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LDAP Configuration

This guide explains how to implement LDAP authentication using an external server. User authentication will fall back to built-in Django users in the event of a failure.

Install Requirements

Install System Packages

On Ubuntu:

sudo apt install -y libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev libssl-dev

On CentOS:

sudo yum install -y openldap-devel python3-devel

Install django-auth-ldap

Activate the Python virtual environment and install the django-auth-ldap package using pip:

source /opt/netbox/venv/bin/activate
pip3 install django-auth-ldap

Once installed, add the package to local_requirements.txt to ensure it is re-installed during future rebuilds of the virtual environment:

sudo sh -c "echo 'django-auth-ldap' >> /opt/netbox/local_requirements.txt"

Configuration

First, enable the LDAP authentication backend in configuration.py. (Be sure to overwrite this definition if it is already set to RemoteUserBackend.)

REMOTE_AUTH_BACKEND = 'netbox.authentication.LDAPBackend'

Next, create a file in the same directory as configuration.py (typically /opt/netbox/netbox/netbox/) named ldap_config.py. Define all of the parameters required below in ldap_config.py. Complete documentation of all django-auth-ldap configuration options is included in the project's official documentation.

General Server Configuration

Info

When using Active Directory you may need to specify a port on AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI to authenticate users from all domains in the forest. Use 3269 for secure, or 3268 for non-secure access to the GC (Global Catalog).

import ldap

# Server URI
AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI = "ldaps://ad.example.com"

# The following may be needed if you are binding to Active Directory.
AUTH_LDAP_CONNECTION_OPTIONS = {
    ldap.OPT_REFERRALS: 0
}

# Set the DN and password for the NetBox service account.
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN = "CN=NETBOXSA, OU=Service Accounts,DC=example,DC=com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD = "demo"

# Include this setting if you want to ignore certificate errors. This might be needed to accept a self-signed cert.
# Note that this is a NetBox-specific setting which sets:
#     ldap.set_option(ldap.OPT_X_TLS_REQUIRE_CERT, ldap.OPT_X_TLS_NEVER)
LDAP_IGNORE_CERT_ERRORS = True

# Include this setting if you want to validate the LDAP server certificates against a CA certificate directory on your server
# Note that this is a NetBox-specific setting which sets:
#     ldap.set_option(ldap.OPT_X_TLS_CACERTDIR, LDAP_CA_CERT_DIR)
LDAP_CA_CERT_DIR = '/etc/ssl/certs'

# Include this setting if you want to validate the LDAP server certificates against your own CA.
# Note that this is a NetBox-specific setting which sets:
#     ldap.set_option(ldap.OPT_X_TLS_CACERTFILE, LDAP_CA_CERT_FILE)
LDAP_CA_CERT_FILE = '/path/to/example-CA.crt'

STARTTLS can be configured by setting AUTH_LDAP_START_TLS = True and using the ldap:// URI scheme.

User Authentication

Info

When using Windows Server 2012+, AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE should be set to None.

from django_auth_ldap.config import LDAPSearch

# This search matches users with the sAMAccountName equal to the provided username. This is required if the user's
# username is not in their DN (Active Directory).
AUTH_LDAP_USER_SEARCH = LDAPSearch("ou=Users,dc=example,dc=com",
                                    ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE,
                                    "(sAMAccountName=%(user)s)")

# If a user's DN is producible from their username, we don't need to search.
AUTH_LDAP_USER_DN_TEMPLATE = "uid=%(user)s,ou=users,dc=example,dc=com"

# You can map user attributes to Django attributes as so.
AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP = {
    "first_name": "givenName",
    "last_name": "sn",
    "email": "mail"
}

User Groups for Permissions

Info

When using Microsoft Active Directory, support for nested groups can be activated by using NestedGroupOfNamesType() instead of GroupOfNamesType() for AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE. You will also need to modify the import line to use NestedGroupOfNamesType instead of GroupOfNamesType .

from django_auth_ldap.config import LDAPSearch, GroupOfNamesType

# This search ought to return all groups to which the user belongs. django_auth_ldap uses this to determine group
# hierarchy.
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH = LDAPSearch("dc=example,dc=com", ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE,
                                    "(objectClass=group)")
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE = GroupOfNamesType()

# Define a group required to login.
AUTH_LDAP_REQUIRE_GROUP = "CN=NETBOX_USERS,DC=example,DC=com"

# Mirror LDAP group assignments.
AUTH_LDAP_MIRROR_GROUPS = True

# Define special user types using groups. Exercise great caution when assigning superuser status.
AUTH_LDAP_USER_FLAGS_BY_GROUP = {
    "is_active": "cn=active,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
    "is_staff": "cn=staff,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com",
    "is_superuser": "cn=superuser,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com"
}

# For more granular permissions, we can map LDAP groups to Django groups.
AUTH_LDAP_FIND_GROUP_PERMS = True

# Cache groups for one hour to reduce LDAP traffic
AUTH_LDAP_CACHE_TIMEOUT = 3600
  • is_active - All users must be mapped to at least this group to enable authentication. Without this, users cannot log in.
  • is_staff - Users mapped to this group are enabled for access to the administration tools; this is the equivalent of checking the "staff status" box on a manually created user. This doesn't grant any specific permissions.
  • is_superuser - Users mapped to this group will be granted superuser status. Superusers are implicitly granted all permissions.

Warning

Authentication will fail if the groups (the distinguished names) do not exist in the LDAP directory.

Troubleshooting LDAP

systemctl restart netbox restarts the NetBox service, and initiates any changes made to ldap_config.py. If there are syntax errors present, the NetBox process will not spawn an instance, and errors should be logged to /var/log/messages.

For troubleshooting LDAP user/group queries, add or merge the following logging configuration to configuration.py:

LOGGING = {
    'version': 1,
    'disable_existing_loggers': False,
    'handlers': {
        'netbox_auth_log': {
            'level': 'DEBUG',
            'class': 'logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler',
            'filename': '/opt/netbox/local/logs/django-ldap-debug.log',
            'maxBytes': 1024 * 500,
            'backupCount': 5,
        },
    },
    'loggers': {
        'django_auth_ldap': {
            'handlers': ['netbox_auth_log'],
            'level': 'DEBUG',
        },
    },
}

Ensure the file and path specified in logfile exist and are writable and executable by the application service account. Restart the netbox service and attempt to log into the site to trigger log entries to this file.