NetBox Inventory Plugin

A Netbox plugin for hardware inventory.

Features

Keep track of your hardware, whether it is installed or in storage. You can define assets that represent hardware that can be used as a device, module, inventory item or rack in NetBox.

Each asset can have a storage location defined, when not in use. You can assign an asset to a device, module or inventory item. The plugin can keep serial number and asset tag between asset and device, module, inventory item or rack in sync if enabled in settings.

On Site and Location detail views there is a new tab Assets that can show assets that are stored or installed at that location or both. Rack details view also has a tab for installed Assets. This provides a unified view of all assets at a given location.

To properly support inventory items (that are used in NetBox to model SFP and similar modules) the plugin defines inventory item types that are equivalent to device types and module types.

Inventory item types can be assigned into inventory item groups. On a group detail view you have an overview of the number of contained assets broken down by asset status or inventory item type and status. This way you can quickly see how many of a certain type of hardware you still have spare.

Inventory item groups can be nested, so you can for example model all pluggables as one top-level group with child groups for SFP+ modules, SFP28 modules and so on.

Automatic management of asset status

Each asset has a status attribute that can indicate use of the asset. These statuses can be set as needed by each NetBox installation.

Two statuses can have a special meaning. One to indicate asset is in storage and one to indicate asset is in use.

netbox_inventory can automatically set status to the value specified in used_status_name configuration item when an asset is assigned to a device, module or inventory item.

When you remove an asset from device, module or inventory item the plugin will set asset status to stored_status_name configuration item.

To disable automatically changing status, set these two config parameters to None.

Prevent unwanted changes for tagged assets

With asset_disable_editing_fields_for_tags and asset_disable_deletion_for_tags you can prevent changes to specified asset data for assets that have certain tags attached. Changes are only prevented via web interface. API modifications are allowed.

The idea is that an external system uses some assets stored in netbox_inventory, and you want to prevent accidental changes to data directly in NetBox web interface. Only that external system should modify the data.

Compatibility

This plugin requires netbox version 4.1 to work. Older versions of the plugin support older netbox version as per table below:

NetBox Version	Plugin Version
3.7	1.6.x
4.0	2.0.x
4.1	2.1.x,2.2.x

Installing

Review official Netbox plugin documentation for installation instructions.

You install the plugin from pypi with pip. Make sure you activate Netbox's virtual environment first:

$ source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
(venv) $ pip install netbox-inventory

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

You can install a development version directly from GitHub:

pip install https://github.com/ArnesSI/netbox-inventory/archive/master.tar.gz

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

https://github.com/ArnesSI/netbox-inventory/archive/master.tar.gz

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

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_inventory'
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_inventory": {},
}

Available configuration settings you can use in PLUGINS_CONFIG are described below under settings.

The last step is to apply database migrations and update netbox search index:

(venv) $ cd /opt/netbox/netbox/
(venv) $ python3 manage.py migrate
(venv) $ python3 manage.py reindex --lazy

If you're running under netbox-docker, you can skip this as migrations and index updates are applied if needed automatically when you bring up the containers.

Settings

If you want to override the defaults for the plugin, you can do so in your via /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py, or if you use netbox-docker, your /configuration/plugins.py file :

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_inventory'
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_inventory": {
        # Example settings below, see "Available settings"
        # in README.md for all possible settings
        "used_status_name": "used",
        "stored_status_name": "stored",
        "sync_hardware_serial_asset_tag": True,
    },
}

Available settings

Setting	Default value	Description
top_level_menu	True	Add netbox-inventory to the top level of netbox navigation menu under Inventory heading. If set to False the plugin will add a menu item under the Plugins menu item.
used_status_name	'used'	Status that indicates asset is in use. See "Automatic management of asset status" below for more info on this setting.
used_additional_status_names	[] (empty list)	List of statuses that are also considered as in use.
stored_status_name	'stored'	Status that indicates asset is in storage. See "Automatic management of asset status" below for more info on this setting.
stored_additional_status_names	['retired',]	List of statuses that are also considered as not in use by various filters.
sync_hardware_serial_asset_tag	False	When an asset is assigned or unassigned to a device, module or inventory item, update its serial number and asset tag to be in sync with the asset? For device and module device type or module type is also updated to match asset. For inventory items, manufacturer and part ID are updated to match asset.
asset_import_create_purchase	False	When importing assets, automatically create any given purchase, delivery or supplier if it doesn't exist already
asset_import_create_device_type	False	When importing a device type asset, automatically create manufacturer and/or device type if it doesn't exist
asset_import_create_module_type	False	When importing a module type asset, automatically create manufacturer and/or module type if it doesn't exist
asset_import_create_inventoryitem_type	False	When importing an inventory type asset, automatically create manufacturer and/or inventory item type if it doesn't exist
asset_import_create_rack_type	False	When importing a rack type asset, automatically create manufacturer and/or rack type if it doesn't exist
asset_import_create_tenant	False	When importing an asset, with owner or tenant, automatically create tenant if it doesn't exist
asset_disable_editing_fields_for_tags	{}	A dictionary of tags and fields that should be disabled for editing. This is useful if you want to prevent editing of certain fields for certain assets. The dictionary is in the form of {tag: [field1, field2]}. Example: {'no-edit': ['serial_number', 'asset_tag']}. This only affects the UI, the API can still be used to edit the fields.
asset_disable_deletion_for_tags	[]	List of tags that will disable deletion of assets. This only affects the UI, not the API.
asset_custom_fields_search_filters	{}	A dictionary of custom fields and lookup types that will be added to the search filters for assets. The dictionary is in the form of {field: [lookup_type]}. Example: {'asset_mac': ['icontains', 'exact']}.
asset_warranty_expire_warning_days	90	Days from warranty expiration to show as warning in Warranty remaining field
prefill_asset_name_create_inventoryitem	False	When hardware inventory item is created from an asset, prefill the InventoryItem name to match the asset name.
prefill_asset_tag_create_inventoryitem	False	When hardware inventory item is created from an asset, prefill the tags to match the tags associated to the asset.

You can extend or define your own status choices for Asset, via FIELD_CHOICES setting in Netbox:

FIELD_CHOICES = {
    'netbox_inventory.Asset.status+': (
        ('repair', 'In repair', 'orange'),
    ),
}

If you add more statuses, you should also adjust used_additional_status_names and stored_additional_status_names settings.

Common questions

I'd like to attach documents to asset, purchase, supplier, etc

Netbox inventory supports limited file attachments for its various models. You can add images to assets, inventory item types and that is it.

If you would like to attach various other documents to purchases, deliveries, suppliers... first ask yourself if you really need those documents in netbox or could you use some other tool that is possibly in use in your organization. Netbox itself is not great at managing documents. If you decide to manage documents outside netbox, you can porobably still achieve some sort of integration by using custom links feature to link from a netbox inventory object directly to a document in your document system.

If you really want to store document in netbox itself, then consider using netbox_attachments plugin. Here is a sample netbox configuration that will allow adding documents to suppliers, purchases and deliveries:

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_inventory',
    'netbox_attachments',
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    'netbox_attachments': {
        'apps': ['netbox_inventory',],
        'display_setting': {
            "netbox_inventory.supplier": "left_page",
            "netbox_inventory.purchase": "full_width_page",
            "netbox_inventory.delivery": "righ_page",
            "netbox_inventory.asset": "hidden",
            "netbox_inventory.inventoryitemtype": "hidden",
            "netbox_inventory.inventoryitemgroup": "hidden",
        },
    },
}

Here is what it looks like when viewing a purchase:

Models

Current plugin data model:

Screenshots

Asset - List View

Asset - Individual View

Asset - Edit / Add View

Asset - Lots of filtering options

Suppliers - Individual View

Inventory Item Type - List View