# Gunicorn

Like most Django applications, NetBox runs as a [WSGI application](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Server_Gateway_Interface) behind an HTTP server. This documentation shows how to install and configure [gunicorn](http://gunicorn.org/) for this role, however other WSGIs are available and should work similarly well.

## Configuration

NetBox ships with a default configuration file for gunicorn. To use it, copy `/opt/netbox/contrib/gunicorn.py` to `/opt/netbox/gunicorn.py`. (We make a copy of this file rather than pointing to it directly to ensure that any changes to it do not get overwritten by a future upgrade.)

```no-highlight
# cd /opt/netbox
# cp contrib/gunicorn.py /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py
```

While this default configuration should suffice for most initial installations, you may wish to edit this file to change the bound IP address and/or port number, or to make performance-related adjustments. See [the Gunicorn documentation](https://docs.gunicorn.org/en/stable/configure.html) for the available configuration parameters.

## systemd Setup

We'll use systemd to control both gunicorn and NetBox's background worker process. First, copy `contrib/netbox.service` and `contrib/netbox-rq.service` to the `/etc/systemd/system/` directory and reload the systemd dameon:

```no-highlight
# cp contrib/*.service /etc/systemd/system/
# systemctl daemon-reload
```

Then, start the `netbox` and `netbox-rq` services and enable them to initiate at boot time:

```no-highlight
# systemctl start netbox netbox-rq
# systemctl enable netbox netbox-rq
```

You can use the command `systemctl status netbox` to verify that the WSGI service is running:

```no-highlight
# systemctl status netbox.service
● netbox.service - NetBox WSGI Service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/netbox.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2019-12-12 19:23:40 UTC; 25s ago
     Docs: https://netbox.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
 Main PID: 11993 (gunicorn)
    Tasks: 6 (limit: 2362)
   CGroup: /system.slice/netbox.service
           ├─11993 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn --pid /var/tmp/netbox.pid --pythonpath /opt/netbox/...
           ├─12015 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn --pid /var/tmp/netbox.pid --pythonpath /opt/netbox/...
           ├─12016 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/gunicorn --pid /var/tmp/netbox.pid --pythonpath /opt/netbox/...
...
```

Once you've verified that the WSGI workers are up and running, move on to HTTP server setup.