NETCONF
NETCONF replaced manual CLI for network device configuration in most modern SD-WAN, carrier, and enterprise deployments. Understanding datastores, capabilities, and YANG-driven RPC is essential for network automation.
What It Defines
NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol) provides a mechanism for installing, manipulating, and deleting the configuration of network devices. Uses XML-encoded RPCs over SSH (or TLS). Defines capabilities advertisement, candidate/running/startup datastore model, commit/rollback, and lock operations. YANG is the data modeling language for NETCONF.
Canonical (Normative)
Convenient (Practical)
The canonical publication point for finalized RFCs. If a protocol is standardized as an RFC, the RFC Editor text is the normative final reference. Published by the IETF, IRTF, IAB, and independent stream.
Related Specs
YANG is to NETCONF what JSON Schema is to REST APIs — it describes the data model. Any network automation work with modern devices (Juniper, Cisco IOS-XR, Nokia SR-OS) requires reading and writing YANG models.
RESTCONF brings network device management to the HTTP/JSON world. Most modern network OSes (Cisco IOS-XE 16.6+, Junos 17.3+, Nokia SR-OS) support it. If you prefer REST over SSH/XML for network automation, this is your interface.
gNMI is replacing SNMP for modern network monitoring: lower latency, higher efficiency, native streaming telemetry. Arista, Cisco (IOS-XR, IOS-XE), Juniper, and Nokia all support gNMI. Key for network observability pipelines (Telegraf, gnmic).
SNMP remains the universal monitoring protocol for network equipment: routers, switches, UPS, servers. Every NOC and network monitoring tool (Zabbix, Nagios, LibreNMS) speaks SNMP. Understanding OID trees, MIB compilation, and USM vs community strings is essential for network operations.