Lab 03 Upgrade Nautobot and install apps¶
Lab Overview¶
Nautobot is easy to upgrade and highly customizable. In this lab we will be upgrading Nautobot to a more recent version as well as installing a number of popular apps and configuring Nautobot to use those apps.
Table of Contents¶
Lab 01 - Upgrade Nautobot and install apps
- Task 1 - Upgrade Nautobot
- Step 1-1 - Login via ssh to the Nautobot installation
- Step 1-2 - Nautobot upgrade details
- Step 1-3 - Check versions of prerequisite products
- Step 1-4 If necessary, upgrade any prerequisite product versions to meet the minimums
- Step 1-5 - Install the desired Nautobot version
- Step 1-6 - Upgrade Optional Dependencies
- Step 1-7 - Run post upgrade operations
- Step 1-8 - Restart the Nautobot Services
- Task 2 - Create a Nautobot superuser account
- Task 3 - Start the Nautobot GUI and verify that the Welcome Wizard app isn't installed.
- Task 4 - Install additional apps and configure Nautobot
- Task 5 - Verify the app status and Nautobot version
Task 1 - Upgrade Nautobot¶
Step 1-1 - Login via ssh to the Nautobot installation¶
As a first step, you will upgrade your Nautobot version. Connect via ssh to your Nautobot pod as the ntc user. Use the password provided by the instructor.
ssh ntc@{{ your pod }}
Verify you are logged in as the ntc user
Change to the nautobot user. No nautobot password is needed when starting from the ntc account.
ntc@ntc-nautobot:~# sudo -iu nautobot
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$ whoami
nautobot
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$ pwd
/opt/nautobot
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$
Step 1-2 - Nautobot upgrade details¶
Details about how to upgrade Nautobot may be found at https://nautobot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation/upgrading/
Please note that this is a somewhat SIMPLIFIED PROCESS. In the real world, it is important to follow the documented upgrade instructions carefully, considering potential issues such as dependency versions and whether the upgrade is comparatively minor (e.g. 1.2.5 -> 1.2.9 where only the third version digit changes) or major (e.g. 1.1.0 -> 1.1.2 or 1.2.5 to 1.3.0 where the first or second version digit changes).
You can read more about semantic versioning at https://semver.org/
Step 1-3 - Check versions of Nautobot prerequisites¶
Let's check the versions some basic Nautobot prerequisite products
Python (of course!)
pip for package managementnautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$ pip3 --version
pip 20.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.8)
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$ redis-server --version
Redis server v=5.0.7 sha=00000000:0 malloc=jemalloc-5.2.1 bits=64 build=66bd629f924ac924
Check the installed version of Nautobot. As you can see, some Nautobot Apps are also installed, but they will not appear in the Nautobot GUI just yet because the config file has not been configured. We'll do that later in this lab.
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~$ pip list | grep -i nautobot
nautobot 1.5.12
nautobot-data-validation-engine 1.0.0
nautobot-device-lifecycle-mgmt 1.1.2
(Though not used on this pod configuration, you may check the mysql version with the command mysqld --version.)
Step 1-4 If necessary, upgrade any prerequisite product versions to meet the minimums¶
Confirm that the versions of these prerequisite products are at least as high as those stated in the upgrade instructions. An example of that is:
Nautobot v1.6.0 and later requires the following:
| Dependency | Minimum Version |
|---|---|
| Python | 3.8 |
| PostgreSQL | 9.6 |
| Redis | 4.0 |
Step 1-5 - Install the desired Nautobot version¶
Time to upgrade the Nautobot version, use pip3 and specify version 1.5.23. If a version is not included, Nautobot will update to the most recent release. Beware! The labs in this course have been tested against Nautobot 1.5.23, so please stick with that version.
Step 1-6 - Upgrade Optional Dependencies¶
If you do not have any optional dependencies, you may skip this step.
Once the new code is in place, verify that any optional python packages required by your deployment (e.g. napalm or django-auth-ldap) are listed in a file named local_requirements.txt. For the purposes of this class, we are going to install the Welcome Wizard app to help us populate Nautobot in later labs.
You can create local_requirements.txt with the command touch local_requirements.txt or in VS Code, or using your preferred editor such as nano or vim. Using your preferred method, create and edit local_requirements.txt so there is a single line at the top that says nautobot-welcome-wizard==1.1.4 and save the file.
local_Requirements.txt¶
Then, upgrade your dependencies using pip3. The environment variable$NAUTOBOT_ROOT and other variables can be found in nautobot.env
Check the installed version of the Welcome Wizard app.
Step 1-7 - Run post upgrade operations¶
Finally, run Nautobot's post_upgrade management command. Depending on how big of a version jump is being made, you may see a rather lengthy output, that is expected. The post_upgrade command runs a number of commands in the correct order. The most helpful things it does for you are:
- Applies any database migrations that were included in the release
- Generates any missing cable paths among all cable termination objects in the database
- Collects all static files to be served by the HTTP service
- Deletes stale content types from the database
- Deletes all expired user sessions from the database
- Clears all cached data to prevent conflicts with the new release
Performing database migrations...
Operations to perform:
Apply all migrations: admin, auth, circuits, contenttypes, database, dcim, django_celery_beat, django_rq, extras, ipam, sessions, social_django, taggit, tenancy, users, virtualization
Running migrations:
No migrations to apply.
Generating cable paths...
Found no missing circuit termination paths; skipping
Found no missing console port paths; skipping
Found no missing console server port paths; skipping
Found no missing interface paths; skipping
Found no missing power feed paths; skipping
Found no missing power outlet paths; skipping
Found no missing power port paths; skipping
Finished.
Collecting static files...
0 static files copied to '/opt/nautobot/static', 735 unmodified.
Removing stale content types...
Removing expired sessions...
Invalidating cache...
Step 1-8 - Restart the Nautobot Services¶
Finally, with root permissions, restart the web and background services. Exit from the nautobot user and verify that you are logged in as the ntc user before attempting to restart the Nautobot services. If all we were doing was upgrading the Nautobot version, we would be done and ready to resume using Nautobot. However, in this lab we are going to install a few plugins, which will require another restart later.
Restart the Nautobot services.ntc@ntc-nautobot:~# sudo systemctl restart nautobot nautobot-worker nautobot-scheduler
ntc@ntc-nautobot:~#
Task 2 - Create a Nautobot superuser account¶
Step 2-1 - Login via ssh to the Nautobot installation¶
If not already done, use the Lab 0 access instructions to log in to your pod as user ntc with the password provided by the instructor.
Step 2-2 - Create a Nautobot superuser account¶
Switch back to the nautobot user. Note that the beginning prompt on a command line shows the current user (ntc or nautobot) followed by the @ symbol.
If you are familiar with Django, the nautobot-server command is custom version of the Django manage command. To see a list of available subcommands, use nautobot-server help
Type 'nautobot-server help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.
Available subcommands:
[auth]
changepassword
createsuperuser
[cacheops]
cleanfilecache
invalidate
[constance]
constance
[contenttypes]
remove_stale_contenttypes
[core]
celery
generate_secret_key
generate_test_data
post_upgrade
start
startplugin
validate_models
[dcim]
trace_paths
[django]
check
compilemessages
createcachetable
dbshell
diffsettings
dumpdata
flush
inspectdb
loaddata
sendtestemail
shell
showmigrations
sqlflush
sqlmigrate
sqlsequencereset
squashmigrations
startapp
startproject
test
testserver
[django_extensions]
admin_generator
clean_pyc
clear_cache
compile_pyc
create_command
create_jobs
create_template_tags
delete_squashed_migrations
describe_form
drop_test_database
dumpscript
export_emails
find_template
generate_password
graph_models
list_model_info
list_signals
mail_debug
managestate
merge_model_instances
notes
pipchecker
print_settings
print_user_for_session
raise_test_exception
reset_db
reset_schema
runjobs
runprofileserver
runscript
runserver_plus
set_default_site
set_fake_emails
set_fake_passwords
shell_plus
show_template_tags
show_urls
sqlcreate
sqldiff
sqldsn
sync_s3
syncdata
unreferenced_files
update_permissions
validate_templates
[django_jinja]
makemessages
[django_rq]
rqenqueue
rqscheduler
rqstats
[drf_spectacular]
spectacular
[extras]
fix_custom_fields
nbshell
remove_stale_scheduled_jobs
renaturalize
rqworker
runjob
webhook_receiver
[graphene_django]
graphql_schema
[health_check]
health_check
[rest_framework]
generateschema
[sessions]
clearsessions
[social_django]
clearsocial
[staticfiles]
collectstatic
findstatic
runserver
[utilities]
makemigrations
migrate
If the nautobot-server help command is not found, make sure you are now running as the user nautobot, not ntc.
To create a superuser, use nautobot-server createsuperuser and follow the prompts. The only required information is a username and password.
nautobot@ntc-nautobot:~# nautobot-server createsuperuser
Username: David
Email address:
Password:
Password (again):
Superuser created successfully.
Task 3 - Start the Nautobot GUI and verify that the Welcome Wizard app isn't installed.¶
Step 3-1 - Login via a web browser to Nautobot¶
In a web browser, open the URL https://{{ your pod }}. Log in with the username and password previously established.
Step 3-2 - Verify that Welcome Wizard isn't installed¶
In the list of menu items to the right of the Nautobot logo in the top left corner, click on Plugins. Under that, you shouldn't see the lines Nautobot Welcome Wizard and Welcome Wizard.
Task 4 - Install additional apps and configure Nautobot¶
Step 4-1 - Welcome Wizard overview¶
In a web browser, go to https://github.com/nautobot/nautobot-plugin-welcome-wizard to see various details including installation instructions in the README.md text. You can also read detailed installation instructions at the Welcome Wizard administrator guide: https://docs.nautobot.com/projects/welcome-wizard/en/latest/admin/install/.
Step 4-2 - Login via ssh to the Nautobot host¶
Connect via ssh to your Nautobot pod as the ntc user and verify working directory.
Change to the nautobot user. No nautobot password is needed when starting from the ntc account.
Step 4-3 - Installing Nautobot apps via pip¶
NTCU - SKIP
Step 4-5 - Run Post Upgrade¶
We've installed some additional apps, so let's run post_upgrade. Don't forget this step or your database might not be ready for the new apps!
Step 4-6 - Restart Nautobot services¶
The last step is to restart the Nautobot services, this is required for Nautobot to recognize the changes to the config file and load up our newly installed apps. This must be done as the ntc user, so be sure to exit from the nautobot user first.
Task 5 - Verify the app status and Nautobot version¶
Step 5-1 - Login via a web browser to Nautobot¶
In a web browser, go back to or re-open the URL https://{{ you pod }}. If necessary, log in with the username and password previously established.
Step 5-2 Verify the new Nautobot version¶
Check the Nautobot version on the lower left-hand corner of the Nautobot home page.
Step 5-3 - Verify the apps are installed¶
From the menus at the top of the page select Plugins and Installed Plugins. The installed apps and their versions should be displayed.
