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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.

If you have special connectivity needs, there are several options available. However, in many cases where cloud connectivity options seem necessary, NetBox Cloud offers features that can address your needs without additional setup cost. This guide explores some of those features.

NetBox Cloud Security Features

Security and convenience are always in focus in the NetBox Cloud Platform and we understand that with any application, getting the balance right between security and convenience is crucial. At NetBox Labs, we believe that you shouldn’t have to compromise in either area. Just a few of the Security features the NetBox Cloud platform offers are:

Read more about all of these features in this blog or watch an on-demand webinar to learn how these NetBox Cloud features are designed to make the lives of the network team easier, whilst at the same time enhancing the security of NetBox Cloud.

CRUD (Create/Update/Delete) Access to the NetBox Data Model via REST and GraphQL API

Out of the box NetBox Cloud allows you to programmatically interact with the NetBox Database to perform CRUD operations. This can be via the REST API or GraphQL interface.

REST API

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It's a particular type of API which employs HTTP requests and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to facilitate create, retrieve, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on objects within an application.

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To read more about how to get started with the REST API, check out the NetBox docs or this video from the NetBox Zero to Hero training course.

GraphQL API

NetBox provides a read-only GraphQL API to complement its REST API. This API is powered by Strawberry Django. GraphQL enables the client to specify an arbitrary nested list of fields to include in the response. All queries are made to the root /graphql API endpoint.

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To read more about how to get started with the GraphQL API, check out the NetBox docs.

Streaming Change Events with Webhooks and Event Streams

Events in NetBox can trigger calls to other systems with Webhooks, or other systems can subscribe to Event Streams, and in either case this can trigger other systems to take action based on the event.

NetBox Webhooks

NetBox can be configured via Event Rules to transmit outgoing webhooks to remote systems in response to internal object changes. The receiver can act on the data in these webhook messages to perform related tasks.

For example, suppose you want to automatically configure a monitoring system to start monitoring a device when its operational status is changed to active, and remove it from monitoring for any other status. You can create a webhook in NetBox for the device model and craft its content and destination URL to effect the desired change on the receiving system. Webhooks will be sent automatically by NetBox whenever the configured constraints are met.

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To read more about how to get started with the Webhooks, check out the NetBox docs.

NetBox Event Streams

NetBox Event Streams unlock event-driven architectures by enabling teams to easily subscribe to network state and management events from the NetBox Cloud Platform, feeding events to other systems or triggering automations. This capability spans various types of events, from operational updates like the addition of new devices, to security-oriented alerts such as unauthorized access attempts.

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To learn more about NetBox Event Streams you can sign up for an on-demand webinar or read our blog about how NetBox Event Streams integrated with SIEM tools like Splunk Enterprise and ElasticSearch, is setting a new standard for how networks are managed and secured.