Netbox (or alternatives)

[StephenPink]

Hey, 

Anyone using/used Netbox before? The World's Most Popular Network Source of Truth | NetBox Labs

 

Just come across it and looks quite good - looking at improving/automating more of our network documentation. Also curious what else is out there - hoping to hear from others experiences!

Thanks,
Stephen

[mavhc]

Yes, installed it as a docker container, it's free

[jthompson]

I've been meaning to spin up a Netbox instance and try it out. I've used Racktables for quite a few years now. I've not made use of all of its features, but my only issue with it has been that patch panels are hard to document: you can link their front-facing ports to other items, but there doesn't appear to be a way to link the rears of the ports. That's possible in Netbox, which is my main reason for wanting to try it out as a potential replacement.

 

You can also do it using GLPI, which we also use here, but I find that documenting network cabs, links, etc using GLPI is a bit of a grind. very granular with lots of clicking to drill down, whereas Racktables gives a better overall view of a cab layout, it's devices and the important links.

[pete]

Yup. 

 

If you're using LibreNMS as well, look at https://github.com/bonzo81/netbox-librenms-plugin

[StephenPink]

Picking this up again - those that are currently using NetBox, have you all gone self-hosted?
The free cloud plan unfortunately doesn't have a high enough device limit for our intended purposes - and I'm not sure I can swing the pricing for the hosted version (especially as I'm not convinced we would need/use all the additional features). 

 

Curious to hear how those with self-hosted have gotten on, how the find managing it, updating it etc, and curious if anyone has managed to pay for it - and how they find that/rate the VFM.

Cheers

[mavhc]

Yeah, just pasted a docker compose command into portainer and it's been running ever since. Watchtower docker container scans all containers each night and sees if there's any updates