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67 docs tagged with "Networking"

Network configuration and infrastructure concepts

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IP addressing is by nature hierarchical. The first few levels of the IPv4 hierarchy, for example, look like this:

AWS Direct Connect (Multi-Region)

Delivery via AWS Direct Connect in two regions, with replicated NetBoxes, Single (or Dual) Direct Connect in each region. Customer IP space (2 x /25's) is assigned for the VPCs. This is to host load balancers and proxies within the dedicated customer Account/VPC. Internally we will allocate a /27 per availability zone for each of the 3 availability zones.

AWS Private Link (Single Region)

Delivery via Private Link between a customer's existing AWS account and the NetBox Labs AWS account, with VPC endpoints using private IPs. This option has fast turn-up times and standard Internet delivery can optionally be disabled.

Cables

All connections between device components in NetBox are represented using cables. A cable represents a direct physical connection between two sets of endpoints (A and B), such as a console port and a patch panel port, or between two network interfaces. Cables may be connected to the following objects:

Circuit Terminations

Each circuit may have up to two terminations, designated A and Z. At either termination, a circuit may connect to a site, device interface (via a cable), or to a provider network.

Circuits

NetBox is ideal for managing your network's transit and peering providers and circuits. It provides all the flexibility needed to model physical circuits in both data center and enterprise environments, and allows for "connecting" circuits directly to device interfaces via cables.

Console Ports

A console port provides connectivity to the physical console of a device. These are typically used for temporary access by someone who is physically near the device, or for remote out-of-band access provided via a networked console server.

Console Server Ports

A console server is a device which provides remote access to the local consoles of connected devices. They are typically used to provide remote out-of-band access to network devices, and generally connect to console ports.

Custom Fields

NetBox administrators can extend NetBox's built-in data model by adding custom fields to most object types. See the custom fields documentation for more information.

Data Files

A data file object is the representation in NetBox's database of some file belonging to a remote data source. Data files are synchronized automatically, and cannot be modified locally (although they can be deleted).

Device Bays

Device bays represent a space or slot within a parent device in which a child device may be installed. For example, a 2U parent chassis might house four individual blade servers. The chassis would appear in the rack elevation as a 2U device with four device bays, and each server within it would be defined as a 0U device installed in one of the device bays. Child devices do not appear within rack elevations or count as consuming rack units.

Device Roles

Devices can be organized by functional roles, which are fully customizable by the user. For example, you might create roles for core switches, distribution switches, and access switches within your network.

Device Types

A device type represents a particular make and model of hardware that exists in the real world. Device types define the physical attributes of a device (rack height and depth) and its individual components (console, power, network interfaces, and so on).

Devices & Cabling

At its heart, NetBox is a tool for modeling your network infrastructure, and the device object is pivotal to that function. A device can be any piece of physical hardware installed within your network, such as server, router, or switch, and may optionally be mounted within a rack. Within each device, resources such as network interfaces and console ports are modeled as discrete components, which may optionally be grouped into modules.

Do I Need Cloud Connectivity Options?

Internet Delivery (Single Region) is the standard product offering for NetBox Cloud. It comes with extensive security features (see below) and is suitable for the majority of use cases and environments.

Facilities

From global regions down to individual equipment racks, NetBox allows you to model your network's entire presence. This is accomplished through the use of several purpose-built models. The graph below illustrates these models and their relationships.

FHRP Group

A first-hop redundancy protocol (FHRP) enables multiple physical interfaces to present a virtual IP address (VIP) in a redundant manner. Examples of such protocols include:

FHRP Group Assignments

Member device and VM interfaces can be assigned to FHRP groups to indicate their participation in maintaining a common virtual IP address (VIP). For instance, three interfaces, each belonging to a different router, may each be assigned to the same FHRP group to serve a shared VIP. Each of these assignments would typically receive a different priority.

HTTP Server Setup

This documentation provides example configurations for both nginx and Apache, though any HTTP server which supports WSGI should be compatible.

Interface Templates

A template for a network interface that will be created on all instantiations of the parent device type. See the interface documentation for more detail.

Internet Delivery (Single Region)

Internet Delivery (Single Region) is the standard product offering for NetBox Cloud. It comes with extensive security features (see below) and is suitable for the majority of use cases and environments:

Inventory Item Roles

Beginning in NetBox v4.3, the use of inventory items has been deprecated. They are planned for removal in a future NetBox release. Users are strongly encouraged to begin using modules and module types in place of inventory items. Modules provide enhanced functionality and can be configured with user-defined attributes.

Inventory Items

Beginning in NetBox v4.3, the use of inventory items has been deprecated. They are planned for removal in a future NetBox release. Users are strongly encouraged to begin using modules and module types in place of inventory items. Modules provide enhanced functionality and can be configured with user-defined attributes.

IP Ranges

This model represents an arbitrary range of individual IPv4 or IPv6 addresses, inclusive of its starting and ending addresses. For instance, the range 192.0.2.10 to 192.0.2.20 has eleven members. (The total member count is available as the size property on an IPRange instance.) Like prefixes and IP addresses, each IP range may optionally be assigned to a VRF.

IPSEC VPN Tunnels (Single Region)

In this solution NetBox Cloud is securely delivered over an IPSEC VPN. You have single or dual tunnel options, and use a static route or the preferred option of BGP routing. Customer IP space (/24 or /25) is assigned for the VPC as this is required to host load balancers and proxies within the dedicated customer Account/VPC.

L2VPN

A L2VPN object is NetBox is a representation of a layer 2 bridge technology such as VXLAN, VPLS, or EPL. Each L2VPN can be identified by name as well as by an optional unique identifier (VNI would be an example). Once created, L2VPNs can be terminated to interfaces and VLANs.

L2VPN & Overlay

L2VPN and overlay networks, such as VXLAN and EVPN, can be defined in NetBox and tied to interfaces and VLANs. This allows for easy tracking of overlay assets and their relationships with underlay resources.

L2VPN Termination

A L2VPN termination is the attachment of an L2VPN to an interface or VLAN. Note that the L2VPNs of the following types may have only two terminations assigned to them:

MAC Addresses

A MAC address object in NetBox comprises a single Ethernet link layer address, and represents a MAC address as reported by or assigned to a network interface. MAC addresses can be assigned to device and virtual machine interfaces. A MAC address can be specified as the primary MAC address for a given device or VM interface.

Module Types

A module type represents a specific make and model of hardware component which is installable within a device's module bay and has its own child components. For example, consider a chassis-based switch or router with a number of field-replaceable line cards. Each line card has its own model number and includes a certain set of components such as interfaces. Each module type may have a manufacturer, model number, and part number assigned to it.

NetBox Cloud Hostnames

1. From within the NetBox Labs Console click on Settings and then Hostnames Manager in the left-hand main menu to view the settings for your Organization:

Platforms

A platform defines the type of software running on a device or virtual machine. This can be helpful to model when it is necessary to distinguish between different versions or feature sets. Note that two devices of the same type may be assigned different platforms: For example, one Juniper MX240 might run Junos 14 while another runs Junos 15.

Prefix Lists

You can secure access to your NetBox Cloud instance by adding IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and ranges to Prefix Lists, which can then be applied to NetBox instances to control which source IPs your instances will accept connections from.

Prefix/VLAN Roles

A role indicates the function of a prefix or VLAN. For example, you might define Data, Voice, and Security roles. Generally, a prefix will be assigned the same functional role as the VLAN to which it is assigned (if any).

Prefixes

A prefix is an IPv4 or IPv6 network and mask expressed in CIDR notation (e.g. 192.0.2.0/24). A prefix entails only the "network portion" of an IP address: All bits in the address not covered by the mask must be zero. (In other words, a prefix cannot be a specific IP address.) Prefixes are automatically organized by their parent aggregate and assigned VRF.

Provider Networks

This model can be used to represent the boundary of a provider network, the details of which are unknown or unimportant to the NetBox user. For example, it might represent a provider's regional MPLS network to which multiple circuits provide connectivity.

Providers

A provider is any entity which provides some form of connectivity of among sites or organizations within a site. While this obviously includes carriers which offer Internet and private transit service, it might also include Internet exchange (IX) points and even organizations with whom you peer directly. Each circuit within NetBox must be assigned a provider and a circuit ID which is unique to that provider.

REST API

Plugins can declare custom endpoints on NetBox's REST API to retrieve or manipulate models or other data. These behave very similarly to views, except that instead of rendering arbitrary content using a template, data is returned in JSON format using a serializer.

Route Targets

A route target is a particular type of extended BGP community used to control the redistribution of routes among VRF tables in a network. Route targets can be assigned to individual VRFs in NetBox as import or export targets (or both) to model this exchange in an L3VPN. Each route target must be given a unique name, which should be in a format prescribed by RFC 4364, similar to a VR route distinguisher.

Services

A service represents a layer seven application available on a device or virtual machine. For example, a service might be created in NetBox to represent an HTTP server running on TCP/8000. Each service may optionally be further bound to one or more specific interfaces assigned to the selected device or virtual machine.

Sites

How you choose to employ sites when modeling your network may vary depending on the nature of your organization, but generally a site will equate to a building or campus. For example, a chain of banks might create a site to represent each of its branches, a site for its corporate headquarters, and two additional sites for its presence in two colocation facilities.

Tunnel Group

Tunnels can be arranged into administrative groups for organization. For example, you might crete a group to manage all peer-to-peer tunnels inside a mesh network. The assignment of a tunnel to a group is optional.

Tunnel Terminations

A tunnel termination connects a device or virtual machine interface to a tunnel. The tunnel must be created before any terminations may be added.

Tunnels

NetBox can model private tunnels formed among virtual termination points across your network. Typical tunnel implementations include GRE, IP-in-IP, and IPSec. A tunnel may be terminated to two or more device or virtual machine interfaces. For convenient organization, tunnels may be assigned to user-defined groups.

Tunnels

A tunnel represents a private virtual connection established among two or more endpoints across a shared infrastructure by employing protocol encapsulation. Common encapsulation techniques include Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE), IP-in-IP, and IPSec. NetBox supports modeling both peer-to-peer and hub-and-spoke tunnel topologies.

uWSGI

This page provides instructions for setting up the uWSGI WSGI server. If you plan to use gunicorn instead, go here.

Virtual Chassis

A virtual chassis represents a set of devices which share a common control plane. A common example of this is a stack of switches which are connected and configured to operate as a single managed device. Each device in the virtual chassis is referred to as a VC member, and assigned a position and (optionally) a priority. VC member devices commonly reside within the same rack, though this is not a requirement.

Virtual Circuits

A virtual circuit can connect two or more interfaces atop a set of decoupled physical connections. For example, it's very common to form a virtual connection between two virtual interfaces, each of which is bound to a physical interface on its respective device and physically connected to a provider network via an independent physical circuit.

Virtual Device Context

A virtual device context (VDC) represents a logical partition within a physical device, to which interfaces from the parent device can be allocated. Each VDC effectively provides an isolated control plane, but relies on shared resources of the parent device. A VDC is somewhat similar to a virtual machine in that it effects isolation between various components, but stops short of delivering a fully virtualized environment.

Virtual Machines

A virtual machine (VM) represents a virtual compute instance hosted within a cluster. Each VM must be assigned to a site and/or cluster, and may optionally be assigned to a particular host device within a cluster.

Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF)

A VRF object in NetBox represents a Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) domain. Each VRF is essentially an independent routing table. VRFs are commonly used to isolate customers or organizations from one another within a network, or to route overlapping address space (e.g. multiple instances of the 10.0.0.0/8 space). Each VRF may be assigned to a specific tenant to aid in organizing the available IP space by customer or internal user.

Virtualization

Virtual machines and clusters can be modeled in NetBox alongside physical infrastructure. IP addresses and other resources are assigned to these objects just like physical objects, providing a seamless integration between physical and virtual networks.

VLAN Groups

VLAN groups can be used to organize VLANs within NetBox. Each VLAN group can be scoped to a particular region, site group, site, location, rack, cluster group, or cluster. Member VLANs will be available for assignment to devices and/or virtual machines within the specified scope.

VLAN Translation Policies

VLAN translation is a feature that consists of VLAN translation policies and VLAN translation rules. Many rules can belong to a policy, and each rule defines a mapping of a local to remote VLAN ID (VID). A policy can then be assigned to an Interface or VMInterface, and all VLAN translation rules associated with that policy will be visible in the interface details.

VLAN Translation Rules

A VLAN translation rule represents a one-to-one mapping of a local VLAN ID (VID) to a remote VID. Many rules can belong to a single policy.

VLANs

A Virtual LAN (VLAN) represents an isolated layer two domain, identified by a name and a numeric ID (1-4094) as defined in IEEE 802.1Q. VLANs are arranged into VLAN groups to define scope and to enforce uniqueness.

Which Cloud Connectivity Option is Right for Me?

In many cases where cloud connectivity options seem necessary, NetBox Cloud offers features that can address your needs without additional setup. In the majority of cases Internet Delivery (Single Region) is the most appropriate connectivity option, but there are some general recommendations depending on your use case:

Wireless

Just as NetBox provides robust modeling for physical cable plants, it also supports modeling wireless LANs and point-to-point links.

Wireless Links

A wireless link represents a connection between exactly two wireless interfaces. Unlike a wireless LAN, which permit an arbitrary number of client associations, wireless links are used to model point-to-point wireless connections.