Installing Nautobot System Dependencies

The documentation assumes that you are running one of the following:

• Ubuntu 20.04+
• Debian 11+
• RHEL/CentOS 8.2+
  • Delimited by RHEL8 tabs in the docs, but also includes other derivatives of RHEL such as RockyLinux or AlmaLinux

Install System Packages

Install the prerequisite system libraries and utilities.

This will install:

• Git
• Python 3
• Pip
• Redis server and client

Ubuntu/DebianRHEL8

Install system dependencies

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt install -y git python3 python3-pip python3-venv python3-dev redis-server

Install system dependencies

sudo dnf check-update
sudo dnf install -y git python38 python38-devel python38-pip redis

Database Setup

In this step you'll set up your database server, create a database and database user for use by Nautobot, and verify your connection to the database.

You must select either MySQL (MariaDB is not supported) or PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is used by default with Nautobot, so if you just want to get started or don't have a preference, please stick with PostgreSQL.

Please follow the steps for your selected database backend below.

Ubuntu/DebianRHEL8

PostgreSQLMySQL

Install PostgreSQL

This will install the PostgreSQL database server and client.

Install Postgres

sudo apt install -y postgresql

Create a PostgreSQL Database

At a minimum, we need to create a database for Nautobot and assign it a username and password for authentication. This is done with the following commands.

Danger

Do not use the password from the example. Choose a strong, random password to ensure secure database authentication for your Nautobot installation.

Enter into Postgres

sudo -u postgres psql

Example of Entering Postgres

Entering Postgres DB

psql (12.5 (Ubuntu 12.5-0ubuntu0.20.04.1))
Type "help" for help.

postgres=#

Create the Nautobot DB

CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE USER nautobot WITH PASSWORD 'insecure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nautobot TO nautobot;
\connect nautobot
GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO nautobot;
\q

Example Postgres DB Creation Output

Example output of creating the DB

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE DATABASE
postgres=# CREATE USER nautobot WITH PASSWORD 'insecure_password';
CREATE ROLE
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nautobot TO nautobot;
GRANT
postgres=# \connect nautobot
You are now connected to database "nautobot" as user "postgres".
nautobot=# GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO nautobot;
GRANT
nautobot=# \q

Verify PostgreSQL Service Status

You can verify that authentication works issuing the following command and providing the configured password. (Replace localhost with your database server if using a remote database.)

If successful, you will enter a nautobot prompt. Type \conninfo to confirm your connection, or type \q to exit.

Connect to the Nautobot DB

psql --username nautobot --password --host localhost nautobot

Example Postgres Connection Output

Example output

Password for user nautobot:
psql (12.5 (Ubuntu 12.5-0ubuntu0.20.04.1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.

nautobot=> \conninfo
You are connected to database "nautobot" as user "nautobot" on host "localhost" (address "127.0.0.1") at port "5432".
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
nautobot=> \q

Install MySQL

This will install the MySQL database server and client. Additionally, MySQL requires that the MySQL development libraries are installed so that we may compile the Python mysqlclient library during the Nautobot installation steps.

Install MySQL required packages

sudo apt install -y libmysqlclient-dev mysql-server

Create a MySQL Database

At a minimum, we need to create a database for Nautobot and assign it a username and password for authentication. This is done with the following commands.

Note

Replace localhost below with your database server if using a remote database.

Danger

Do not use the password from the example. Choose a strong, random password to ensure secure database authentication for your Nautobot installation.

Connect to MySQL

sudo -u root mysql

Create the Nautobot DB

CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE USER 'nautobot'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'insecure_password';
GRANT ALL ON nautobot.* TO 'nautobot'@'localhost';
\q

Example MySQL output

Example MySQL DB creation output.

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 11
Server version: 8.0.25-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE USER 'nautobot'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'insecure_password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL ON nautobot.* TO 'nautobot'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> \q
Bye

Verify MySQL Service Status

You can verify that authentication works issuing the following command and providing the configured password.

If successful, you will enter a mysql> prompt. Type status to confirm your connection, or type \q to exit.

Note

Replace localhost below with your database server if using a remote database.

Test the MySQL DB connection

mysql --user nautobot --password --host localhost nautobot

Then after the password prompt you can use status and \q commands

Check the status and quit

status
\q

Example Verification of MySQL database

Example test output

Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 13
Server version: 8.0.25-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2021, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> status
--------------
mysql  Ver 8.0.25-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))

Connection id:          13
Current database:       nautobot
Current user:           nautobot@localhost
SSL:                    Not in use
Current pager:          stdout
Using outfile:          ''
Using delimiter:        ;
Server version:         8.0.25-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 (Ubuntu)
Protocol version:       10
Connection:             Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset:    utf8mb4
Db     characterset:    utf8mb4
Client characterset:    utf8mb4
Conn.  characterset:    utf8mb4
UNIX socket:            /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Binary data as:         Hexadecimal
Uptime:                 26 min 31 sec

Threads: 2  Questions: 29  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 193  Flush tables: 3  Open tables: 112  Queries per second avg: 0.018
--------------

mysql> \q
Bye

PostgreSQLMySQL

Install PostgreSQL

This will install the PostgreSQL database server and client.

Install Postgres

sudo dnf install -y postgresql-server

Initialize PostgreSQL

CentOS/RHEL requires a manual step to generate the initial configurations required by PostgreSQL.

Setup initial required configurations

sudo postgresql-setup --initdb

Configure Authentication

CentOS/RHEL configures PostgreSQL to use ident host-based authentication by default. Because Nautobot will need to authenticate using a username and password, we must update pg_hba.conf to support md5 password authentication.

As root, edit /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf and change ident to md5 for the lines below.

Before:

Before /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            ident
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 ident

After:

After /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5

Start PostgreSQL

Start the service and enable it to run at system startup:

Start and enable the Postgres service at start up

sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql

Create a PostgreSQL Database

At a minimum, we need to create a database for Nautobot and assign it a username and password for authentication. This is done with the following commands.

Danger

Do not use the password from the example. Choose a strong, random password to ensure secure database authentication for your Nautobot installation.

Enter into Postgres

sudo -u postgres psql

Create the database and grant permissions to the Nautobot user.

Create Nautobot DB

CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE USER nautobot WITH PASSWORD 'insecure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nautobot TO nautobot;
\connect nautobot
GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO nautobot;
\q

Example Database creation output.

Example DB creation output

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE DATABASE
postgres=# CREATE USER nautobot WITH PASSWORD 'insecure_password';
CREATE ROLE
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE nautobot TO nautobot;
GRANT
postgres=# \connect nautobot
You are now connected to database "nautobot" as user "postgres".
nautobot=# GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO nautobot;
GRANT
nautobot=# \q

Verify PostgreSQL Service Status

You can verify that authentication works issuing the following command and providing the configured password. (Replace localhost with your database server if using a remote database.)

If successful, you will enter a nautobot prompt. Type \conninfo to confirm your connection, or type \q to exit.

Test connection to Nautobot DB

psql --username nautobot --password --host localhost nautobot

Example Verification Output

Password for user nautobot:
psql (10.15)
Type "help" for help.

nautobot=> \conninfo
You are connected to database "nautobot" as user "nautobot" on host "localhost" (address "127.0.0.1") at port "5432".
nautobot=> \q

Install MySQL

This will install the MySQL database server and client. Additionally, MySQL requires that gcc and the MySQL development libraries are installed so that we may compile the Python mysqlclient library during the Nautobot installation steps.

Install MySQL packages

sudo dnf install -y gcc mysql-server mysql-devel

Start MySQL

Start the service and enable it to run at system startup:

Start and enable at start up of the MySQL service

sudo systemctl enable --now mysql

Create a MySQL Database

At a minimum, we need to create a database for Nautobot and assign it a username and password for authentication. This is done with the following commands.

Note

Replace localhost below with your database server if using a remote database.

Danger

Do not use the password from the example. Choose a strong, random password to ensure secure database authentication for your Nautobot installation.

Connect to MySQL

sudo -u root mysql

Create Nautobot DB

CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
CREATE USER 'nautobot'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'insecure_password';
GRANT ALL ON nautobot.* TO 'nautobot'@'localhost';
\q

Example Creation of MySQL DB

Example output creation of DB

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 8
Server version: 8.0.21 Source distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE nautobot;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE USER 'nautobot'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'insecure_password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL ON nautobot.* TO 'nautobot'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> \q
Bye

Verify MySQL Service Status

You can verify that authentication works issuing the following command and providing the configured password.

If successful, you will enter a mysql> prompt. Type status to confirm your connection, or type \q to exit.

Note

Replace localhost below with your database server if using a remote database.

mysql --user nautobot --password --host localhost nautobot

Example MySQL Verification

Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 10
Server version: 8.0.21 Source distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> status
--------------
mysql  Ver 8.0.21 for Linux on x86_64 (Source distribution)

Connection id:          10
Current database:       nautobot
Current user:           nautobot@localhost
SSL:                    Not in use
Current pager:          stdout
Using outfile:          ''
Using delimiter:        ;
Server version:         8.0.21 Source distribution
Protocol version:       10
Connection:             Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset:    utf8mb4
Db     characterset:    utf8mb4
Client characterset:    utf8mb4
Conn.  characterset:    utf8mb4
UNIX socket:            /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Binary data as:         Hexadecimal
Uptime:                 4 min 12 sec

Threads: 2  Questions: 12  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 151  Flush tables: 3  Open tables: 69  Queries per second avg: 0.047
--------------

mysql> \q
Bye

Troubleshooting

django.db.utils.NotSupportedError: conversion between UTF8 and SQL_ASCII is not supported

Django requires the database encoding for PostgreSQL databases to be set to UTF-8. If you receive the error django.db.utils.NotSupportedError: conversion between UTF8 and SQL_ASCII is not supported, you will need to drop and re-create the nautobot database with the correct encoding.

Redis Setup

Ubuntu/DebianRHEL8

Since Redis was already installed, let's just verify that it's working using redis-cli:

Test Redis connection

redis-cli ping

Example Redis check output

redis-cli ping output

PONG

Start Redis

Start the service and enable it to run at system startup:

Enable Redis to start on boot and start Redis now

sudo systemctl enable --now redis

Verify Redis Service Status

Use the redis-cli utility to ensure the Redis service is functional:

Test Redis connection

redis-cli ping

Example Redis check output

PONG

Deploy Nautobot

Now that Nautobot dependencies are installed and configured, you're ready to Install Nautobot!