NetBox admin Superuser Account

This document covers the importance of the NetBox environment's admin account to the platform and how to manage it. It is only applicable to NetBox Labs platform Admins.

Every NetBox Cloud environment ships with a superuser account named admin. Your environment can have other superuser accounts, created by you; this page is only about admin, which the NetBox Labs platform signs in as to read your NetBox user list. Features such as unified user management and user mapping depend on it, so treat it as a service account, not as a login for a person.

The account comes preconfigured with every NetBox environment. You do not have to create it.

Expected state

The account needs no groups or object permissions for the platform to work.

How you know something is wrong

When the platform cannot access one of your NetBox environments using the admin account, the Settings > Users and Settings > User mapping pages in the NetBox Labs platform will show a warning banner naming that environment and providing a description of the problem. Until you resolve the problem, platform users cannot be linked to NetBox users in that environment.

Each banner has a Manage users button that opens that instance's NetBox user list, so you can make the needed updates to resolve the problem.

Restore the admin account

To make the needed changes to the environment's admin account, you will need another NetBox account with superuser status on the instance. If you do not have one, contact the NetBox Labs Support Team.

Identify which scenario below is most appropriate, and follow the instructions:

The admin account exists, but is deactivated or is no longer a superuser

1. Log in to the NetBox instance as another superuser.
2. Go to Admin > Users and open admin.
3. Click Edit, check Active and Superuser status, and save.

The admin account was deleted or renamed

To restore the admin account:

1. Log in to the NetBox instance as another superuser.
2. Go to Admin > Users.
3. Click Add. Set the username to admin, enter any strong password, check Active and Superuser status, and save.
4. NetBox Cloud replaces the admin password with a random value on the next restart.

If you renamed the admin account rather than deleting it, the renamed account keeps its superuser status after the new admin is created. If you don't need the renamed superuser account, you can remove it or demote it.

Keep the account healthy

• Do not delete, deactivate, rename, or demote admin.
• Do not use admin for day-to-day work.
• Ensure your SSO provider does not manage the admin account.