Netbox - Ansible connection with API Token

[ScorpionKing34]

I got at home on a new temp NUC EXSI server with Netbox VM successfully installed and on Debian 12 Ansible with the following modules:
$ ansible-galaxy collection list
Collection Version

---

community.vmware 4.0.0
netbox.netbox 3.15.0

/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible_collections
Collection Version
community.hashi_vault 4.1.0
community.vmware 3.4.0
netbox.netbox 3.11.0

Followed the instructions on 'https://netboxlabs.com/blog/getting-started-with-network-automation-netbox-ansible/' but I am unable to make it work.

Content netbox_inventory.yml:

# Ansible netbox_inventory.yml

---
plugin: netbox.netbox.nb_inventory
api_endpoint: http://<IP_to_my_netbox_api_server>:8000
token: <My API Token>
validate_certs: True
config_context: False

Content ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
collections_paths = ./collections
host_key_checking = false
inventory = ./inventory/netbox_inventory.yml
timeout = 120

[inventory]
cache = false

[inventory_plugins]
use_extra_vars = false

When I ran the following conmand I got the error below:
$ **ansible-inventory --list -i netbox_inventory.yml -vvv**

ansible-inventory [core 2.14.3]
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/home/bc-dev01/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/bc-dev01/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible-inventory
  python version = 3.11.2 (main, Mar 13 2023, 12:18:29) [GCC 12.2.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True
No config file found; using defaults
host_list declined parsing /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
script declined parsing /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
Using inventory plugin 'ansible_collections.netbox.netbox.plugins.inventory.nb_inventory' to process inventory source '/opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml'
Fetching: http://<IP_to_my_netbox_api_server>:8000/api/status
toml declined parsing /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml as it did not pass its verify_file() method
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml with auto plugin: expected string or bytes-like object, got 'int'
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/auto.py", line 59, in parse
    plugin.parse(inventory, loader, path, cache=cache)
  File "/home/bc-dev01/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/netbox/netbox/plugins/inventory/nb_inventory.py", line 2060, in parse
    self.main()
  File "/home/bc-dev01/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/netbox/netbox/plugins/inventory/nb_inventory.py", line 1907, in main
    self.fetch_api_docs()
  File "/home/bc-dev01/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/netbox/netbox/plugins/inventory/nb_inventory.py", line 1513, in fetch_api_docs
    if version.parse(netbox_api_version) >= version.parse("3.5.0"):
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/packaging/version.py", line 52, in parse
    return Version(version)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/packaging/version.py", line 195, in __init__
    match = self._regex.search(version)
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml with yaml plugin: Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/yaml.py", line 114, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError('Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory')
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml with ini plugin: Invalid host pattern '---' supplied, '---' is normally a sign this is a
YAML file.
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/ini.py", line 137, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError(e)
[WARNING]: Unable to parse /opt/semaphore/netbox/inventory/netbox_inventory.yml as an inventory source
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
{
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {}
    },
    "all": {
        "children": [
            "ungrouped"
        ]
    }
}

Can someone help me? or should I place this on the ansible repo site?

[candlerb]

I'm not using ansible with netbox currently, but here's the config I used to use a year or two back:

ansible.cfg

[defaults]
inventory = netbox.yaml
host_key_checking = False
nocows = 1
retry_files_enabled = False

[inventory]
enable_plugins = netbox, ini

netbox.yaml

plugin: netbox
api_endpoint: https://netbox.example.net/
token: XXXXXXXX
validate_certs: True
config_context: False
group_by:
  - sites
  - device_roles
  - tags
query_filters:
  - tag: ansible

I notice in your output

Fetching: http://<IP_to_my_netbox_api_server>:8000/api/status

but then it moves onto a different inventory type. This suggests to me that the URL you've given is broken. Have you tried it with curl or curl -v on the same host as where ansible is running?

[ScorpionKing34]

dear candlerb

The following line is to hide my netbox server ip, but for the complete picture:
Fetching: http://192.168.178.85:8000/api/status

This Fetching comes from netbox_inventory.yml --> api_endpoint: http://192.168.178.85:8000

[candlerb]

I mean, try the following command on the host where you want to run ansible:

curl -v -H "Authorization: Token XXXXXXXX" http://192.168.178.85:8000/api/status/

What does that display?

Note: the trailing slash is necessary - without it you'll get a 301 redirect, and that implies to me that maybe the netbox inventory module you're using is broken (unless it also follows the redirect).

[candlerb]

Another thing you can try is on the Netbox server itself:

tcpdump -i lo -nn -s0 -A tcp port 8001

and then run your ansible-inventory command on the host where you ran it before. Look at the tcpdump output to see the actual HTTP exchange going to and from Netbox.

This assumes you are running a standard Netbox installation with apache or nginx as the front-end proxy, forwarding to gunicorn on port 8001. If you are running something else like Netbox-in-Docker then it may need to be adjusted.

[ScorpionKing34]

I must go now, keep you updated about my progress.

[ScorpionKing34]

I tested with ubuntu 22.04 and also did not work as expected, see netbox-community/ansible_modules#1124 for additional information. I'll close this issue and proceed with issue 1124.