New Training: Understand the NETCONF and RESTCONF protocols

In this 6-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer John McGovern highlights and contrasts the differences between the NETCONF and RESTCONF protocols for automating networks. Watch this new Cisco training.

Watch the full course: Designing Cisco Enterprise Networks

This training includes:

• 6 videos

• 53 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Introduction to NETCONF

• NETCONF RPCs

• Introduction to RESTCONF

• RESTCONF Methods

• Separating Config & State

• Network-Wide Transactions

Even With CLI and SNMP, You Still Need NETCONF

If you’re just learning about configuring devices, you may have started with CLI and SNMP. If you’ve spent all that time learning to install, manipulate and delete the configurations of network devices via those two, you might wonder why you even need NETCONF at all. Well, there are good reasons for not relying exclusively on CLI and SNMP.

The biggest drawback CLI has is that it has no transaction management. When working with complex changes, you want to be able to roll back when one of a series of actions fails. But CLI doesn’t support that without extensive programming. Similarly, CLI has no structured error management.

As for SNMP, while it’s great for monitoring and managing network devices, it’s not the right choice for configuration changes — even though it actually has the capability to write them. This is mainly because SNMP lacks a standard automatic discovery process for identifying MIB modules the device is using. SNMP is inherently complex and discovery work through it is untenable. But fortunately, that’s why NETCONF exists. CLI and SNMP have their place in network management, but when it comes to configuring devices, NETCONF has them beat.