NetBox, in 3D

What you get

• Floor layer: every rack of the site in its row, with U used and kW against the rack budget. The import check list adds what NetBox does not model: overweight racks, PDUs or breakers above 80 %, single-corded or same-feed devices, phase balance.
• Power layer: power panels, feeds and PDUs become the one-line diagram with A and B colours. Click a feed, press Fail, and see which racks go dark and which services stop.
• Cabling and Network layers: NetBox cables are routed in 3D through rear managers, trays or under the floor; trace any run. The network topology is laid out from the same cables; fail a switch and see who loses every path.

How to connect

1. In NetBox, create an API token for a user with read-only permissions.
2. In DC Sim, open ⋯ → Connect NetBox or Zabbix, choose NetBox, paste the URL and the token, press Test. Test shows the NetBox version and every site with its racks and devices, biggest first.
3. Pick the site. Preview shows it as the template sheets (Racks, Devices, Cables, Power, Networks) with the same import report and checks as an Excel upload.
4. Import. Re-sync later and you get a change list before anything is applied.

Inside your own network, the same connector runs in the DC Sim agent, which only dials out.

What we read

NetBox	DC Sim template	Notes
racks: name, location, height, width	Racks: rack, row, height_u, width_in	location becomes the row; width 10 draws a mini rack
devices: name, rack, position, device type, role, serial, tenant	Devices: name, rack, u, model, role, serial, owner	device types matched to the catalog; a device without a rack is kept at its location as an unracked device; blades travel with their chassis
custom fields warranty_end, runs	Devices: warranty_end, runs	when you keep them
power panels and power feeds (primary, redundant)	Power: panels with breakers per feed, A and B	feeds without a rating are flagged in the report
PDUs and outlet feed legs	Power rows fed from the cabled feed; Cables: phase	per-phase load and phase balance
cables: both ends, type, length and unit, colour, label	Cables: from/to device and port, type, media, length_m, color, label	lengths converted to metres; provider circuits are left out and listed
VLANs and prefixes	Networks: vlan, name, purpose, subnet

The community NetBox device-type library is CC0-licensed and is being added to the DC Sim device catalog, so more and more device types resolve to a real U height, weight and power draw; anything unmatched becomes a plain box tagged “identify later”.

Later

Item	Status
Interface speeds read from NetBox (today: from port names and the catalog)	Roadmap
Two-way sync: push a DC Sim design back into NetBox as planned objects	Roadmap
A NetBox plugin: “Open in DC Sim” on a rack or device	Roadmap

Nothing inbound

For a NetBox inside your network, the connector runs in a small agent that dials out over one WebSocket and never listens on a port; batches spool to disk and replay in order if the link drops. The token stays in the agent’s configuration. DC Sim never writes to NetBox.