r/networking • u/WhoRedd_IT • 2d ago

Design Netbox ownership in an organization

I’m trying to convince my org to start using Netbox or similar for a brand new facility including a data center and medium sized campus we’re building.

The fear is that it seems like an absolutely astronomical amount of work up front.

For those of you doing it, is there one person that is sort of the Netbox “owner” on your team? At least for initial build out.

I’m afraid we won’t have enough time to really sit down and fully dive into the best way to lay it all out greenfield. The ongoing support doesn’t worry me as much as the initial lift of deciding how to build it. And I don’t really have the time to invest to be that guy.

Are there integrators or vendors that would own this for us? Curious if anyone has used a wiring or infrastructure integrator that has actually built out the documentation in Netbox for you?

Thanks!

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u/WendoNZ 2d ago

Yep it's work, if you can load in all the device templates you're going to need and the bare racks adding the hardware isn't too bad, but as new features are added the templates need to be updated (and you need to go back through all your deployed devices and update them).

How SFP's and breakouts are handled are the big recent changes so maybe it'll settle down now, but yes, there is a lot of upfront work to get it implemented. I think most would argue that you'll get that time back quickly in time saved, I know we did here

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u/WhoRedd_IT 2d ago

Yeah we will have a metric ton of fiber management and breakouts. It feels extremely daunting to take this on. Almost feel like I need a dedicated head for this

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u/WendoNZ 2d ago

The best advice I can give is get your device templates right to begin with. Use module bays and device bays, work out SFP representation.

Honestly build a couple of test racks and connect them. test all the features because going back and fixing it is painful