Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) NetworkingAutomation and ProgrammabilityHard
A network architect is designing a new solution where applications need to interact directly with network devices to provision services and retrieve operational state. The solution requires a standardized, programmatic interface that is independent of vendor-specific CLI commands. Which protocol is specifically designed for managing network devices with structured data models and supports both XML and JSON encoding?
- ASNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
- BSSH (Secure Shell)
- CTelnet
- DNETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol)
NETCONF is a network management protocol specifically designed to provide mechanisms for installing, manipulating, and deleting configuration data on network devices. It uses XML for data encoding (and often JSON with RESTCONF) and is built around structured data models (YANG), making it vendor-agnostic and programmatic.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. SNMP is primarily for monitoring and uses a less flexible data model (MIBs) compared to NETCONF for configuration.
- B. SSH provides secure command-line access, but it's not a structured programmatic interface for data models; it executes CLI commands.
- C. Telnet is an insecure command-line protocol and does not offer structured programmatic interaction or data modeling.
NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol)
NETCONF is an XML-based protocol designed for configuring, monitoring, and managing network devices. It provides a programmatic and standardized way to interact with network devices, using structured data models (YANG) to define configuration and state information.
- Uses XML for communication (can be JSON with RESTCONF).
- Operates over a secure transport (e.g., SSH).
- Employs YANG data models for structured configuration.
- Provides transactional configuration capabilities.
Memory trick: CLI for COMMANDS, SNMP for STATUS, NETCONF for CONFIGS, RESTCONF for WEB APPS.