Configuring an HTTP Server¶

This documentation provides example configurations for NGINX though any HTTP server which supports WSGI should be compatible.

Obtain an SSL Certificate¶

To enable HTTPS access to Nautobot, you'll need a valid SSL certificate. You can purchase one from a trusted commercial provider, obtain one for free from Let's Encrypt, or generate your own (although self-signed certificates are generally untrusted). Both the public certificate and private key files need to be installed on your Nautobot server in a secure location that is readable only by the root user.

Warning

The command below can be used to generate a self-signed certificate for testing purposes, however it is strongly recommended to use a certificate from a trusted authority in production.

Two files will be created: the public certificate (nautobot.crt) and the private key (nautobot.key). The certificate is published to the world, whereas the private key must be kept secret at all times.

Info

Some Linux installations, including CentOS, have changed the location for SSL certificates from /etc/ssl/ to /etc/pki/tls/. The command below may need to be changed to reflect the certificate location.

The following command will prompt you for additional details of the certificate; all of which are optional.

$ sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 \
  -keyout /etc/ssl/private/nautobot.key \
  -out /etc/ssl/certs/nautobot.crt

HTTP Server Installation¶

Any HTTP server of your choosing is supported. For your convenience, setup instructions for NGINX are provided here.

Warning

The following steps must be performed with root permissions.

NGINX¶

NGINX is a free, open source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy and is by far the most popular choice.

Install NGINX¶

Begin by installing NGINX:

On Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install -y nginx

On CentOS/RHEL:

$ sudo dnf install -y nginx

Configure NGINX¶

Once NGINX is installed, copy and paste the following NGINX configuration into /etc/nginx/sites-available/nautobot.conf for Ubuntu or /etc/nginx/conf.d/nautobot.conf for CentOS/RHEL:

Note

If the file location of SSL certificates had to be changed in the Obtain an SSL Certificate step above, then the location will need to be changed in the NGINX configuration below.

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2 default_server;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2 default_server;

    server_name _;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/nautobot.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/nautobot.key;

    client_max_body_size 25m;

    location /static/ {
        alias /opt/nautobot/static/;
    }

    # For subdirectory hosting, you'll want to toggle this (e.g. `/nautobot/`).
    # Don't forget to set `FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME` in your `nautobot_config.py` to match.
    # location /nautobot/ {
    location / {
        include uwsgi_params;
        uwsgi_pass  127.0.0.1:8001;
        uwsgi_param Host $host;
        uwsgi_param X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        uwsgi_param X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        uwsgi_param X-Forwarded-Proto $http_x_forwarded_proto;

        # If you want subdirectory hosting, uncomment this. The path must match
        # the path of this location block (e.g. `/nautobot`). For NGINX the path
        # MUST NOT end with a trailing "/".
        # uwsgi_param SCRIPT_NAME /nautobot;
    }

}

server {
    # Redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;
    server_name _;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Enable Nautobot¶

On Ubuntu:

To enable the Nautobot site, you'll need to delete /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and create a symbolic link in the sites-enabled directory to the configuration file you just created:

$ sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nautobot.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/nautobot.conf

On CentOS:

Run the following command to disable the default site that comes with the nginx package:

$ sudo sed -i 's@ default_server@@' /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Restart NGINX¶

Finally, restart the nginx service to use the new configuration.

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Info

If the restart fails, and you changed the default key location, check to make sure the nautobot.conf file you pasted has the updated key location. For example, CentOS requires keys to be in /etc/pki/tls/ instead of /etc/ssl/.

Confirm Permissions for NAUTOBOT_ROOT¶

Ensure that the NAUTOBOT_ROOT permissions are set to 755. If permissions need to be changed, as the nautobot user run:

$ chmod 755 $NAUTOBOT_ROOT

Confirm Connectivity¶

At this point, you should be able to connect to the HTTPS service at the server name or IP address you provided. If you used a self-signed certificate, you will likely need to explicitly allow connectivity in your browser.

Info

Please keep in mind that the configurations provided here are bare minimums required to get Nautobot up and running. You may want to make adjustments to better suit your production environment.

Warning

Certain components of Nautobot (such as the display of rack elevation diagrams) rely on the use of embedded objects. Ensure that your HTTP server configuration does not override the X-Frame-Options response header set by Nautobot.

Troubleshooting¶

Unable to Connect¶

If you are unable to connect to the HTTP server, check that:

NGINX is running and configured to listen on the correct port.
Access is not being blocked by a firewall somewhere along the path. (Try connecting locally from the server itself.)

Static Media Failure¶

If you get a Static Media Failure; The following static media file failed to load: css/base.css, verify the permissions on the $NAUTOBOT_ROOT directory are 755.

Example of correct permissions:

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /opt/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x. 11 nautobot nautobot 4096 Apr  5 11:24 nautobot
[root@localhost ~]#

If the permissions are not correct, modify them accordingly.

Example of modifying the permissions:

[nautobot@localhost ~]$ ls -l /opt/
total 4
drwx------. 11 nautobot nautobot 4096 Apr  5 10:00 nautobot
[nautobot@localhost ~]$ chmod 755 $NAUTOBOT
[nautobot@localhost ~]$ ls -l /opt/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x. 11 nautobot nautobot 4096 Apr  5 11:24 nautobot

502 Bad Gateway¶

If you are able to connect but receive a 502 (bad gateway) error, check the following:

The uWSGI worker processes are running (systemctl status nautobot should show a status of active (running))
NGINX is configured to connect to the port on which uWSGI is listening (default is 8001).
SELinux may be preventing the reverse proxy connection. You may need to allow HTTP network connections with the command setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1. For further information, view the SELinux troubleshooting guide.