Populating a fresh Nautobot instance manually is a task no network engineer looks forward to. You are staring at an empty dashboard, knowing that weeks of tedious data entry stand between you and a functioning source of truth. This guide shows you exactly how to populate Nautobot automatically using our open-source Simple Labs GitLab repository — turning a manual nightmare into a repeatable, automated workflow.

Why Automate Nautobot Population?

A Network Source of Truth (NSoT) is only as good as the data it holds. When you populate Nautobot manually, you introduce several risks:

• Human Error: Typos in IP addresses or missing cable connections are inevitable.
• Stale Data: By the time you finish entering data manually, the network has likely changed.
• Time Sink: Highly skilled engineers spend time on data entry instead of solving complex problems.

By choosing to populate Nautobot automatically, you ensure accuracy, maintain an up-to-date NSoT, and free up valuable engineering time.

What Is Simple Labs?

Simple Labs is our open-source GitLab repository housing tools designed to accelerate network automation workflows. The Nautobot sync capability is built on top of Simple Facts (sfacts), a CLI tool that handles discovery, fact collection, and syncing — all in one place.

Network Automation Data Collection: From Raw Data to Actionable Insights | Netodata

Modern enterprise networks are complex ecosystems that demand intelligent automation for effective management. However, network automation data collection

netodata.io

Simple Facts handles the heavy lifting:

• Discovery: Scanning IP ranges to find active network devices.
• Fact Collection: Connecting to devices via SSH to retrieve accurate hardware and operational data.
• Sync: Pushing collected data to Nautobot via its REST API.

Setting Up Your Environment

1. Spin Up a Nautobot Instance

If you do not have a Nautobot instance running, the Simple Labs repository includes a local lab stack you can bring up with Docker Compose:

# Clone the Simple Labs repository
git clone https://gitlab.com/netodata/simple-labs.git
cd simple-labs

# Bring up the Nautobot lab stack
docker compose -f labs/nautobot/docker-compose.yml up -d

# Bootstrap the admin user and API token
./labs/nautobot/bootstrap.sh

# Clone the Simple Labs repository
git clone https://gitlab.com/netodata/simple-labs.git
cd simple-labs

# Bring up the Nautobot lab stack
docker compose -f labs/nautobot/docker-compose.yml up -d

# Bootstrap the admin user and API token
./labs/nautobot/bootstrap.sh

This gives you a Nautobot instance at http://localhost:8080 with a pre-configured API token ready to use.

2. Install Simple Facts

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install .

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install .

Then configure your environment variables to point sfacts at your Nautobot instance:

export NAUTOBOT_URL="http://localhost:8080"
export NAUTOBOT_TOKEN="0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567"

export NAUTOBOT_URL="http://localhost:8080"
export NAUTOBOT_TOKEN="0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567"

The Three-Step Workflow: Discover, Collect, Sync

To populate Nautobot automatically with Simple Labs, the entire process comes down to three commands.

Step 1 — Discover the Network

sfacts discover --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --output devices.json

sfacts discover --targets 192.168.1.0/24 --output devices.json

This scans the provided subnet, identifies active devices, and saves the inventory to devices.json.

Step 2 — Collect Facts

sfacts collect --inventory devices.json --output facts.json

sfacts collect --inventory devices.json --output facts.json

Simple Facts connects to each device via SSH, gathers OS version, interface data, serial numbers, and more, then structures everything into facts.json.

Step 3 — Sync to Nautobot

sfacts nautobot sync --input facts.json --site-name "HQ"

sfacts nautobot sync --input facts.json --site-name "HQ"

In a single command, Simple Facts will:

• Create the necessary Manufacturers, Device Types, and Roles.
• Create Devices and link them to the specified Site and Location.
• Populate Interfaces and IP Addresses.
• Sync VLANs and VRFs.

Alternatively – use Prefect’s UI

Verifying the Results

Log into Nautobot at http://localhost:8080 (username: admin, password: admin) and navigate to the Devices section. You will see your network devices fully populated — complete with interfaces, IP addresses, and hardware details. What would have taken days of manual data entry is done in three commands.

Keeping Nautobot Up to Date with Prefect

A one-time sync is a great start, but networks change constantly. Simple Labs integrates natively with Prefect to schedule and monitor ongoing sync workflows. By deploying the sync-to-nautobot Prefect flow, you can run a daily job that automatically discovers the network, collects fresh facts, and syncs any changes to Nautobot — ensuring your NSoT stays accurate without any manual intervention.

Conclusion

The ability to populate Nautobot automatically is the first critical step toward a reliable, continuously accurate Network Source of Truth. With the Nautobot sync tooling now available in the Simple Labs GitLab repository, you can eliminate manual data entry, reduce human error, and keep your automation platform working with real, up-to-date data.

Stop staring at that empty dashboard. Clone Simple Labs, run three commands, and let the tools do the heavy lifting.

👉 Get started with Simple Labs on GitLab →