Netbox Docker Plugin

Manage Docker with Netbox & style. Made to work with netbox-docker-agent.

Thanks dzove855 for the presentation of the plugin the 15th April 2025 during the Netbox Community Call.

How does it work?

sequenceDiagram
    Netbox->>Agent: Change (Webhook)
    Agent->>Docker API: Request (HTTP)
    Docker API->>Agent: Response (HTTP)
    Agent->>Netbox: Feedback (Callback)

Loading

Once the plugin and webhooks are installed, you can:

1. Create hosts that point to agents you had installed *
2. Retrieve informations from Docker API with the help of the agent
3. Create containers on host with an image, expose ports, add env variables and labels, mount volumes, set networks.
4. Manage the container status, start, stop, restart.

Note

Adding a host with curl needs a specific Origin HTTP header to make it working. Example :

curl \
    -H "Authorization: Token YOUR-NETBOX-APIKEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Origin: https://YOUR-NETBOX-HOST" \
    -X POST https://YOUR-NETBOX-HOST/api/plugins/docker/hosts/ \
    -d '{"name": "YOUR-AGENT-NAME", "endpoint": "https://AGENT-USER:PASSWORD@YOUR-AGENT-HOST:PORT"}'

Installation

Below the compatibility list of the Netbox Docker PLugin and Netbox. Please chose the right version of the plugin depending of the Netbox version you use:

Netbox Version	Netbox Docker Plugin Version
3.*	1.*
4.0.*	2.*
4.1.*	3.*
4.2.*	4.*
4.3.*	4.*
>=4.3.7	>=4.5.1

You can follow the official plugins installation instructions.

If needed, source your Netbox's virtual environment and install the plugin like a package. We assume you have already installed Netbox and its source code are in /opt/netbox:

cd /opt/netbox
python3 -m venv venv # if virtual env was not created before
source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
pip install netbox-docker-plugin

Enable the plugin in the /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py file:

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_docker_plugin',
]

Then, run migrations:

cd /opt/netbox
python3 netbox/manage.py migrate

Important

In order to the communication between your Netbox instance and the Agent works, the plugin will check if webhooks to agents are presents on each migration phase. If not, then the plugin will automatically install webhooks configuration in your Netbox instance.

Alternative

Another way to install Netbox is to use the Official netbox-docker project.

With this alternate way, you can customize your Netbox image and migrations will be automatically execute each time you restart the container.

Contribute

Install our development environment

Requirements:

• Python 3.11
• PostgreSQL 15 Official Netbox doc
  • user: netbox (with database creation right)
  • password: secret
  • database: netbox
  • port: 5432
• Redis 7.2
  • port: 6379

Set a PROJECT variable :

PROJECT="/project/netbox"

Create a project directory $PROJECT:

mkdir $PROJECT

Go inside your project directory, clone this repository and the Netbox repository:

cd $PROJECT
git clone [email protected]:SaaShup/netbox-docker-plugin.git
git clone [email protected]:netbox-community/netbox.git

Create your venv and activate it:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Install netbox-docker-plugin dependencies:

cd $PROJECT/netbox-docker-plugin
pip install -e .

Configure Netbox and install Netbox dependencies:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
cp $PROJECT/netbox-docker-plugin/netbox_configuration/configuration_dev.py $PROJECT/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py
pip install -r requirements.txt

Run database migrations:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
python3 netbox/manage.py migrate

Create a Netbox super user:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
python3 netbox/manage.py createsuperuser

Start Netbox instance:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
python3 netbox/manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000 --insecure

Visit http://localhost:8000/

Run tests

After installing your development environment, you can run the tests plugin (you don't need to start the Netbox instance):

cd $PROJECT/netbox
python3 -m pip install requests_mock
python3 netbox/manage.py test netbox_docker_plugin.tests --keepdb -v 2

With code coverage, install coverage.py and use it:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
python3 -m pip install coverage

Then run the test with coverage.py and print the report:

cd $PROJECT/netbox
coverage run --include='*/netbox_docker_plugin/*' netbox/manage.py test netbox_docker_plugin.tests --keepdb -v 2
coverage report -m

Hosting

Check https://saashup.com for more information.