NetBox PowerDNS sync plugin

A Netbox plugin to manage DNS records in PowerDNS based on netbox IP Address and Device objects.

Features

• Automatically generates A, AAAA & PTR records based on IP Address & Device objects and DNS zone settings
• Can manage multiple DNS Zones across multiple PowerDNS servers
• Flexible rules to match netbox IP Addresses into DNS zones
• Multiple options how to generate DNS name from IP address or Device
• Option to schedule sync of DNS zones from netbox to PowerDNS
• Can add DNS records for new zones immediately
• Setup synchronization schedule for each zone individually

Generating DNS names

Each zone can define tags on IPAddress, Interface/VMInterface, FGRPGroup or Device/VirtualMachine that match that zone. You can also match on device role. A zone can also be only used for IPs that are assigned to management only interfaces.

When determining the zone to use for an IP Address, match rules are evaluated as follows:

• check if IPAddress.dns_name matches any zone
• check if IPAddress is assigned to Device or VirtualMachine and if its name matches any zone
• check if IPAddress is assigned to FHRPGroup and if its name matches any zone

If no match is found then it will try to match based on assigned tags in this order: IPAddress.tags, Interface.tags, VMInterface.tags, Device.tags, VirtualMachine.tags, Device.device_role, VM.role.

If there is still not matching zone found, default zone is used (if set).

When a zone is set for an IP address, the DNS name is generated by using set methods set on the zone. The IP naming method is tried first, then the device and lastly the FHRP group method.

Compatibility

This plugin requires netbox version 3.5.x to work. Here is s compatibility table:

NetBox Version	Plugin Version
3.5.0-7	0.0.1 - 0.0.6
3.5.8	0.0.7
3.6.x	0.8.0

Installing

Review official Netbox plugin documentation for installation instructions.

You install the plugin from pypi with pip. Make sure you activate Netbox's virtual environment first:

$ source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
(venv) $ pip install netbox-powerdns-sync

For adding to a NetBox Docker setup see the general instructions for using netbox-docker with plugins.

You can install a development version directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/ArnesSI/netbox-powerdns-sync.git@master

or by adding to your local_requirements.txt or plugin_requirements.txt (netbox-docker):

git+https://github.com/ArnesSI/netbox-powerdns-sync.git@master

After installation, enable the plugin in /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py, or if you use netbox-docker, your /configuration/plugins.py file :

PLUGINS = ["netbox_powerdns_sync"]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_powerdns_sync": {},
}

Available configuration settings you can use in PLUGINS_CONFIG are described below under settings.

The last step is to apply database migrations and update netbox search index:

(venv) $ cd /opt/netbox/netbox/
(venv) $ python3 manage.py migrate
(venv) $ python3 manage.py reindex --lazy

If you're running under netbox-docker, you can skip this as migrations and index updates are applied if needed automatically when you bring up the containers.

Settings

If you want to override the defaults for the plugin, you can do so in your via /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/configuration.py, or if you use netbox-docker, your /configuration/plugins.py file :

PLUGINS = [
    'netbox_powerdns_sync'
]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "netbox_powerdns_sync": {
        # Example settings below, see "Available settings"
        # in README.md for all possible settings
        "ttl_custom_field": "",
        "custom_domain_field": "field_name",
        "powerdns_managed_record_comment": None,
|       "post_save_enabled": False,
    },
}

Available settings

Setting	Default value	Description
ttl_custom_field	None	Name of netbox Custom field applied to IP Address objects. See Custom TTL field below.
powerdns_managed_record_comment	"netbox-powerdns-sync"	Is set, the plugin will only touch records in PowerDNS API that have matching comment and ignore others. Set to None to make plugin manage all supported records.
post_save_enabled	False	When creating or updating an IP Address, Device or FHRP Group, immediately create its DNS records using post_save signals.
custom_domain_field	None	Name of netbox Custom field linked to the Device or Virtual Machine

Custom domain field

There are situations where you host servers in different networks or VLANs (for example internal and external), in this case it is possible to specify a custom domain field so that the domain can be determined per host.

Custom TTL field

Normaly TTL for records is set by Default TTL on each Zone. There is an option to set TTL for each DNS record individually. You need to define a netbox Custom field of type integer and apply it to IP Address objects. Then set plugin option ttl_custom_field to the name of that field.

Now you can set TTL on each IP Address and any corresponding DNS records will get that TTL value.

Screenshots

List of DNS zones:

DNS Zone details:

Scheduling Zone sync:

Sync results for Zone: