DevNet Associate (DEVASC) v1.0Cisco Platforms and DevelopmentEasy
A network engineer wants to automate the verification of device reachability and basic configuration settings across a large number of Cisco IOS XE devices after a scheduled maintenance window. Which programmability feature would be most efficient for gathering this operational data programmatically?
- ARESTCONF for operational data retrieval
- BSNMP for trap generation
- CNETCONF with YANG models for configuration changes
- DCLI scraping via SSH
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. RESTCONF for operational data retrieval
RESTCONF provides a standardized, programmatic way to interact with network devices using RESTful principles and YANG data models, making it efficient for retrieving operational data. This contrasts with NETCONF primarily for configuration, SNMP for monitoring, and CLI scraping which is less robust.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. SNMP is mainly for monitoring and generating traps, not ideal for programmatically querying specific operational states efficiently.
- C. NETCONF is primarily used for configuration management, not optimal for simple operational data retrieval.
- D. CLI scraping is fragile and inefficient for programmatic data retrieval due to variations in CLI output.
RESTCONF for Operational Data
RESTCONF is a REST-like protocol that provides programmatic access to network devices using data models (YANG) for both configuration and operational data, leveraging standard HTTP methods.
- Uses HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) over HTTPS.
- Relies on YANG data models for structured data.
- Supports both configuration and operational data retrieval.
- More modern and structured than CLI scraping or SNMP for certain tasks.
Memory trick: IOS XE: Your Network's RESTful API!