NetBox Installation

Pre-requisite

NetBox: The Network Source of Truth

Setting Up NetBox (Ubuntu 24.04/22.04)

This guide walks you through installing NetBox directly on an Ubuntu LXC or VM (“bare metal” style).

System Requirements

RAM: 4GB recommended (2GB minimum for very small labs).
Disk: 20GB recommended (10GB minimum).
CPU: 2 vCPUs recommended.

1. System Preparation

Update the system and install the required system packages, including PostgreSQL, Redis, and Python build tools.

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y postgresql postgresql-common postgresql-client redis-server \
git python3-pip python3-venv python3-dev build-essential libxml2-dev \
libxslt1-dev libffi-dev libpq-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev

2. Database Setup (PostgreSQL)

Start PostgreSQL:
```
systemctl enable --now postgresql
```

Create Database and User: Replace strong_password with a real password.

sudo -u postgres psql

Inside the SQL shell:

CREATE DATABASE netbox WITH TEMPLATE template0 ENCODING 'UTF8';
CREATE USER netbox WITH PASSWORD 'strong_password';
ALTER DATABASE netbox OWNER TO netbox;
\c netbox
ALTER SCHEMA public OWNER TO netbox;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON SCHEMA public TO netbox;
\q

3. Install NetBox

Create the NetBox system user:

useradd -r -d /opt/netbox -s /usr/sbin/nologin netbox

Clone the NetBox repository:

git clone -b main https://github.com/netbox-community/netbox.git /opt/netbox/
chown -R netbox:netbox /opt/netbox/

Configure NetBox:
```
cd /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/
cp configuration_example.py configuration.py
```
Generate a secret key:
```
root@netbox:/opt/netbox/netbox/netbox# python3 -c 'import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(50))'
866887ae9b6f118ce7e5a7b7f7a4b2fa7a1979dab810e8b092dd5dba4a3bc1f6b0e1028ac45850c1b55a617c3ff41c932c56
```
Edit `configuration.py` (located in `/opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/`):
- Set `ALLOWED_HOSTS` to `[’**’]` for initial testing. ***(For production, replace `*` with your NetBox server’s IP addresses or domain names)****:
```
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
```
- Set `DATABASE` user to `netbox` and password to `strong_password`.
- Set `SECRET_KEY` to the string generated above.
Install Dependencies & Run Migrations:
```
/opt/netbox/upgrade.sh
```
This script creates the Python environment, installs requirements, and builds the DB schema.

Create a Superuser:

source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
cd /opt/netbox/netbox
python3 manage.py createsuperuser

4. Configure Gunicorn & Systemd

Copy the systemd service and config files:

cp /opt/netbox/contrib/*.service /etc/systemd/system/
cp /opt/netbox/contrib/gunicorn.py /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py
systemctl daemon-reload

Start NetBox Services:
```
systemctl enable --now netbox netbox-rq
```

5. Web Server (Nginx)

To serve NetBox on port 80/443.

Install Nginx:
```
apt install -y nginx
```

Configure Nginx: Copy the default config provided by NetBox:

cp /opt/netbox/contrib/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/netbox
rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/netbox /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/netbox

Edit the Nginx Config: Edit `/etc/nginx/sites-available/netbox`. Change `server_name` to your IP or Domain.

Generate Self-Signed SSL Certificate: The default config enables HTTPS, so you need a certificate.

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 \
-keyout /etc/ssl/private/netbox.key \
-out /etc/ssl/certs/netbox.crt \
-subj "/C=US/ST=State/L=City/O=NetBox/CN=netbox.local"

Restart Nginx:
```
systemctl restart nginx
```

Accessing NetBox

Open `<http:///>`
Log in with the superuser you created.

Boyang Yan

Explorer