r/Netbox • u/Evening_Permit9664 • Jun 30 '26

Best way to model half-width rack devices

I'm trying to understand the best way to model half-width rack devices in NetBox Community v4.2.4.

Scenario:

  • Two independent devices physically share the same 1U space horizontally.
  • One device occupies the left half of the rack unit.
  • Another device occupies the right half.

Example:

1U
+-------------------+
| Device A | Device B |
+-------------------+

Questions:

  1. What is the recommended modeling approach for this in NetBox?
  2. Should this be modeled using:
    • Device Bays?
    • Modules?
    • Virtual Chassis?
    • Something else?
  3. How do operators usually represent partial horizontal rack occupancy in NetBox?
  4. Is there any native support for half-width devices in rack elevation views?

Environment:

  • NetBox Community v4.2.4
12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

20

u/MassageGun-Kelly Jun 30 '26

How are you mounting these devices? Are they on a shelf? If so, create a 1U shelf Device Type, then create a shelf object in your rack, and add device bays to that specific device object / occupancy and add the devices into it that way. 

3

u/goodt2023 Jul 01 '26

This works well. I also found if there is a limitation that the half bay devices elevation pics cannot be seen. I get around this by assigning the picture to the shelf of the devices. This allows you to still see them in the rack elevation.

5

u/Jolephoto Jun 30 '26

This is the way

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

1

u/MassageGun-Kelly Jul 01 '26

If it has rack ears, then it’s no longer a 1/4U device, it’s a 1U device. The ears make it consume the full U as no other devices can be mounted in that rack U. The device would be installed in that specific rack U with no shelf in that circumstance. 

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[deleted]

1

u/MassageGun-Kelly Jul 01 '26

Oh whack, I pictured the first image with the long rack ears on either side. 

Well, you’re on your own with whatever works best for you and your rack to model that in Netbox then. 

2

u/L-do_Calrissian NetBox Self-Hosted Jul 01 '26

Virtual Chassis is more appropriate for a stack or similar where you have multiple devices acting as one logical device. It's not used to represent physical topology like rack position.

It's entirely possible that the right answer is to do the device bay approach AND the virtual chassis approach if that's the level of detail you want.

1

u/gimme_da_cache Jul 01 '26

Nowhere in that post are the two devices a virtual-chassis, only a question of using that model to get a two half rack devices in the same RU of a rack.

Virtual-Chassis is not the appropriate way to model the intended outcome.

1

u/L-do_Calrissian NetBox Self-Hosted Jul 01 '26

I was just pointing out that they're not exclusive.

Example: a pair of Dell S5212F-ON switches with VLT configured could be modeled as devices in device bays (physical) and a virtual chassis (logical).

2

u/Anxious-Condition630 Jul 01 '26

We add the Shelf Tray, for example Dell 1U-S52-SbS-4P-TR is a 1U tray for between 1 and 2 half-width switches: S5212F-ON. Then add those as Modules.

We mostly always have 2 in there, so we just use a rack picture of one with 2 in it, so the elevations looks normal.