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Nautobot v2.4

This document describes all new features and changes in Nautobot 2.4.

Upgrade Actions

Administrators

  • Nautobot 2.4 drops support for Python 3.8, so any existing Nautobot deployment in Python 3.8 will need to be replaced with a new deployment using a newer Python version before upgrading to Nautobot v2.4 or later.
  • Administrators should familiarize themselves with the new Event Publication Framework and the possibilities it enables for improved monitoring of Nautobot operations.
  • Administrators of Kubernetes-based Nautobot deployments should familiarize themselves with the new capabilities that Nautobot 2.4 provides for Job execution in such environments and may wish to update their Nautobot configuration to take advantage of these capabilities.

Job Authors & App Developers

  • App developers should begin to adopt the UI Component Framework introduced in Nautobot 2.4, as this will reduce the amount of boilerplate HTML/CSS content that they need to develop and maintain, and will insulate Apps from future CSS changes planned for Nautobot v3.
  • Additionally, App developers should familiarize themselves with the new Event Publication Framework and the possibilities it enables for Apps to publish their own relevant events.
  • Job authors should be aware of the ability to log success messages in Nautobot v2.4 and later and should adopt this log level as appropriate.
  • Job authors should be aware of the introduction of Job Queues as a general-purpose replacement for the Celery-specific Job.task_queues attribute, and if a Job specifies its preferred task_queues, should verify that the queue selected as its default_job_queue after the Nautobot upgrade is correct.

Release Overview

Added

Apps Marketplace Page and Installed Apps Page Tile View

Nautobot 2.4 introduces Apps Marketplace page containing information about available but not installed Nautobot Apps. In addition to that, Installed Apps page is getting a brand-new tile view as an alternative to already existing list view.

Event Publication Framework

Nautobot now includes a general-purpose, extensible event publication framework for publication of system event notifications to other systems such as Redis publish/subscribe, syslog, Kafka, and others. An abstract EventBroker API can be implemented and extended with system-specific functionality to enable publication of Nautobot events to any desired system.

As of Nautobot 2.4.0, Nautobot publishes events with the following topics:

  • nautobot.create.<app>.<model>
  • nautobot.update.<app>.<model>
  • nautobot.delete.<app>.<model>
  • nautobot.users.user.login
  • nautobot.users.user.logout
  • nautobot.users.user.change_password
  • nautobot.admin.user.change_password
  • nautobot.jobs.job.started
  • nautobot.jobs.job.completed
  • nautobot.jobs.approval.approved
  • nautobot.jobs.approval.denied

Nautobot Apps can also make use of this framework to publish additional events specific to the App's functionality as desired.

Jinja2 Template Rendering Tool

Nautobot 2.4 adds a new REST API endpoint /api/core/render-jinja-template/ that can be called to render a user-provided Jinja2 template with user-provided context data and access to Nautobot's built-in Jinja2 tags and filters. This can be used by users and Apps such as Nautobot Golden Config to assist with the development and validation of Jinja2 template content. There is a UI at /render-jinja-template/ that provides a form for entering template content and context data to render a template. This UI can also be accessed from a link in the footer of any Nautobot page.

Job success Log Level

Jobs can now once again log success messages as a new logging level which will be appropriately labeled and colorized in Job Result views.

self.logger.success("All data is valid.")

Kubernetes Job Execution and Job Queue Data Model

When running in a Kubernetes (k8s) deployment, such as with Nautobot's Helm chart, Nautobot now supports an alternative method of running Nautobot Jobs - instead of (or in addition to) running one or more Celery Workers as long-lived persistent pods, Nautobot can dispatch Nautobot Jobs to be executed as short-lived Kubernetes Job task pods.

In support of this functionality, Nautobot now supports the definition of JobQueue records, which represent either a Celery task queue or a Kubernetes job queue. Nautobot Jobs can be associated to queues of either or both types, and the Job Queue selected when submitting a Job will dictate whether it is executed via Celery or via Kubernetes.

Refer to the Jobs documentation for more details.

Per-user Time Zone Support

Users can now configure their preferred display time zone via the User Preferences UI and Nautobot will display dates and times in the configured time zone for each user.

UI Component Framework

Nautobot's new UI Component Framework provides a set of Python APIs for defining parts of the Nautobot UI without needing, in many cases, to write custom HTML templates. In this release of Nautobot, the focus is primarily on the definition of object "detail" views as those were the most common cases where custom templates have been required in the past.

Adoption of this framework significantly reduces the amount of boilerplate needed to define an object detail view, drives increased self-consistency across views, and encourages code reuse. It also insulates Apps from the details of Nautobot's CSS (Bootstrap 3 framework), smoothing the way for Nautobot to adopt a new CSS framework in the future with minimal impact to compliant apps.

App template extensions of Nautobot core views can also be reimplemented using the UI Component Framework and are recommended to do so.

As of Nautobot 2.4.0, the following detail views have been migrated to use the UI Component Framework:

  • Circuit
  • Cluster Type
  • Device ("Add Components" buttons only)
  • External Integration
  • Location Type
  • Provider
  • Route Target
  • Secret
  • Tenant
  • VRF

Virtual Device Context Data Models

Nautobot 2.4 adds a VirtualDeviceContext data model to support modeling of logical partitions of physical network devices, such as Cisco Nexus Virtual Device Contexts, Juniper Logical Systems, Arista Multi-instance EOS, and so forth. Device Interfaces can be associated to Virtual Device Contexts via the new InterfaceVDCAssignment model as well.

Wireless Data Models

Nautobot 2.4 adds the data models WirelessNetwork, RadioProfile, and SupportedDataRate, enabling Nautobot to model campus wireless networks. In support of this functionality, the Controller and ControllerManagedDeviceGroup models have been enhanced with additional capabilities as well.

Refer to the Wireless documentation for more details.

Deprecated

FilterTestCases.NameOnlyFilterTestCase and FilterTestCases.NameSlugFilterTestCase

These two generic base test classes are deprecated. Apps should migrate to using FilterTestCases.FilterTestCase with an appropriately defined list of generic_filter_tests instead.

Job task_queues and ScheduledJob.queue

The Job.task_queues field (a list of queue name strings) is deprecated in favor of the new Job.job_queues relationship to the JobQueue model. task_queues is still readable and settable for backward compatibility purposes but code using this attribute should migrate to using job_queues instead.

Similarly, ScheduledJob.queue is deprecated in favor of ScheduledJob.job_queue.

TemplateExtension.detail_tabs(), TemplateExtension.left_page() and others

With the introduction of the UI Component Framework (described above), new APIs are available for Apps to extend core Nautobot views with additional content using this framework. A number of new APIs have been added to the TemplateExtension base class in support of this functionality, and several existing TemplateExtension APIs have been deprecated in favor of these new APIs. Refer to the App development documentation for details.

Dependencies

Removed Python 3.8 Support

As Python 3.8 has reached end-of-life, Nautobot 2.4 requires a minimum of Python 3.9.

v2.4.0b1 (2024-11-25)

  • #3263 - Added support for users to specify their timezone from the user Preferences UI.
  • #6087 - Added JobQueue and JobQueueAssignment models, GraphQL, UI and API.
  • #6087 - Added a data migration to replace Job.task_queues with JobQueue instances.
  • #6087 - Added a data migration to replace ScheduledJob.queue with a JobQueue instance.
  • #6089 - Added enforcement of the Job execution soft time limit to the nautobot-server runjob --local ... management command.
  • #6089 - Added automatic refreshing of Git repository Jobs to the nautobot-server runjob management command.
  • #6133 - Added ObjectDetailContent, Tab, and Panel UI component Python classes.
  • #6133 - Added support for defining an object_detail_content attribute on object detail view classes to use the new UI framework.
  • #6134 - Added support for ordering Tab and Panel instances by weight in code-defined detail views.
  • #6134 - Added ObjectsTablePanel class for rendering related-object tables in code-defined detail views.
  • #6135 - Enhanced ObjectFieldsPanel: Include TreeModel Hierarchy display, copy button at row level and url fields automatically hyperlinked features.
  • #6136 - Enhanced ObjectsTablePanel: Include features like include/exclude columns, set limits of rows, change table panel header title.
  • #6137 - Added DataTablePanel UI component.
  • #6137 - Added support for context_table_key parameter to ObjectsTablePanel.__init__().
  • #6137 - Added automatic formatting of JSONField in ObjectFieldsPanel.
  • #6138 - Added BaseTextPanel.RenderOptions.CODE option to render values inside <pre> tags using the TextPanel and ObjectTextPanel.
  • #6139 - Added ObjectTextPanel for rendering text with markdown/json/yaml from given object field.
  • #6139 - Added TextPanel for rendering text with markdown/json/yaml from given value in the context.
  • #6140 - Added StatsPanel UI component Python class.
  • #6141 - Added KeyValueTablePanel and GroupedKeyValueTablePanel generic panel classes to Python UI framework.
  • #6141 - Added RelationshipModel.get_relationships_with_related_objects() API allowing direct querying for all objects related to a given object by Relationships.
  • #6141 - Added object tags display to detail views using the Python UI framework.
  • #6142 - Added Button UI framework class and ObjectDetailContent.extra_buttons attribute, enabling declarative specification of custom buttons in an object detail view.
  • #6142 - Added support for App TemplateExtension implementations to define object_detail_buttons.
  • #6144 - Added Virtual Device Context Model, API, UI.
  • #6196 - Added Wireless Models.
  • #6208 - Added nautobot.core.events module, Redis and syslog event brokers, and event publication of CRUD events.
  • #6211 - Added InterfaceVDCAssignment model and API.
  • #6241 - Added REST API for Wireless models.
  • #6255 - Added KUBERNETES_DEFAULT_SERVICE_ADDRESS, KUBERNETES_JOB_MANIFEST, KUBERNETES_JOB_POD_NAME, KUBERNETES_JOB_POD_NAMESPACE, KUBERNETES_SSL_CA_CERT_PATH and KUBERNETES_TOKEN_PATH settings variables to support Kubernetes Job execution.
  • #6258 - Added optional role field to VirtualDeviceContext.
  • #6259 - Added default_job_queue field to the Job Model.
  • #6276 - Added support for Apps to define object_detail_panels and object_detail_tabs in their TemplateExtension classes.
  • #6276 - Added nautobot.apps.ui.DistinctViewTab class for defining detail-view tabs that exist as a distinct view.
  • #6276 - Added nautobot.apps.ui.render_component_template helper function.
  • #6323 - Added Scheduled Job support for Kubernetes Job Execution.
  • #6324 - Added Event Broker Config
  • #6325 - Added event publishing for events: user login, user logout, job failed, user changed password and admin changes user's password.
  • #6326 - Added event publishing for events: job started, job completed, job failed, schedule job approved and scheduled job denied.
  • #6338 - Added UI Components for Wireless models.
  • #6348 - Added "Add virtual device contexts" to the Virtual Device Contexts panel in Device detail view.
  • #6377 - Added support for hide_hierarchy_ui option in ObjectsTablePanel.
  • #6387 - Added a custom SUCCESS log level for use in Nautobot and Nautobot Jobs.
  • #6446 - Added support for query_params to NavMenuItem and NavMenuButton.
  • #6446 - Added capabilities field to Controller and ControllerManagedDeviceGroup.
  • #6488 - Added a REST API endpoint for rendering Jinja2 templates.
  • #6504 - Added Apps Marketplace page.
  • #6513 - Added pre_tag helper/filter method to wrap content within <pre> tags.
  • #6537 - Added logic to prevent users from modifying device on Virtual Device Contexts.
  • #6539 - Added Installed Apps page tile view.
  • #6555 - Added a Jinja template renderer to the UI.

Changed

  • #6125 - Refactored Job run related code to be able to use Job Queues.
  • #6133 - Converted Circuit detail view to use the new UI framework.
  • #6137 - Converted example app ExampleModel detail view to use UI component framework.
  • #6137 - Converted ExternalIntegration detail view to use UI component framework.
  • #6138 - Changed ExampleModelUIViewSet with added example of TextPanel usage.
  • #6139 - Changed _ObjectCommentPanel to be subclass of ObjectTextPanel and use newly created text panel component.
  • #6140 - Refactored Tenant detail view to use UI component Python classes.
  • #6142 - Converted Secret related views to use NautobotUIViewSet and UI Framework.
  • #6142 - Converted Device detail view to use UI Framework to define the "Add Components" dropdown.
  • #6196 - JSONArrayField now allows choices to be provided in the base_field declaration.
  • #6205 - Changed initial Nautobot initialized! message logged on startup to include the Nautobot version number.
  • #6330 - Refactored ObjectsTablePanel to accept either a table class and a queryset or an already initialized table.
  • #6377 - Converted VRF and RouteTarget UI views to use NautobotUIViewSet and object_detail_content.
  • #6476 - Converted ClusterType detail view to use UI framework.
  • #6503 - Addressed Wireless models UI Feedback.

Deprecated

  • #6108 - Deprecated the FilterTestCases.NameOnlyFilterTestCase and FilterTestCases.NameSlugFilterTestCase generic test classes. Apps should migrate to FilterTestCases.FilterTestCase with an appropriately defined list of generic_filter_tests instead.
  • #6142 - Deprecated the TemplateExtension.buttons() API in favor of TemplateExtension.object_detail_buttons implementation based around the UI Component Framework.
  • #6276 - Deprecated the TemplateExtension.left_page(), TemplateExtension.right_page(), and TemplateExtension.full_width_page() APIs in favor of TemplateExtension.object_detail_panels implementation based around the UI Component Framework.

Removed

  • #6108 - Removed the previously deprecated ViewTestCases.BulkImportObjectsViewTestCase generic test class as obsolete.
  • #6342 - Removed remnants of the React UI prototype - NavContext, NavGrouping, NavItem, GetMenuAPIView, GetObjectCountsView, ViewConfigException, get_all_new_ui_ready_routes(), get_only_new_ui_ready_routes(), is_route_new_ui_ready().

Fixed

  • #6089 - Fixed warning message No sanitizer support for <class 'NoneType'> data emitted by the nautobot-server runjob --local ... command.
  • #6108 - Fixed incorrect definition of VirtualMachineFilterSet.cluster filter.
  • #6137 - Fixed ObjectsTablePanel.related_field_name fallback logic to be more correct.
  • #6137 - Fixed incorrect configuration of "Contacts", "Dynamic Groups", and "Object Metadata" tables in component-based views.
  • #6139 - Fixed body_content_text.html to properly render different formats like json, yaml or markdown.
  • #6208 - Fixed duplicate loading of nautobot_config.py during Nautobot startup.
  • #6246 - Fixed accordion collapse/expand behavior when grouped computed fields and/or custom fields are present in a detail view.
  • #6331 - Added missing role field in Virtual Device Context detail view and edit view.
  • #6331 - Fixed Virtual Device Context edit view layout.
  • #6337 - Added exception handling and fallback logic for Constance config lookups as django-constance 4.x removed some built-in exception handling.
  • #6338 - Fixed NumericArrayField not respecting numerical order.
  • #6377 - Fixed Panel rendering to not include the header or footer if the content is only whitespace.
  • #6377 - Fixed incorrect/unnecessary rendering of many-to-many fields in ObjectFieldsPanel.
  • #6377 - Fixed various references to context["object"] to use get_obj_from_context() appropriately.
  • #6394 - Fixed unexpected error {'default_job_queue': ['This field cannot be null.']} on Job Bulk Update.
  • #6394 - Fixed overriding custom job_queues on Job Bulk Update when no changes made on this field.
  • #6395 - Corrected name of IPAM migration 0050 to match the one released in v2.3.6.
  • #6397 - Fixed incorrect handling of JobQueue objects in get_worker_count().
  • #6403 - Fixed wrong Primary IPv6 field label on VirtualDeviceContextForm.
  • #6428 - Fixed some issues causing failures with reverse migrations.
  • #6537 - Fixed unexpected failure when adding an interface component to a device from the Device detail view.
  • #6546 - Fixed inconsistent rendering of the Role column on the Virtual Device Context list table.
  • #6549 - Added missing / to /api/core/render-jinja-template/ URL.

Dependencies

  • #5963 - Updated django-taggit to ~6.1.0.
  • #6252 - Dropped support for Python 3.8. Python 3.9 is now the minimum version required by Nautobot.
  • #6254 - Added kubernetes==31.0.0 development dependency.
  • #6342 - Removed dependency on drf-react-template-framework.
  • #6363 - Removed direct dependency on MarkupSafe as Nautobot does not use it directly, only through the Jinja2 dependency.
  • #6363 - Updated dependency Pillow to ~11.0.0.
  • #6363 - Updated dependency django-auth-ldap to ~5.1.0.
  • #6469 - Updated dependency django-silk to ~5.3.0.
  • #6549 - Moved kubernetes from a development-only dependency to a required dependency.

Documentation

  • #6144 - Added documentation for Virtual Device Contexts.
  • #6254 - Added documentation of how to use K8s Kind cluster for local K8s integrations development.
  • #6275 - Added documentation about migration from template-based views into UI Component Framework.
  • #6275 - Added UI Component Framework documentation.
  • #6275 - Updated documentation of development/apps/api/views/ to inform users about preferred usage of UI Component Framework.
  • #6275 - Updated docstrings for some of UI related classes to improve auto-generated docs.
  • #6381 - Added Wireless Model documentation.
  • #6549 - Added 2.4 release overview.

Housekeeping

  • #5963 - Updated development dependency faker to >=30.1.0,<30.2.0.
  • #5963 - Updated documentation dependency towncrier to ~24.8.0.
  • #5963 - Updated watchdog to ~5.0.0.
  • #6108 - Removed roughly 800 redundant and/or obsolete test cases.
  • #6108 - Merged the APIViewTestCases.NotesURLViewTestCase.test_notes_url_on_object generic test function into APIViewTestCases.GetObjectViewTestCase.test_get_object generic test function to reduce redundant code and improve test speed.
  • #6108 - Merged the FilterTestCases.FilterTestCase.test_id generic test function into FilterTestCases.FilterTestCase.test_filters_generic generic test function to reduce redundant code and improve test speed.
  • #6108 - Removed the FilterTestCases.FilterTestCase.test_q_filter_exists generic test function as redundant.
  • #6108 - Merged the ViewTestCases.GetObjectViewTestCase.test_has_advanced_tab generic test function into ViewTestCases.GetObjectViewTestCase.test_get_object_with_permission generic test function to reduce redundant code and improve test speed.
  • #6108 - Removed the ViewTestCases.CreateObjectViewTestCase.test_slug_autocreation and test_slug_not_modified generic test functions as obsolete.
  • #6108 - Merged the ViewTestCases.ListObjectsViewTestCase.test_list_view_app_banner generic test function into ViewTestCases.ListObjectsViewTestCase.test_list_objects_with_permission generic test function to reduce redundant code and improve test speed.
  • #6133 - Moved definition of nav and homepage base classes from nautobot.core.apps to new nautobot.core.ui module. (These classes are still available to App authors via the same nautobot.apps.ui import aliases as previously).
  • #6133 - Added support for --quiet option to invoke nbshell task.
  • #6250 - Improved speed of JobQueueFactory when a large number of Jobs are installed.
  • #6275 - Added parameter --fix to invoke markdownlint.
  • #6320 - Fixed an error when rerunning a test with cached test fixtures that included default job queues.
  • #6493 - Moved runjob helper functions from nautobot.extras.management.__init__.py to nautobot.extras.management.utils.py.