Use As Pure IP Addresses Manager

[Den7me]

Our CEO has an idea to use NetBox as a pure IP addresses manager. Can somebody comnent, please on that? The pre-set is as follows: There are many different IP addresses' ranges, subnets, and prefixes located in many different countries supplied by many different providers. They are all managed by Proxmox that also has many different nodes in many different locations in many different countries worldwide as well. Now to put it all simply is there a way to import it into NetBox as just one single file of all the IP addresses without going one by one and without attaching each single IP address per VM, rack, router, switch and so on? I have the list of all our IP addresses in a simple MS Excel file format. I can convert it into any other formats if needed. Would highly appreciate any comments as it would save me and other people on our team a lot of time and effort (and headache) of doing it per each single IP address as we have over 50k of IP addresses in total. Our hardware people would sort out the list of all the IP addresses later per nodes and VMs, etc. (need to go through documentation if there is an easy way to do that for 50k of IP addresses; that would be our second concern), but dropping the full list into NetBox first would be ideal for us, software people.

[jcollie]

Yes, you can use NetBox to just manage your IP addresses. If you can format your data into a CSV file you should be able to import it into NetBox.

[Den7me]

Thank you @jcollie for replying even before my question was posted. ) You are so quick on a draw. Yes, I can easily convert the data into any formats at all. I will check to see where the option to import it into Netbox is. Thank you so much again.

[negritodominic]

Hi, I have the same task. I tried to migrate from phpIPAM to Netbox. The migration isn't complicated; I migrated over 35,000 IPs. The only thing I see that Netbox lacks is folder hierarchy, which is critical for day-to-day administration. You can read about the issues I faced in this link #21255 ; it might save you time since I went through this a week ago. There's a supposed plugin called ipamtree. I installed Netbox 4.5, but it supposedly works on version 4.2.99. I installed it to testing Netbox version 4.2, but unfortunately, that plugin doesn't work correctly. Unfortunately, I can't completely migrate from phpIPAM to Netbox at the moment. I do see that Netbox has great potential for IPAM, but until they integrate folders, it will be complicated.

Navigating between prefixes is a headache because you always have to open a new link.

[Den7me]

Gosh, thank you for letting me know ahead of trouble. I think we'll have to look into our options here.

[pheus]

Thanks for your insight, @negritodominic! I appreciate you sharing your experience. I’m sorry to hear that the current NetBox workflow doesn’t suit your needs.

Since @Den7me asked for my perspective, and because use cases can vary a lot, please treat the following as my personal opinion (it may or may not reflect everyone else’s experience):

I’ve used phpIPAM before switching to NetBox, so I understand the frustration when a tool change breaks familiar workflows. phpIPAM and NetBox take quite different approaches to IPAM navigation. If your day-to-day workflow depends heavily on a folder-style, expandable tree view, then I agree the current NetBox UI can feel less convenient - especially when you’re working with thousands of prefixes.

That said, I think the NetBox approach is often more flexible for many real-world use cases. With a strict folder hierarchy, you have to decide where a prefix “belongs,” which can be limiting when the same prefix needs to be viewed through multiple lenses. A tag/label approach allows multiple groupings at the same time - for example, a prefix can be tied to a specific customer and grouped by purpose (e.g., “client network”), environment, region, or provider. That’s where NetBox tends to shine.

Do I think the feature request is valid? Absolutely. An in-place, expandable tree view can be genuinely helpful, and I can see why people would want it in core. NetBox does model IP space hierarchically (aggregates → prefixes → child prefixes) and provides hierarchy/child-prefix views, but it doesn’t have a true “folder” concept or a fully interactive tree UI that expands in-place the way phpIPAM does. This is also influenced by the underlying model: prefixes are primarily related by containment (CIDR/VRF logic) rather than an explicit parent/child “folder” relationship stored directly in the database.

Could this be solved via extensions? Potentially, yes. NetBox has a very extensible ecosystem: Custom Fields, Custom Links, Custom Scripts, and (especially) plugins. There’s also a fairly extensive plugin catalog and a large community around NetBox, which can be really helpful when you’re looking for established patterns or existing solutions. That said, plugins can be hit-or-miss depending on maintenance and version compatibility, so it’s worth validating that early if a tree view is essential to your workflow.

Is it a dealbreaker? It depends on the organization and the workflow. I’ve seen NetBox work well at scale (large numbers of prefixes/IPs), and in many environments search, filtering, and automation (REST API/Ansible), plus consistent modeling (VRFs/tenants/roles/tags), make navigation very manageable. But I also don’t want to dismiss the usability concern - for some teams, this will be a deciding factor.

My suggestion: run a small proof-of-concept with a representative subset of your real data (either in a self-hosted test instance or in NetBox Cloud) and try the “daily tasks” your team actually performs. That’s usually the fastest and most objective way to determine whether the current navigation model works for you, whether a plugin-based approach is acceptable, or whether another IPAM is a better fit.

And one last point: since you’re asking in the NetBox community, you’ll probably get a bit of bias from many of us (myself included 🙂). A small PoC with your own data and workflows will cut through that quickly.

If helpful, you might also take the opportunity to get some additional background via the free Getting Started with NetBox: The Basics training:
https://netboxlabs.com/netbox-training/

Or navigate through Awesome NetBox

Hope that helps!

[negritodominic]

Thank you for your very quick response.

By the way, I really like what I saw in NetBox and its potential (role, tenant, tag, site, location, etc.), which is something phpIPAM doesn't have. I would like it to become the industry's top all-in-one platform, not just for community members, but also for future enterprise clients.

I am not a developer; I don't know Django, PHP, or HTML, I only know a little Python. How are decisions made about what to include in future NetBox updates? I think I'm not the only one who would like to see a "folder/tree" feature in the future. I tried to install the ipamtree plugin, but it is only supported by NetBox version 4.2.9. I installed that version, but ipamtree doesn't work properly. That's why I believe integrating a "folder/tree" feature into the core would be better.

Note: A simple example from my daily work: I have to allocate 2 P2P prefixes (one main and one backup) from a /16 network, and also another /24 network for the same client from a different /16. I have three folders named ISP p2p main, ISP p2p reserve, and LAN, with prefixes inside them: 10.1.0.0/16, 10.2.0.0/16, and 10.2.0.0/16 respectively

In practice, when I am asked to assign three prefixes (a /30 for main P2P, a /30 for backup P2P, and a /24 for LAN_Ofice), I should be able to do it all from the same page without needing to jump from page to page as I currently have to do in NetBox. Of course, there are always workarounds like writing a script, but scripts are only practical when you need to assign a large quantity of prefixes.

Tree View of Networks and Folders:

IP Address Management (IPAM)
|
├── Folder: ISP p2p main
│ ├── Network: 10.1.0.0/16
│ │ └── Assigned Prefix (for a client): /30 (e.g., 10.1.1.0/30)
|
├── Folder: ISP p2p reserve
│ ├── Network: 10.2.0.0/16
│ │ └── Assigned Prefix (for a client): /30 (e.g., 10.2.1.0/30)
|
└── Folder: LAN_Ofice
├── Network: 10.3.0.0/16 (assumed correction)
│ └── Assigned Prefix (for the same client): /24 (e.g., 10.3.10.0/24)

[Den7me]

Right, but I develop and the more details the better and I thank you for that. However, as I have mentioned before I am looking for the overview so to speak, the overview of problems if you wish. I am not to develop something for NetBox, My current task is to set it for over 50K IP addresses to be managed in bulk, but then I see NetBox is highly customizable so I might come up with and develop some extra in-house scripts to satisfy our needs, should that be required later on at all.

[negritodominic]

As I mentioned previously, inserting all 50,000 of your networks is not a problem; it is straightforward. You can do it via a Python script using API, or via an Excel bulk file in CSV format. As long as you already have the roles, tenant, tag, VRF, custom-fields, vlan etc. defined in advance, and ideally you should do it in parts, not all 50,000 at once. My problem is how to manage them after I migrate them, since it doesn't have what is essential for my day-to-day work "folder/tree". Your case may be different from mine.

[pheus]

Hi there,

This is one of NetBox’s core use cases. I’ve been using NetBox for some time now and initially adopted it primarily as an IPAM solution as well. One thing I’ve learned is that IPAM becomes even more powerful once you start leveraging other modules (sites, tenants, devices, virtualization, etc.). It can really change how you look at it.

As @jcollie mentioned, NetBox includes built-in CSV bulk import functionality. For more complex or very large datasets, it can be a good idea to import in phases, or to automate the process via the REST API and/or Ansible modules.

I’d also recommend preparing your spreadsheet with as much relevant context as possible for the IPAM module (e.g., prefixes/VRFs, tenants, status, descriptions, tags). Even if you don’t attach every IP to a VM/device on day one, having clean metadata up front will make the later enrichment much easier.

If you haven’t already, it’s worth testing the workflow in the NetBox demo environment (or NetBox Cloud free tier/trial) to validate your CSV format before importing the full ~50k records.

Given the scale of your deployment, you may also want to explore discovery/integration solutions to help map IPs to nodes/VMs over time (for example, NetBox Discovery or NetBox Assurance, depending on what fits your needs).

Hope that helps!

[Den7me]

Thank you so much for your detailed information. I really do appreciate. I will pass this on to the team and to our decision maker. Could you please, comment on what @negritodominic said just before your post?

[negritodominic]

Regarding the difference between other IPAMs and NetBox, I really like NetBox's IPAM because it's highly programmable, and that's perfect. However, to make it even more perfect, it should include the option to organize prefixes into folders, allowing me to browse or assign prefixes without needing to navigate to another page. These folders, subfolders, or prefixes should be expandable without requiring me to follow another link. This would greatly improve product management—something that other solutions, like phpIPAM, already offer. When dealing with thousands of prefixes, constantly moving back and forth between pages is a headache, and tags, tenants, roles, or other parameters don’t really help. An expandable tree view is essential. A good plugin might solve the problem, but ideally, it should be integrated into the platform’s core. I’m sharing this based on my experience as an end-user administrator. I hope the NetBox community takes this into consideration. This is the only thing holding me back from fully adopting NetBox in our company.

[Den7me]

Thoughtful and insightful. Thank you so much for sharing as it looks like we are into the same bumps to encounter down the road of NetBox implementation.

[pheus]

You’re welcome! Happy to help, and thanks for following up.

Quick note: I think this discussion will be easier to follow if we keep threads topic-focused. The “folder/tree navigation” topic is slightly separate from the original question (bulk import / using NetBox primarily as an IPAM), so I’ll also reply to @negritodominic in the relevant thread.

[Den7me]

Well, yes, but I really do appreciate it is generalized like this, at least for me in the beginning. I need to see a big picture first and it helps a lot rather than going through many different threads on different issues. The overview of all the current bugs and problems works better for me.