netbox-bmc 0.4.0

Unified out-of-band management for NetBox: Redfish & IPMI inventory sync, power control, console access

netbox-bmc

日本語

Unified out-of-band management plugin for NetBox.
Inventory sync and power control via Redfish & IPMI.

Supported Protocols / Vendors

Protocol	Vendors
Redfish	Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, Lenovo XCC, Supermicro, Generic
IPMI	Fallback for any IPMI-capable BMC

Protocol is auto-detected: probes /redfish/v1 first, falls back to IPMI on failure.

Tested Hardware

Manufacturer	Model Series	BMC	Protocol	Status
Dell	PowerEdge	iDRAC 9	Redfish	Expected to work
HPE	ProLiant	iLO 5	Redfish	Expected to work
HPE	ProLiant	iLO 6	Redfish	Expected to work
Lenovo	ThinkSystem	XCC2 / XCC3	Redfish	Expected to work
Supermicro	X12 / X13	BMC	Redfish	Expected to work
Generic	—	Any IPMI-capable BMC	IPMI	Expected to work (fallback)

Features

• Module Builder: Sync BMC hardware inventory to NetBox Modules
  • Scan via Redfish → preview detected components with diff badges (new / updated / unchanged / removed)
  • Select individual components before applying
  • Auto-create ModuleBays when missing (warned in preview)
  • Detect serial number changes after FRU replacement and apply diff updates
  • Only manages bmc-synced-tagged Modules; never touches manually created Modules
• Collected components: CPU, Memory, Drive, PSU, Fan, Firmware, PCI devices
  • PSU and Fan collected via Chassis link; PCIe via PCIeDevices collection
• Vendor auto-detection: Dispatches to Dell / HPE / Lenovo subclass drivers based on ServiceRoot Vendor / Oem keys
• Power control: on / off / soft / cycle / reset (both protocols)

Install

Standard (non-Docker)

pip install netbox-bmc

Add to configuration.py:

PLUGINS = ["netbox_bmc"]
PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_bmc": {
        "sync_interval_minutes": 0,
        "default_verify_ssl": False,
    },
}

Run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

Docker (netbox-docker)

Add a volume mount in docker-compose.override.yml:

services:
  netbox: &netbox
    volumes:
      - ./netbox-bmc:/opt/netbox-bmc

Install in editable mode and restart:

docker compose exec netbox pip install -e /opt/netbox-bmc
docker compose exec netbox python manage.py migrate
docker compose restart netbox netbox-worker

Configure

Edit PLUGINS_CONFIG["netbox_bmc"] in configuration.py:

Key	Default	Description
sync_interval_minutes	0	Scheduled bulk sync interval in minutes. 0 disables.
default_verify_ssl	False	Default SSL verification for new BMC Endpoints.
service_account	—	Service account name for background jobs (netbox-secrets).
service_private_key_path	—	Path to private key for service account (netbox-secrets).

Use

1. Open a Device in NetBox and click BMC Endpoints → Add
2. Enter the BMC address and credentials, then save
3. On the Endpoint detail page, click [Build Modules]
4. Review the component preview (new / updated / unchanged / removed)
5. Check the components to sync and click [Apply Selected]

ModuleBays, ModuleTypes, and Modules are created or updated automatically.

Module Naming

Vendor-specific names are normalized to a consistent format:

Raw name (Redfish)	Normalized
CPU.Socket.1 / Processor 0	CPU 0
DIMM.A1 / Memory 0	Memory 0
Disk.Bay.0	Drive 0
NIC.Slot.1 (PCIe)	PCI 0

Custom Fields

The following custom fields are set automatically on each Module:

Field	Content
bmc_redfish_path	Source Redfish URI
bmc_firmware_version	Firmware version string

Versions

netbox-bmc	NetBox
0.4.x	4.5, 4.6

Vendor Notes

Dell iDRAC

iDRAC 9 (Redfish 1.x) is the primary target. URI traversal starts from ServiceRoot links — no hardcoded paths — so firmware variations should be absorbed automatically.

HPE iLO

iLO 5 and iLO 6 are supported via the HPE subclass driver. iLO 4 (Redfish 1.0 partial compliance) is not tested and may not work correctly.

Lenovo XCC

XCC2 and XCC3 are supported. Some older XCC firmware versions expose non-standard collection URIs; the link-traversal approach handles most variations.

Supermicro

Generic Redfish driver is used. Supermicro BMC firmware varies significantly; behaviour may differ across firmware versions.

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest

Adding a New Vendor

1. Add a subclass in netbox_bmc/drivers/redfish.py extending RedfishDriver
2. Register it in detect_and_build() in netbox_bmc/drivers/base.py by matching ServiceRoot vendor keys
3. Add unit tests in tests/test_redfish_extensions.py

Adding a New Protocol

Implement BaseDriver (netbox_bmc/drivers/base.py) and return InventoryResult from get_inventory().

Credentials

netbox-bmc resolves BMC credentials in the following order:

1. netbox-secrets (preferred) — Secret with role bmc-credentials assigned to the Device.
   Secret.name = BMC username, Secret.plaintext = BMC password (RSA-encrypted).
2. Plaintext fallback — username / password fields on BMCEndpoint, used when netbox-secrets is not installed or no matching secret is found.

For background jobs (scheduled sync), set service_account and service_private_key_path in PLUGINS_CONFIG so the job can decrypt secrets without an HTTP session.

Known Limitations

• REST API (serializers / viewsets) not yet implemented
• Multi-node chassis (multiple Systems) not supported
• Scheduled bulk sync (ScheduledInventorySyncJob) not yet implemented
• KVM / SOL console not yet ported from the predecessor plugin
• Old BMCs with low Redfish compliance (e.g. HPE iLO 4) not validated

License

Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.