netbox-ping 2.5.0

A NetBox plugin for pinging and discovering IPs

NetBox Ping

A NetBox plugin for pinging, discovering, and monitoring IP addresses directly from your NetBox instance.

Other plugins: NetBox Map | Website | Demo

Features

Scanning and Discovery

• Ping individual IPs with one click from any IP address page
• Scan all existing IPs in a prefix, or discover new hosts across entire subnets
• Bulk scan/discover from the prefix list view
• Auto-scan scheduling with per-prefix overrides (Follow Global / Custom On / Custom Off)
• Skip reserved IPs during scans

Monitoring

• Stale IP detection -- tag IPs as stale after X failed scans or X days offline
• Auto-remove stale IPs from NetBox after a configurable threshold
• Per-prefix exclusion from stale detection for critical infrastructure
• Ping history with full audit trail per IP
• Quick filter tabs on the Ping Results page (All / Up / Down / Stale / Skipped)

DNS

• Automatic reverse DNS lookups with up to 3 configurable servers
• Sync resolved names back to NetBox IPAddress records
• DNS change history tracked per IP

Notifications

• Email digest with IP state transition badges (Up -> Down, Down -> Stale, etc.)
• High utilization prefix alerts
• Configurable intervals (5 min to weekly), send on change only option

Integration

• Ping Status columns on core IP Address and Prefix tables
• Status tabs on IP Address and Prefix detail pages
• All operations run as background jobs
• REST API for ping results, history, and scan results
• Dark mode compatible

Screenshots

Settings

IP Address Ping Tab

Prefix Ping Tab

Bulk Operations

Status Badges on Core Tables

Installation

source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
pip install netbox-ping

Or from source:

source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
pip install git+https://github.com/DenDanskeMine/netbox-ping.git

Add to configuration.py:

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_ping',
]

Apply migrations and restart:

cd /opt/netbox/netbox
python3 manage.py migrate
sudo systemctl restart netbox netbox-rq

Upgrading from v1

If you get migration errors when upgrading from v1, reset the migration state:

sudo -u postgres psql netbox -c "DELETE FROM django_migrations WHERE app = 'netbox_ping';"
sudo /opt/netbox/venv/bin/python manage.py migrate netbox_ping

Configuration

All settings are in Plugins > Ping > Settings.

DNS

Setting	Description
DNS Servers (1-3)	Custom nameservers for reverse lookups
Sync DNS to NetBox	Write resolved names back to IPAddress.dns_name
Clear DNS on Missing	Clear DNS field when lookup returns empty
Preserve DNS if Alive	Keep existing DNS if host is up but lookup fails

Auto-Scan

Setting	Description
Auto-Scan / Auto-Discover	Enable recurring scans with configurable interval
Min Prefix Length	Only scan prefixes of this size or smaller (default: /24)
Per-Prefix Overrides	Follow Global, Custom On, or Custom Off per prefix

Available intervals: 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, hourly, 6h, 12h, daily, weekly.

Stale IP Detection

Setting	Description
Enable Stale Tagging	Tag IPs as stale when thresholds are met
Scans Threshold	Consecutive failed scans before tagging (0 = ignore)
Days Threshold	Days since last seen before tagging (0 = ignore)
Enable Auto-Remove	Delete stale IPs after a separate days threshold
Remove After Days	Days since last seen before deletion

Per-prefix exclusion is available on each prefix's Ping Status tab.

Email Notifications

Uses NetBox's existing EMAIL settings from configuration.py.

Setting	Description
Recipients	Comma-separated email addresses
Digest Interval	How often to send (5 min to weekly)
Include Details	Show per-IP state transitions grouped by prefix
Utilization Threshold	Alert on prefixes at or above this % (0 = disabled)
Send on Change Only	Skip sending if nothing happened

Emails show state transitions per IP (e.g. Up -> Down, Down -> Stale, Stale -> Deleted) so you can see the current state at a glance.

Navigation

Menu Item	Description
Plugins > Ping > Ping Results	Current state of all tracked IPs with quick filter tabs
Plugins > Ping > Ping History	Full audit trail of all ping checks
Plugins > Ping > Scan Results	Per-prefix scan summaries with utilization
Plugins > Ping > Settings	All plugin configuration

Performance

Concurrent pings per job defaults to 100 threads. To go higher (~240+), raise the file descriptor limit:

# /etc/systemd/system/netbox-rq.service
[Service]
LimitNOFILE=65535

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart netbox-rq

Requirements

• NetBox 4.5.0+
• Python 3.12+
• ping command on the server
• netbox-rq worker running

Development

git clone https://github.com/DenDanskeMine/netbox-ping.git
cd netbox-ping
pip install -e .

License

Apache License 2.0 -- see LICENSE.

Support

Open an issue on GitHub.