HTTP Server Setup

We'll set up a simple WSGI front end using gunicorn for the purposes of this guide. For web servers, we provide example configurations for both nginx and Apache. (You are of course free to use whichever combination of HTTP and WSGI services you'd like.) We'll use systemd to enable service persistence.

!!! info For the sake of brevity, only Ubuntu 18.04 instructions are provided here, but this sort of web server and WSGI configuration is not unique to NetBox. Please consult your distribution's documentation for assistance if needed.

HTTP Daemon Installation

Option A: nginx

The following will serve as a minimal nginx configuration. Be sure to modify your server name and installation path appropriately.

# apt-get install -y nginx

Once nginx is installed, save the following configuration to /etc/nginx/sites-available/netbox. Be sure to replace netbox.example.com with the domain name or IP address of your installation. (This should match the value configured for ALLOWED_HOSTS in configuration.py.)

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name netbox.example.com;

    client_max_body_size 25m;

    location /static/ {
        alias /opt/netbox/netbox/static/;
    }

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8001;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Then, delete /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and create a symlink in the sites-enabled directory to the configuration file you just created.

# cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
# rm default
# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/netbox

Restart the nginx service to use the new configuration.

# service nginx restart

To enable SSL, consider this guide on securing nginx with Let's Encrypt.

Option B: Apache

# apt-get install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

Once Apache is installed, proceed with the following configuration (Be sure to modify the ServerName appropriately):

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ProxyPreserveHost On

    ServerName netbox.example.com

    Alias /static /opt/netbox/netbox/static

    # Needed to allow token-based API authentication
    WSGIPassAuthorization on

    <Directory /opt/netbox/netbox/static>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Location /static>
        ProxyPass !
    </Location>

    RequestHeader set "X-Forwarded-Proto" expr=%{REQUEST_SCHEME}
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8001/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8001/
</VirtualHost>

Save the contents of the above example in /etc/apache2/sites-available/netbox.conf, enable the proxy and proxy_http modules, and reload Apache:

# a2enmod proxy
# a2enmod proxy_http
# a2enmod headers
# a2ensite netbox
# service apache2 restart

To enable SSL, consider this guide on securing Apache with Let's Encrypt.

!!! note Certain components of NetBox (such as the display of rack elevation diagrams) rely on the use of embedded objects. Ensure that your HTTP server configuration does not override the X-Frame-Options response header set by NetBox.

gunicorn Configuration

Copy /opt/netbox/contrib/gunicorn.py to /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py. (We make a copy of this file to ensure that any changes to it do not get overwritten by a future upgrade.)

# cd /opt/netbox
# cp contrib/gunicorn.py /opt/netbox/gunicorn.py

You may wish to edit this file to change the bound IP address or port number, or to make performance-related adjustments.

systemd Configuration

We'll use systemd to control the daemonization of NetBox services. First, copy contrib/netbox.service and contrib/netbox-rq.service to the /etc/systemd/system/ directory:

# cp contrib/*.service /etc/systemd/system/

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

# systemctl daemon-reload
# 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:

# 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/...
...

At this point, you should be able to connect to the HTTP service at the server name or IP address you provided.

!!! info Please keep in mind that the configurations provided here are bare minimums required to get NetBox up and running. You may want to make adjustments to better suit your production environment.

Troubleshooting

If you are unable to connect to the HTTP server, check that:

Nginx/Apache is running and configured to listen on the correct port.
Access is not being blocked by a firewall. (Try connecting locally from the server itself.)

If you are able to connect but receive a 502 (bad gateway) error, check the following:

The NetBox system process (gunicorn) is running: systemctl status netbox
nginx/Apache is configured to connect to the port on which gunicorn is listening (default is 8001).
SELinux is not preventing the reverse proxy connection. You may need to allow HTTP network connections with the command setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

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