NSO and Netbox

[jens-petter]

Hi.

I have tried to use the netbox plugin (i guess unofficial) with nso (5.8) to import my devices
I am able to get this working, but I am encountering one little hickup, and wonder if somebody
have a workaround, have tweaked the python code or any other solution

I am using netconf NED to communicate with our equipment.
But, it does not seems that this plugin is supporting netconf, only http, https, telnet and ssh when the device is created in NSO
So, when the import is running:

admin@ncs# netbox-inventory FETCH-DEVICES build-inventory commit true
output # Adding Devices to NSO from NetBox inventory.
devices:
- device: S12341234
address: 14.1.14.1
port: 22
description: mobile-csr
auth-group: CSR-AUTH
device-type:
generic:
ned-id: cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
protocol: ssh
state: unlocked
source:
context: {"web": "http://79.161.80.21:8000/dcim/devices/5/", "api": "http://79.161.80.21:8000/api/dcim/devices/5/"}
when: 2022-11-29T12:41:47
source: /nso-netbox:netbox-inventory{FETCH-DEVICES}
device-groups:
- NetBoxInventory FETCH-DEVICES
- NetBoxInventory FETCH-DEVICES NCS540
- NetBoxInventory FETCH-DEVICES mobile-csr
- NetBoxInventory FETCH-DEVICES ICE

port 22 is added to the setup, and I have to run the command to attach netconf NED again.
Now, this is not feasible as I am to import 8000 hosts.

using postman, I am able to do this fine

{

   "tailf-ncs:device":[

      {

         "name":"xr0",

         "address":"127.0.0.1",

         "port":"12022",

         "ssh":{

            "host-key-verification":"none"

         },

         "authgroup":"CSR-AUTH",

         "device-type":{

            "netconf":{

               "ned-id":"cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6:cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6"

            }

         },

         "state":{

            "admin-state":"unlocked"

         }

      }

   ]

}
so, i guess it should be possible to configure this with a script. Problem, I am not that good of a developer to make that script, and not even to tweak the netbox plugin python code

Anybody that has encountered this and solved it (the netbox plugin thing)?

Jens

[hniska]

Not sure if hpreston (the creator of the code in question) reads the NSO Developer Hub, its probably easier to contact him on github directly. 

If you want to take a stab at it yourself you can find the specific code that contains the "protocol" part here 

https://github.com/hpreston/nso-netbox/blob/master/python/nso_netbox/netbox_inventory_actions.py

Check line 22. 

# Constancs and Values for use
	PROTOCOL_PORTS = {
	"ssh": 22,
	"telnet": 23,
	"http": 80,
	"https": 443,
	}

[hniska]

ohh and also in the nso-netbox.yang 

https://github.com/hpreston/nso-netbox/blob/master/src/yang/nso-netbox.yang

Line 116

leaf connection-protocol {
tailf:info "The type of connection protocol to connect to the device with.";
type enumeration {
enum ssh;
enum telnet;
enum http;
enum https;
}
default ssh;
}

[hniska]

Did a quick hack to add netconf as a device-type, also did an unsafe change to disregard the ssl cert. When I have time Ill try to fix it in a better way (the certificate). You can find my changes in my fork https://github.com/hniska/nso-netbox

[jens-petter · Accepted solution]

Hi, I testet the code change and the device seems to be imported correctly now with regards to the Netconf NED.

However, the plugin are putting the device in four different groups. Not sure why yet. I did not define any group, so it seems that it is created one group for "tentant, one for Device-Type, one for "Role" and one for "Customer" from Netbox. I guess that is ok, but I would have prefered to define what NSO group I want to add this to.  I can have a look at it
Possible completions:
Name for this set of devices. VI-METRO3
which is the 

admin@ncs# show devices device-group
NAME MEMBER INDETERMINATES CRITICALS MAJORS MINORS WARNINGS ID
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALL [ S4000TEST-CSR1-CSR1 ] 0 0 1 0 0 cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
cisco-iosxr-cli-7.43
NetBoxInventory VI-METRO3 [ S4000TEST-CSR1 ] 0 0 0 0 0 cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
NetBoxInventory VI-METRO3 ICE [ S4000TEST-CSR1 ] 0 0 0 0 0 cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
NetBoxInventory VI-METRO3 NCS540 [ S4000TEST-CSR1 ] 0 0 0 0 0 cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
NetBoxInventory VI-METRO3 mobile-csr [ S4000TEST-CSR1 ] 0 0 0 0 0 cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6

Anyhow, thanks for the help, below is the imported device:
admin@ncs(config)# show full-configuration devices device S4000TEST-CSR1
devices device S4000TEST-CSR1
address 10.10.10.11
ssh host-key ssh-ed25519
key-data xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
!
ssh host-key-verification none
authgroup CSR-AUTH
device-type netconf ned-id cisco-iosxr-nc-7.6
state admin-state unlocked

[hniska]

According to the nso-netbox documentation i

https://github.com/hpreston/nso-netbox

4. In addition to adding the devices that match the inventory, several device-groups are created for the inventory. There will be groups for:

• The entire netbox-inventory instance
• The device-types of each device
• The device-roles for each device
• THe tenants for each device

Note: even if the attributes are NOT used as filters in the inventory, the groups are still created

For a quick fix to disable the group adding you can just remove the template.apply(add-device-group)

[jens-petter]

I want to use NetBox activ as a inventory for my RFS services… 

When operator are creating a new device for core equipment, I want the service to locate in netbox, available linecard, interface, and interface type that are available for this specific device.

so operator x are setting up a new PE.

This is pre defined in netbox with a specific set of interfaces (device is not setup physicaly at this point, I want the device to be prepared for services beforehand). I suppose, I want to preload the hardware in to NSO as an inventory with all interfaces prepared.

usecase: is to preapere a device for device swap from one model to another.

don’t know if this make sense, but I wanted to get some feedback on this.

what would be a good approaches to start with?