Application programming interfaces (APIs) are simply interfaces for software systems to talk to one another. An API has a set of requirements that describe how applications can communicate between themselves. For years, users have been communicating with applications through user interfaces (UIs) by viewing information and requesting data from the application. APIs come into play… Read More »
As systems communicate with each other, there needs to be a structure behind what is communicated. Simple formatted text that is presented with show commands on a Cisco device will not work. However, systems can easily parse and work with data that is encoded in XML and JSON formats. JSON JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is… Read More »
Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) is a network management protocol defined by the IETF in RFC 6241. NETCONF provides rich functionality for managing configuration and state data. The protocol operations are defined as remote procedure calls (RPCs) for requests and replies in XML-based representation. NETCONF supports running, candidate, and startup configuration data stores. The NETCONF capabilities… Read More »
In many respects, NETCONF and RESTCONF are similar. They both use the YANG data model and YANG development kits. They both are client/server based, with the controller being the client or the initiator and the server or receiver being the network element. They both use ietf-yang-library to either discover server capabilities (NETCONF) or list the… Read More »