Introducing NetBox as a Snap

Hello everyone,

NetBox is the leading open-source solution for modeling and documenting modern networks, combining IPAM (IP Address Management) and DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management) into a single powerful tool. However, deploying it manually involves setting up Python virtual environments, configuring Gunicorn, managing static files, and more. To simplify this process, I have packaged NetBox as a Snap.

You can download the Snap from Snapcraft, and the source code is available on GitHub.

Prerequisites

The Snap requires PostgreSQL and Redis to be available. These can be installed as system packages, run via Docker, or provided by managed services.

sudo apt install postgresql redis-server
sudo -u postgres createuser netbox
sudo -u postgres createdb -O netbox netbox

Installation

Installing the Snap is straightforward:

sudo snap install community-netbox

Configuration

Configure the database and Redis connections using snap set:

sudo snap set community-netbox \
  db.host=localhost db.port=5432 \
  db.name=netbox db.user=netbox db.password=""

sudo snap set community-netbox \
  redis.host=localhost redis.port=6379

After configuring, restart the services to apply the changes:

sudo snap restart community-netbox

Then create your admin user:

sudo community-netbox.manage createsuperuser

The NetBox UI will be available at http://localhost:8080. You can change the port with:

sudo snap set community-netbox http.port=9090

What’s Included

The Snap bundles NetBox with Gunicorn and WhiteNoise for serving static files, so no external web server (Nginx/Apache) is needed. It runs two services:

community-netbox.netbox-web – the Gunicorn web server
community-netbox.netbox-rqworker – a background task worker for Redis Queue

Database migrations, static file collection, and search indexing are handled automatically on startup.

Management Commands

All Django management commands are available through community-netbox.manage:

sudo community-netbox.manage migrate
sudo community-netbox.manage nbshell
sudo community-netbox.manage reindex --lazy

Feedback and Contributions

If you have any questions, suggestions, or contributions, feel free to reach out. Enjoy using NetBox with Snap!

For updates and further details, visit the Snapcraft page or check out the GitHub repository.