HOWTO: Deploy NetBox as the Authoritative Platform Record¶

Purpose: Deploy and configure NetBox as the live HybridOps source of truth using the bootstrap module, with initial data seeding and integration wiring.

Difficulty: Intermediate

Track: Platform Services

Overview¶

NetBox is not just a documentation tool in HybridOps: it is the live source of truth that all automation consumes. This HOWTO covers the deployment-day operation: provisioning NetBox, seeding the canonical data model, and confirming that the inventory export pipeline can query it. Day-2 operations are covered by the NetBox Lifecycle module.

1. Module Overview¶

Module ID: platform/onprem/bootstrap-netbox@v1.
Components: NetBox application, PostgreSQL backend, Redis, reverse proxy.
Idempotency: safe to re-run for config drift correction.

2. Prerequisites¶

VM provisioned in management VLAN with a static IP from IPAM.
PostgreSQL instance available (standalone or shared with other services).
DNS entry or /etc/hosts entry for the NetBox hostname.

3. Module Inputs¶

NetBox version.
Database connection details.
Redis connection details.
Admin user bootstrap credentials (secret reference).
Site and tenant seed data path.

4. Seeding the Initial Data Model¶

Sites and tenants aligned with ADR-0002.
VLAN definitions from ADR-0101.
Prefix allocations and gateway IPs.
Device roles and platform definitions.

5. API Token Provisioning¶

Creating a read-only automation token.
Binding token permissions to required object types.
Storing the token in the secrets manager.

6. Inventory Export Wiring¶

Running make inventory.netbox-export post-deployment.
Validating Ansible and Nornir inventory output.
CI/CD freshness check configuration.

References¶

License: MIT-0 for code, CC-BY-4.0 for documentation unless otherwise stated.