Merge pull request #1 from cruse1977/dq-localaccess

Add ability to run locally on discovery-quickstart

Author: cruse1977

netbox-discovery-quickstart/1_set_envvars.sh

@@ -17,13 +17,16 @@ if [ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]; then
 else
     echo "Environment file not found. Generating new variables."
 
-    # Attempt to fetch the external IPv4 address
-    EXTERNAL_IP=$(curl -4 -s ifconfig.me)  # Use -4 to ensure IPv4 is returned
-
-    # Check if the IP was retrieved successfully
-    if [ -z "$EXTERNAL_IP" ]; then
-        echo "Error: Unable to determine external IPv4 address."
-        exit 1
+    if [[ -z "${MY_EXTERNAL_IP}" ]]; then
+	# Attempt to fetch the external IPv4 address
+    	EXTERNAL_IP=$(curl -4 -s ifconfig.me)  # Use -4 to ensure IPv4 is returned
+    	# Check if the IP was retrieved successfully
+    	if [ -z "$EXTERNAL_IP" ]; then
+        	echo "Error: Unable to determine external IPv4 address."
+        	exit 1
+    	fi
+    else
+			EXTERNAL_IP=${MY_EXTERNAL_IP}
     fi
 
     # Generate new variables

netbox-discovery-quickstart/README.md

@@ -21,11 +21,7 @@ You will be able to run simple scripts to use both features of NetBox Discovery:
 
 > [!TIP]
 >  
-> The workshop assumes it is running on an internet accessible machine and it relies on the public IP for a lot of functionality  
-> This means that **it will not work on your local machine**, but we aim to add that possibility at a later stage. Please use a cloud VM for now.    
-
-> [!TIP]
->  
+> - The workshop can be ran on a server or virtual machine with a public or private ip. Please see the additional step for the latter option  
 > - We recommend using a machine with at least 4GB of RAM and 2 cores. If you're using a discount cloud or are going to run Cisco IOS images, we recommend at least 8GB of RAM and 4 cores.  
 > - The workshop has only been tested on Ubuntu 22.04. It _should_ work on other Linux distros but if you hit any problems please create an [issue](https://github.com/netboxlabs/netbox-learning/issues) in GitHub  
 > - Unfortunately MacOS is not supported. The workshop relies heavily on ContainerLab which does not have native support for MacOS  
@@ -57,6 +53,14 @@ su - quickstart
 
 ### Generate and export the necessary environment variables for the quickstart
 
+ Optionally set a private IP.  If this machine does not have a public ipv4 address assigned on a local interface, this option should be used. 
+
+ Replace <my ip address> with an ip address assigned to the local machine - eg: 10.1.1.1
+
+```
+export MY_EXTERNAL_IP=<ip address>
+```
+
 > [!TIP]
 >   
 > `1_set_envvars.sh` writes the variables it generates to a file in the root directory called `environment`