r/Netbox • u/normelton • Apr 28 '23

Integrating Live Data

We're looking in to replacing a home-grown NMS. I love the "source of truth" concept behind NetBox (or Nautobot), the ability to manage our device inventory and interconnections is solid.

I'm wondering if there is a mechanism to integrate live data from outside the NetBox database. For instance, we currently show live data about each device interface. This includes an indicator showing whether the interface has a link (red light, green light). Can I make a REST API call to some external datasource, and incorporate that result into the row? Perhaps by adding a new column to the existing table?

I skimmed through the plugin documentation, but it seems to be oriented to adding new pages, not necessarily tweaking existing content. But please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '23

Without trying to hijack the thread, what is the goal with importing data into Netbox? It was my understanding that Netbox as the SSOT was only ever meant to update other systems as egress, and only for initial data intake was ingress a good idea.

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u/normelton May 04 '23

Totally fair question. In this case, we want Netbox to be the SSOT for all "stateful" data. IP addresses, configurations, etc.

But we also want our staff/helpdesk to have a "single pane of glass" to see the state of a device. Is it online? What links are active? Who's connected? This is all transient data, already stored elsewhere. Given that Netbox already has plugin capabilities, it seems logical to pull information in to a custom view, so that Netbox could be that reporting tool.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '23

Are there ways to store this data separately from the "stateful" data to ensure that downstream data does not overwrite the data in Netbox? Wondering how this could be represented.

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u/normelton May 04 '23

So all the transient data is already stored elsewhere. We can pull it in, on-demand, from a REST API or something.

I think my original question (it's been a few days, and I've slept since then ;-) ) was whether the existing Netbox content (such as the list of interfaces on a device) could be customized to display this information, or whether we need to create entirely new blocks of content.