How-to: Bulk Import Certificates¶

Import many certificates at once from CSV, JSON, or concatenated PEM — useful for initial inventory population, migrations from other systems, or scripted ingestion.

When to use this¶

• Populating NetBox SSL for the first time with an existing inventory
• Migrating from a spreadsheet or another certificate manager via CSV export
• Scripted imports from internal tooling (CI, cron jobs, config management)

For a single certificate, use the First Import tutorial.

Bulk PEM import (concatenated)¶

If you have multiple PEM certificates in a single blob (e.g., a full chain or a concatenated bundle), simply paste the whole blob into the single-cert import form. Each -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- / -----END CERTIFICATE----- block is parsed as a separate record.

Bulk CSV/JSON import¶

The dedicated bulk import page takes metadata rows rather than PEM blobs — ideal when you don't have the full PEM on hand or you're migrating from another system that only exports metadata.

Steps¶

1. Navigate to Plugins → SSL Certificates → Bulk Import
2. Paste CSV or JSON content, or upload a file (default cap: 5 MB)
3. The plugin auto-detects the format and validates every row
4. Review the preview table — rows with validation errors are flagged in red
5. Click Confirm Import to create the certificates

CSV format¶

common_name,serial_number,issuer,valid_from,valid_to,fingerprint_sha256,algorithm,key_size,status,sans,tenant
example.com,01:23:45:67:89,CN=DigiCert CA,2024-01-01,2025-01-01,AA:BB:CC:DD:...,rsa,2048,active,example.com;www.example.com,Production

SANs are semicolon-separated in CSV because commas are the row delimiter.

JSON format¶

[
  {
    "common_name": "example.com",
    "serial_number": "01:23:45:67:89",
    "issuer": "CN=DigiCert CA",
    "valid_from": "2024-01-01",
    "valid_to": "2025-01-01",
    "fingerprint_sha256": "AA:BB:CC:DD:...",
    "algorithm": "rsa",
    "key_size": 2048,
    "status": "active",
    "sans": ["example.com", "www.example.com"]
  }
]

Required fields¶

Optional fields¶

DER and PKCS#7 file import (v0.9+)¶

If you have binary certificate files instead of PEM text:

• DER (.der, .cer): single binary certificate — the plugin converts to PEM on the fly during import.
• PKCS#7 (.p7b, .p7c): bundle containing a certificate and its chain — the plugin extracts every certificate from the bundle as a separate record.

Use the POST /api/plugins/netbox-ssl/certificates/import-file/ endpoint with multipart file upload, or paste the file content into the bulk import page (it auto-detects the format).

Programmatic bulk import via API¶

For scripted ingestion from your CI or automation:

curl -X POST https://netbox.example/api/plugins/netbox-ssl/certificates/bulk-import/ \
  -H "Authorization: Token $NETBOX_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "format": "json",
    "data": [ { "common_name": "example.com", ... }, ... ],
    "on_duplicate": "skip"
  }'

Response includes per-row status (created, skipped, error) and total counts.

See the API reference for the full endpoint specification.

Troubleshooting¶