NetBox’s comprehensive and cohesive data model is a superpower for getting network documentation and automation right, but getting data into it accurately and efficiently can be challenging. We’ve heard this feedback from across our community, from new users just getting started as well as advanced longtime users, and decided earlier this year to make the investment in making it easier to ingest data into NetBox. This effort, codenamed Project Diode, is now ready for testing and feedback as part of a Private Preview program.
A few weeks ago we provided a technical preview of Diode. This new NetBox ingestion service is designed to redefine how data is collected, processed and ultimately fed into NetBox at scale, transforming a complex undertaking into a straightforward task. We expect Diode will deepen NetBox’s role as a network source of truth for modern network automation architectures by dramatically lowering the complexity in connecting external data sources with NetBox’s data model.
We made some significant advances in Diode since our preview walkthrough discussed in this earlier post. Here are some highlights we wanted to share:
- We’ve extended the supported NetBox object type models to support the most common DCIM use cases: devices, interfaces, device types, platforms, manufacturers, sites, IP prefixes and IP addresses
- We’ve extended the list of attributes of supported NetBox object types
- We’ve further flattened the inbound data model, making it easier to map data into the Diode client SDK
Get Access to the Diode Private Preview
We’re excited to announce that Diode is now ready for Private Preview. We are seeking interested NetBox users who can commit time to testing Diode in a controlled lab environment and provide feedback on its usability and features. Participants should have basic Python (or Go) programming skills to enable them to understand the provided example scripts and test the Diode SDK with their own sample data. Participants in the Private Preview will get hands-on experience with Diode and feedback will be used to determine future development work.Those in the program will benefit from one-on-one guidance on the use of the new ingestion service, an early look at this high impact new feature, and the opportunity to provide valuable feedback as we ready Diode for general availability.
To ensure we can provide adequate guidance and support to all participants, we unfortunately need to limit the number of available spaces. If you’re interested, please contact us at product@netboxlabs.com and provide us with your name, your company, title, and brief description of your use cases for simplified NetBox data ingestion. We’re excited to hear from you and you can expect us to follow up quickly.
Next Steps for Diode
Diode is on track for general availability later this year. We expect to make Diode’s client SDKs and server-side ingestion service available to all NetBox users across open source, NetBox Enterprise, and NetBox Cloud. And we’re just at the start of our plans for Diode: stay tuned as we announce many more upcoming capabilities, including data reconciliation workflows to streamline and accelerate management of your network data. And please contact us if you’d like to experience firsthand how Diode can transform how you integrate NetBox into your network automation stack.
