NETCONF is a protocol for managing the configuration of data-networking devices. It is designed to cover the short-comings of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Command-Line Interface (CLI) protocol, in the functions of network configurations. The NETCONF protocol provides mechanisms to install, manipulate, and delete the configuration of network devices. It uses an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based data encoding for the configuration data as well as the protocol messages. NETCONF is a key building block in a system of automated network configuration.
The NETCONF protocol uses a remote procedure call (RPC) paradigm. A client encodes an RPC in XML and sends it to a server using a secure, connection-oriented session. The server responds with a reply encoded in XML. The contents of both the request and the response are fully described in XML DTDs or XML schemas, or both, allowing both parties to recognize the syntax constraints imposed on the exchange.
A key aspect of NETCONF is that it allows the functionality of the management protocol to closely mirror the native functionality of the device. This reduces implementation costs and allows timely access to new features. In addition, applications can access both the syntactic and semantic content of the device's native user interface.
NETCONF allows a client to discover the set of protocol extensions supported by a server. These "capabilities" permit the client to adjust its behavior to take advantage of the features exposed by the device. The capability definitions can be easily extended in a noncentralized manner.
Protocol Structure
NETCONF can be conceptually partitioned into four layers:
| Layer | Example | |
| (4) | Content | Configuration data |
| (3) | Operations | <get-config>,<edit-config> |
| (2) | RPC | <rpc>,<rpc-reply> |
| (1) | Transport Protocol* | BEEP,SSH,SSL,console |
Netconf defines three transport mappings:
- Secure Shell (SSH RFC 4742), which is mandatory to implement
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP RFC 4743)
- Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP RFC 4744)
Related Terms: SNMP, BEEP, SSH, SOAP, RPC, CLI
Sponsor Source: Netconf is defined by IETF (www.ietf.org) in RFC 4741.
Reference:
http://www.javvin.com/protocol/rfc4741.pdf: NETCONF Configuration Protocol
http://www.javvin.com/protocol/rfc4742.pdf: Using the NETCONF Configuration Protocol over Secure Shell (SSH)
http://www.javvin.com/protocol/rfc4744.pdf: Using the NETCONF Protocol over Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP)
http://www.javvin.com/protocol/rfc4743.pdf: Using the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) Over the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)