We’re excited to announce the beta release of NetBox 4.2! This release marks another step forward in our mission to create world class software for network automation and infrastructure management. With new features, improvements, and a focus on stability, NetBox 4.2 is ready for your feedback.
What’s Coming in NetBox 4.2?
One of our goals in NetBox 4.2 was to engage the service provider community and address use cases we’ve been hearing about more given the increasingly wide deployment of NetBox into ISP, telco, and similar footprints. We’re very thankful for the feedback and engagement of the SP working group we gathered early in the 4.2 release cycle, and the input from that group guided our focus on several significant modeling features:
VLAN Translation: Users can now define policies which track the translation of VLAN IDs on IEEE 802.1Q-encapsulated interfaces. Translation policies can be reused across multiple interfaces, making VLAN management more efficient.
Virtual Circuits: New models have been introduced to support the documentation of virtual circuits as an extension to the physical circuit modeling already supported. This enables users to accurately reflect point-to-point or multipoint virtual circuits atop infrastructure comprising physical circuits and cables.
Q-in-Q Encapsulation: NetBox now supports the designation of customer VLANs (CVLANs) and service VLANs (SVLANs) to support IEEE 802.1ad/Q-in-Q encapsulation. Each interface can now have its mode designated as “Q-in-Q” and be assigned an SVLAN.
Outside the service provider focus, there were a couple additional significant features introduced in NetBox 4.2:
Assign Multiple MAC Addresses per Interface: MAC addresses are now managed as independent objects, rather than attributes on device and VM interfaces. NetBox now supports the assignment of multiple MAC addresses per interface, and allows a primary MAC address to be designated for each.
Quick Add UI Widget: A new UI widget has been introduced to enable conveniently creating new related objects while creating or editing an object. For instance, it is now possible to create and assign a new device role when creating or editing a device from within the device form.
And as always, there were dozens of smaller fixes and improvements delivered in NetBox 4.2 as well.
How You Can Help
The beta release is your opportunity to get involved and help shape NetBox 4.2 before General Availability, currently planned for late December. Your feedback is crucial to us. By testing the beta, you can help identify issues, suggest improvements, and contribute to making NetBox even better.
Want to get your hands on the 4.2 beta release? Head to the NetBox community GitHub repository and follow the installation instructions to try it out. Found a bug or encountered any issues? Please report them via GitHub, and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts on the NetBox community Slack.
Looking Ahead
Our goal with each new release is to make NetBox the most powerful, flexible, and reliable platform to support you on your network and infrastructure management and automation journey. NetBox 4.2 is packed with features inspired by community feedback, and we’re eager to hear your thoughts. Thank you to all our contributors and users who make NetBox what it is today. Your support drives our progress.
Happy testing!
