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Containers with Podman Compose (NetBox Plus)

NetBox Plus ships a Dockerfile and Compose stack in the repository root: PostgreSQL 16, Redis 7, Gunicorn (web), and RQ workers. The image is based on Red Hat UBI (UBI 9 by default; UBI 10 optional on CPUs that support x86-64-v3).

Documentation and examples use podman and podman compose. If your organization standardizes on Docker Engine, the same docker-compose.yml works with docker compose; only the CLI prefix changes.

Why we recommend Podman

  • Daemonless model: Podman runs containers as regular processes instead of relying on a single long-lived root daemon for every operation. That simplifies threat modeling and avoids the “access to the Docker socket” pattern that is effectively broad host privilege on many setups.
  • Rootless-first: Building and running images as an unprivileged user is a well-supported path, which matters on shared servers and in regulated environments.
  • Same images and workflows: Podman uses OCI images and registries like Docker Hub; commands mirror Docker’s (podman run, podman build, podman compose).
  • Alignment with RHEL / UBI: The NetBox Plus image is built on Red Hat UBI; Podman is the supported container stack on RHEL and integrates cleanly with SELinux and enterprise Linux policies.
  • Licensing on workstations: Docker Desktop has commercial licensing constraints for some companies; Podman Desktop is a practical alternative where that applies.

Some tools still assume a Docker socket; if you depend on those, Docker may remain the right choice for that environment. For typical NetBox Plus deployments on Linux, Podman is the default we document and recommend.

Official pre-built image

Swissmakers publishes a ready-to-use image to Docker Hub:

swissmakers/netbox-plus on Docker Hub

Pull the latest tag (or a specific tag if published):

podman pull swissmakers/netbox-plus:latest

Use it with the bundled Compose file (the default image is swissmakers/netbox-plus:latest; set NETBOX_IMAGE in .env only for another tag or registry):

  1. Copy the environment template: cp docker/.env.example .env

  2. Set at least NETBOX_SECRET_KEY, change admin credentials and modify any host/CSRF values you need.

  3. From the repository root (where docker-compose.yml lives):

    podman compose pull netbox
podman compose up -d

After the image is present locally, Compose will use it for both netbox and netbox-worker. The main Compose file does not define build: for netbox (so NETBOX_IMAGE is not ignored by an automatic rebuild). To build from the local Dockerfile, run podman build and set NETBOX_IMAGE=localhost/netbox-plus:dev in .env (see docker/README.md).

Open the UI on http://localhost:8080 (or the host/port you mapped with NETBOX_PUBLISH_PORT).

Build from source instead

To build the UBI image locally (same layout as CI):

podman build -t netbox-plus:dev .
cp docker/.env.example .env
# edit .env — set NETBOX_SECRET_KEY, superuser vars, and NETBOX_IMAGE=localhost/netbox-plus:dev
podman compose up -d

Optional: NETBOX_BASE_IMAGE for UBI 10 (see repository docker/README.md).

Further reading