How to turn NetBox into a 3D data center model

What NetBox gives a 3D model, and what it doesn’t

NetBox is a source of truth for DCIM and IPAM: sites, locations, racks, device types, devices, cables, power panels and power feeds, VLANs and prefixes, all behind a REST API. Open-source NetBox renders rack elevations as 2D SVG and holds no heat or measured load. NetBox Labs’ Visual Explorer, a customer preview for NetBox Cloud since March 2026, adds floor plans in 2D and 3D, a power chain view that shows redundancy gaps, and metric overlays on the same data. Its launch post describes no failure simulation; running the failure (what goes dark, what overloads, how fast the room heats) is the part DC Sim adds.

A 3D model of a room needs five things: racks in rows, devices with height, depth, weight and power, the power chain from utility to PDU, the cables, and the cooling. NetBox has the racks (rows only through locations), most of the device data, the lower half of the power chain and all of the cables. It has no cooling. This guide covers how each NetBox object lands in DC Sim, what to fix in NetBox first, and which template sheet fills each gap. A data center digital twin is the model that can answer “what happens if this fails?”; NetBox supplies the inventory it starts from.

1. Before you connect: version, user, token, network

• Version: NetBox 3.3 or later, 4.x included. Tested against NetBox 4.7.3 with its demo data.
• User: a dedicated user with view permission only (table below).
• Token: an API token with write disabled. NetBox 4.5 and later issue v2 tokens starting with nbt_, sent as a Bearer token; older tokens are sent as Token. DC Sim picks the format from the token’s shape. The token is sent to NetBox only and is never shown in the browser or stored in a report.
• Network: a NetBox the DC Sim server can reach is read directly. A NetBox inside your network is read by the DC Sim agent, which only dials out; by default the server refuses private addresses on the direct path. Through the agent the token stays in the agent’s configuration, and the inventory snapshot is refreshed every hour by default.

NetBox	View permission on	Used for
DCIM	sites, locations, racks, device types, devices	the room, rows, devices
DCIM	cables, power panels, power feeds, power outlets	cabling, the power chain, phases
IPAM	VLANs, prefixes	the Networks sheet
Circuits	circuits, circuit terminations	links between sites

DC Sim has no self-serve accounts yet. Today these steps run in a walkthrough with you, on your NetBox or on its CSV exports.

2. What maps where

The connector turns NetBox into the template sheets, so a NetBox import gets the same import report, checks and change list as an Excel upload.

The room and the devices

NetBox	Template	In 3D	Watch for
Rack location	Racks: row	racks stand in rows	no location: the site is the row
Rack name	Racks: position (order by name)	order along the row	names out of floor order put racks out of order
Rack height, width	height_u, width_in	width 10 draws a mini rack
Device: rack, position, device type	Devices: rack, u, model, height_u	the device in its slot	manufacturer + model matched to the catalog; unmatched becomes a box of the right height tagged “identify later”
Device with no rack	kept unracked at its location	on an open shelf	never dropped
Device in a device bay	carried by its chassis		blades travel with the chassis
Role, serial, tenant	role, serial, owner	tenants on the Device layer	serial is the first key on re-sync
Custom fields warranty_end, runs	warranty_end, runs	warranty flags, service names in failures	create them in NetBox if you want them carried

Power, cables and networks

NetBox	Template	In 3D	Watch for
Power panel	Power: type panel	a node on the one-line diagram	NetBox has no rating field on a panel: each one is a warning
Power feed	Power: a breaker under its panel; primary = feed A, redundant = feed B; amperage, voltage, phase	A and B colours	feeds without an amperage are flagged
Device with role or type PDU	Power: type PDU, fed from the feed cabled to its input	PDU strip with a load bar	a PDU without the PDU role is an ordinary device
Power outlet feed leg A, B, C	Cables: phase L1, L2, L3	per-phase load, phase balance
Cable: both ends, type, length, colour, label	Cables: from/to device and port, media, length_m, color, label	routed runs you can trace	cat6a → Cat6A, mmf-om4 → OM4, smf → OS2, dac → DAC; lengths in metres
Cable from a PDU outlet to a power port	Cables: type power	which power supply sits on which PDU	without these the power path is assumed
VLAN and its prefix	Networks: vlan, name, purpose, subnet	VLAN colours in the Network view

Sites and circuits

NetBox	Template	In 3D	Watch for
Site with latitude and longitude, region, time zone, tenant	Sites: lat, lon, city, timezone, provider	a pin in the Estate view	no coordinates, no Sites sheet
Circuit with a site at both ends	Links: commit rate → bandwidth_gbps, tag protected, provider → carrier	an arc you can cut	circuits with one site end are left out of the WAN
Circuit cable into a patch panel	left out of Cables, listed in the notes		an ISP hand-off has no device at that end

Interface speeds are not read from NetBox today: port names and the catalog give the kind of port. Reading them is on the roadmap, as are two-way sync (a DC Sim design pushed back into NetBox as planned objects, opt-in) and a NetBox plugin with an “Open in DC Sim” link on a rack or device.

3. Connect, Test, Preview, Import

1. In DC Sim open ⋯ → Connect NetBox or Zabbix, choose NetBox, paste the URL and the token, press Test.
2. Test shows the NetBox version and every site with its racks and devices, biggest first. Against the NetBox 4.7.3 demo instance it reads 24 sites, 42 racks, 72 devices, 108 cables, 48 power feeds and 63 VLANs in about a second.
3. Pick the site. One site is one import, because an estate is not one room.
4. Preview lists the sheets with their row counts and the import report. The demo’s biggest site, MDF, previews as Racks 26 · Devices 14 · Cables 12 · Power 52 · Networks 0, with 0 skipped rows, 0 unknown models, 4 warnings (its four power panels have no rating) and a note that 3 provider-circuit cables were left out.
5. Import. The room builds in 3D with the checks pinned where they apply.
6. Re-sync when NetBox changes. You get a change list (devices, racks, cables, power nodes and VLANs added, removed or changed) before anything is applied.

4. Fix these in NetBox before you import

Each of these changes the model, and each is easier to fix once in NetBox than every time in a sheet.

1. Feed types. Mark one power feed of each rack pair as primary and the other as redundant. Two primary feeds both become feed A, and every dual-corded device on them is flagged as having both cords on one feed.
2. PDU role. Give PDUs a role (or device type) that says PDU. Only then do they become Power rows fed from their power feed, with a rating and a load.
3. Power cables. Cable each device power port to a PDU outlet. Without them DC Sim knows which rack a server is in but not which PDU feeds each of its power supplies, and the “No PDU known for a rack” check says the power path is assumed.
4. Rows. If a location is a whole room, add a child location per row and put the racks in it. Name racks in floor order (A01, A02 …) so the order along the row is right.
5. Ratings. Fill amperage, voltage and phase on every power feed. Feed ratings are what the 80 % checks and the failover overloads are measured against.
6. Services and warranty. Add the custom fields runs (what runs on the device) and warranty_end on devices. Without runs, a failure can say which devices go dark but not which services stop.
7. Device types. Use the manufacturer and model as the vendor prints them, with the right U height. The community device-type library is CC0-licensed and is being added to the DC Sim catalog, so more types resolve to a real weight and power draw.

5. What NetBox alone cannot tell you

Question	Why NetBox cannot answer it	What fills the gap
What goes dark if UPS-A fails?	NetBox’s power model starts at the panel: there is no UPS, ATS or generator, and no load	Power sheet rows for utility, generator, ATS and UPS with rating, fed_from and runtime_min or battery_kwh; a rating for each panel
Does the rack survive on one feed?	NetBox stores ratings and allocated draw, not measured load	loads from the catalog’s typical draw per model, or measured from Zabbix or a Readings sheet; max_kw per rack in Racks
How fast does the room heat up if a cooling unit stops?	NetBox has no cooling and no airflow	Cooling sheet (name, type, capacity_kw, serves) and front_faces in Racks for the aisles; minutes to 27, 32 and 35 °C are estimated by a zonal air model, not CFD
Which services stop?	NetBox has no service-to-device link by default	the runs custom field, or the runs column in Devices
Does the new server fit the rack depth?	NetBox device types carry a full-depth flag, not a depth in millimetres	device depth from the catalog for matched models; depth_mm in Racks (template v1.5) flags devices deeper than the rack
Which racks lose cooling if a manifold leaks?	NetBox has no liquid loops	the Liquid sheet: CDUs, manifolds and the racks they serve

With the chain filled in, the UPS failure impact analysis runs on your room: fail UPS-A and read the four lists (dark, on one feed, services stopped, overloads).

6. Keep one master

Today a NetBox import and an Excel upload each build the whole room; they are not merged. A re-sync builds the room from NetBox again, and layers NetBox does not hold fall back to defaults marked “assumed” unless you upload them again. So pick one master per room:

• NetBox is the master when the questions are inventory, cabling and the panel-to-PDU chain. Keep everything in NetBox (section 4), re-sync, read the change list.
• The workbook is the master once you add the UPS chain, cooling, liquid and readings. Import from NetBox once, download the model as the filled Excel template, add the sheets NetBox has no place for, and upload. When NetBox changes, re-sync, download the filled template again, put your own Power rows above the panels, Cooling, Liquid and Readings back in, and upload.

Either way the change list shows exactly what an upload or re-sync would change before it is applied.