Setup Dev

We will assume that you work in the folder ~/code/netbox_plugin/, change this if you use another folder for your projects/code.

Setup native prerequisites

NOTE: these requirements are needed if you want install Postgresql & Redis native. Check the steps for docker & docker-compose if you don't want this.

Make sure that you have already installed Postgresql and Redis. Also make sure that the database has already been created and privileges has been granted as described in the NetBox installation instructions at https://docs.netbox.dev/en/stable/installation/.

In short:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

sudo -u postgres psql
CREATE DATABASE netbox;
CREATE USER netbox WITH PASSWORD 'J5brHrAXFLQSif0K';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE netbox TO netbox;

sudo apt install -y redis-server

Setup docker prerequisites

NOTE: if you used the 'native' prerequisites you can skip these steps below

Docker

This depends on your OS or how you want to install docker.
See https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ to find the install steps.

Docker compose

This also depends on your OS, see the link below:
https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/linux/

Create the base folder

mkdir ~/code/netbox_plugin/
cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/

Install requirements

Python + deps

You will need the following packages installed:

• python3-venv
• python3

Install them with your OS package manager (apt, yum, ...)

NPM (with nvm)

Follow the steps on the repo below to install npm:
https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#installing-and-updating

Create venv

python3 -m venv ~/code/netbox_plugin/.venvs/netbox
source ~/code/netbox_plugin/.venvs/netbox/bin/activate

Setup netbox

Clone netbox repo

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
git clone git@github.com:netbox-community/netbox.git netbox

Install deps

cd netbox
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Setup plugin

Clone netbox-topology-views repo

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
git clone git@github.com:mattieserver/netbox-topology-views.git plugin

Install deps

python3 -m pip install --upgrade build setuptools wheel

Copy netbox config file

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
cp plugin/dev_setup/configuration.py netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py

Start netbox

Start docker compose

NOTE: if you used the 'native' prerequisites you can skip to 'Start netbox'

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
cd plugin/dev_setup
docker-compose up -d

Start netbox

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
source ~/code/netbox_plugin/.venvs/netbox/bin/activate
cd netbox/netbox/
python3 manage.py migrate
python3 manage.py runserver

You might need to create a superuser if you want to start with an empty database: python3 manage.py createsuperuser

Build

Build the plugin

cd ~/code/netbox_plugin/
source ~/code/netbox_plugin/.venvs/netbox/bin/activate
cd plugin/
python3 setup.py develop

Build javascript

cd plugin/netbox_topology_views/static_dev
npm install
npm run bundle

Test

You can now browse to http://localhost:8000.
The plugin should be available in the menu.

Import demo data

If you want to add demo data instead of your own data, there's an official Repository you can use. The following example shows how to add demo data for NetBox v3.4. You have to use the json file according to the version you are working on.

~/code/netbox_plugin/
git clone git@github.com:netbox-community/netbox-demo-data.git demodata
source ~/code/netbox_plugin/.venvs/netbox/bin/activate
cd netbox/netbox/
python3 manage.py loaddata -v 3 ~/src/netbox-demo-data/netbox-demo-v3.4.json

Please note that the demo data adds a superuser with credentials admin/admin.