netbox-facts 0.1.0

Gather operational facts from supported NetBox Devices

NetBox Facts Plugin

Gather operational facts from supported NetBox Devices using NAPALM and store them in NetBox.

• Free software: Apache-2.0
• Documentation: https://jsenecal.github.io/netbox-facts

Features

• 10 collector types: ARP, IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (NDP), Inventory, Interfaces, LLDP, Ethernet Switching Tables, L2 Circuits, EVPN, BGP, and OSPF
• Detect-only mode: Collection plans can produce a report without modifying NetBox objects — changes can be reviewed and selectively applied or skipped
• Auto-scheduling: Interval-based recurring collection via NetBox's JobRunner framework, with priority queues (high/default/low)
• MAC address tracking: Discovered MAC addresses linked to interfaces and IP addresses, with automatic OUI vendor lookup
• REST API: Full CRUD endpoints for MAC addresses, MAC vendors, collection plans, and facts reports
• Optional BGP integration: Works with the netbox-routing plugin for BGP session data
• Vendor-specific NAPALM drivers: Extended Junos driver with enhanced ARP/NDP collection

Compatibility

NetBox Version	Plugin Version
4.5.x	0.0.1

Installing

For adding to a NetBox Docker setup see the general instructions for using netbox-docker with plugins.

Install with pip:

pip install git+https://github.com/jsenecal/netbox-facts

or by adding to your local_requirements.txt or plugin_requirements.txt (netbox-docker):

git+https://github.com/jsenecal/netbox-facts

For BGP collector support, install with the optional routing extra:

pip install "netbox-facts[routing] @ git+https://github.com/jsenecal/netbox-facts"

Enable the plugin in /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py, or if you use netbox-docker, your /configuration/plugins.py file:

PLUGINS = [
    "netbox_facts",
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_facts": {
        "top_level_menu": True,
        "napalm_username": "",
        "napalm_password": "",
        "global_napalm_args": {},
        "valid_interfaces_re": r"<your-interface-regex>",
    },
}

Configuration Options

Setting	Type	Default	Description
top_level_menu	bool	True	Show plugin as a top-level menu item instead of under Plugins
napalm_username	str	""	Default NAPALM username for device connections
napalm_password	str	""	Default NAPALM password for device connections
global_napalm_args	dict	{}	Additional arguments passed to all NAPALM driver instances
valid_interfaces_re	str	".*"	Regex to filter which interfaces are processed
job_timeout	int	1800	Maximum RQ job runtime in seconds (30 min default)
napalm_timeout	int	60	NAPALM connection timeout in seconds

Per-Plan Credentials

Each Collection Plan has a NAPALM arguments JSON field that is merged on top of global_napalm_args. You can override the username and password for a specific plan by including username and password keys:

{
    "username": "collector-user",
    "password": "collector-pass"
}

These keys are extracted before the remaining args are passed through to NAPALM's optional_args, so they won't interfere with driver options.

Connection Target

Each Collection Plan has a Connection target setting that controls which device IP address is used to connect:

Option	Behavior
Primary IP (default)	Connect using the device's primary IP address
OOB IP	Connect using the device's out-of-band management IP
Primary IP, then OOB	Try primary IP first; on connection failure, fall back to OOB IP
OOB IP, then Primary	Try OOB IP first; on connection failure, fall back to primary IP

The "both" options are useful when devices are reachable via either path depending on network conditions. Each connection attempt is logged with the IP address and type being used.

Developing

VSCode + Docker + Dev Containers

To develop this plugin further one can use the included .devcontainer configuration. This creates a Docker container with a fully working NetBox installation.

1. Install the Dev Containers extension (ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers) in VS Code
2. Use Dev Container: Clone Repository in Container Volume to clone this repository
3. Inside the container, run make all to set up and launch the NetBox instance

Your NetBox instance will be served at 0.0.0.0:8008 (accessible via localhost:8008).

Key Commands

make all          # Full setup (install + migrations + static files + sample data + launch)
make rebuild      # Rebuild without reinitializing sample data
make setup        # Install plugin in editable mode
make migrations   # Generate new migrations
make migrate      # Apply migrations
make test         # Run test suite (migration check + Django tests)
make runserver    # Start dev server
make nbshell      # Interactive NetBox shell

Credits

This package was created with Cookiecutter and the netbox-community/cookiecutter-netbox-plugin project template.