NetBox serves as a core tool in an organization’s network management stack, and as the number of operators and tools interacting with NetBox increases it becomes critical to be able to control the flow of the data into and out of the system. It has been challenging for teams to manage all this change in an intuitive, automatable and auditable manner.
NetBox Branching allows users or processes to create their own copies, or branches, of their NetBox data where they can work on projects in isolation from the main database without interfering with other people’s work, or with other processes that are external to NetBox. Once they are happy with their work they can use the NetBox Branching merge process to safely land their changes back into NetBox. NetBox Branching also makes it significantly easier to tie NetBox into your existing change management processes, as you can now create a branch for each change ticket, creating a simple trail of work that can be used for collaboration and auditing.
NetBox Branching is one of two big new feature families unlocked by NetBox 4.1, in addition to the many features and enhancements now available in the 4.1 beta released last week. The second is NetBox Change Management which adds additional review and approval workflows and we’ll be sharing more about that in the coming weeks.
Recapping the NetBox Branching Private Preview
It’s been a little over a month since we opened up the private preview for NetBox Branching and Change Management. We’re extremely grateful to the private preview participants for the deep testing they performed which not only helped us to find bugs and improve functionality, but also highlighted that this new functionality is applicable to a lot more use cases that we’d originally thought.
NetBox Branching will be transformational for companies of all shapes and sizes and today we’re pleased to announce that NetBox Branching is moving into Public Preview, meaning that everyone can try it out and give us their feedback. Excitingly the private preview participants are a little ahead of the pack and have already started working on a number of exciting integrations and ideas that we look forward to sharing with you all in the near future.
Getting started with NetBox Branching today
In no small part due to the efforts of the private preview participants we’re confident that NetBox Branching is useful as-is today, but as you’ll see on the GitHub repo we already have a list of enhancements we’re working through and we look forward to other ideas from the community before Branching moves to GA in September, and then beyond.
As of today NetBox Branching is available as a NetBox plugin on GitHub. You will need to test it against the NetBox 4.1 beta which brings its own list of exciting new features. Here’s how to get going:
- Install the NetBox 4.1 beta
- Install the NetBox Branching plugin
- Get familiar with the branching documentation
- Join the conversation in the NetDev Slack – join #netbox
- Found a bug or have a feature request? We’d love you to participate via the GitHub project – in general, the NetBox contribution guidelines apply to Branching as well, so please give those a glance first. If unsure, start with a Discussion.
NetBox Branching works using the existing NetBox stack, it is not necessary to use any new databases or additional tooling.
What’s next for Branching and Change Management?
- Take a look at the existing open issues to get a sense of what we’re working on next
- Once the interfaces for NetBox Branching have settled we’ll start looking at adding support for our integrations and SDKs
- If you’re a NetBox plugin maintainer, we’ll be running invite-only informational sessions over the next couple of weeks with insights into how you could take advantage of Branching in your plugins. Keep an eye on your inbox for an email about those.
You can expect to hear lots more about branching in early September as Branching moves to GA. There’s also more news to come in the following weeks around NetBox Change Management which also received a huge amount of positive feedback in the Private Preview.
NetBox Branching will be available in all editions of NetBox – including NetBox Enterprise and NetBox Cloud – when we move to GA in September.
Join the NetBox Labs mailing list to make sure you don’t miss out on any updates and we look forward to your feedback.
