at [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) in 2015 as part of an effort to automate their network provisioning. Recognizing the new tool's potential, DigitalOcean agreed to release it as an open source project in June 2016.
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Since then, thousands of organizations around the world have embraced NetBox as their central network source of truth to empower both network operators and automation.
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## Key Features
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NetBox was built specifically to serve the needs of network engineers and operators. Below is a very brief overview of the core features it provides.
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* IP address management (IPAM) with full IPv4/IPv6 parity
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* Automatic provisioning of next available prefix/IP
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* VRFs with import & export route targets
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* VLANs with variably-scoped groups
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* AS number (ASN) management
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* Rack elevations with SVG rendering
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* Device modeling using pre-defined types
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* Network, power, and console cabling with SVG traces
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* Power distribution modeling
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* Data circuit and provider tracking
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* Wireless LAN and point-to-point links
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* L2 VPN overlays
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* FHRP groups (VRRP, HSRP, etc.)
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* Application service bindings
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* Virtual machines & clusters
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* Flexible hierarchy for sites and locations
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* Tenant ownership assignment
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* Device & VM configuration contexts for advanced configuration rendering
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* Custom fields for data model extension
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* Support for custom validation rules
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* Custom reports & scripts executable directly within the UI
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* Extensive plugin framework for adding custom functionality
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* Single sign-on (SSO) authentication
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* Robust object-based permissions
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* Detailed, automatic change logging
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* NAPALM integration
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## What NetBox Is Not
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While NetBox strives to cover many areas of network management, the scope of its feature set is necessarily limited. This ensures that development focuses on core functionality and that scope creep is reasonably contained. To that end, it might help to provide some examples of functionality that NetBox **does not** provide:
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* Network monitoring
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* DNS server
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* RADIUS server
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* Configuration management
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* Facilities management
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That said, NetBox _can_ be used to great effect in populating external tools with the data they need to perform these functions.
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## Design Philosophy
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NetBox was designed with the following tenets foremost in mind.
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### Replicate the Real World
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Careful consideration has been given to the data model to ensure that it can accurately reflect a real-world network. For instance, IP addresses are assigned not to devices, but to specific interfaces attached to a device, and an interface may have multiple IP addresses assigned to it.
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### Serve as a "Source of Truth"
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NetBox intends to represent the _desired_ state of a network versus its _operational_ state. As such, automated import of live network state is strongly discouraged. All data created in NetBox should first be vetted by a human to ensure its integrity. NetBox can then be used to populate monitoring and provisioning systems with a high degree of confidence.
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### Keep it Simple
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When given a choice between a relatively simple [80% solution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle) and a much more complex complete solution, the former will typically be favored. This ensures a lean codebase with a low learning curve.
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## Application Stack
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NetBox is built on the [Django](https://djangoproject.com/) Python framework and utilizes a [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/) database. It runs as a WSGI service behind your choice of HTTP server.
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| Function | Component |
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|--------------------|-------------------|
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| HTTP service | nginx or Apache |
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| WSGI service | gunicorn or uWSGI |
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| Application | Django/Python |
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| Database | PostgreSQL 10+ |
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| Task queuing | Redis/django-rq |
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| Live device access | NAPALM (optional) |
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@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ markdown_extensions:
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- pymdownx.tabbed:
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alternate_style: true
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nav:
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- Introduction: 'index.md'
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- Introduction: 'introduction.md'
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- Installation:
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- Installing NetBox: 'installation/index.md'
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- 1. PostgreSQL: 'installation/1-postgresql.md'
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