Implementing and Operating Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies (ENCOR) v1.2AutomationMedium
A network automation engineer is designing a system to programmatically configure VLANs on a large number of access switches. The solution must ensure that configuration changes are applied transactionally, meaning either all changes succeed or all changes are rolled back. Which configuration protocol inherently supports this transactional behavior?
- ANETCONF
- BCLI over SSH
- CRESTCONF
- DSNMP
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. NETCONF
NETCONF inherently supports transactional configuration through its candidate datastore and `<commit>` operation. All changes are first applied to a candidate configuration and then committed atomically to the running configuration, ensuring either all changes are applied or none are.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. CLI over SSH applies commands sequentially and immediately, without any built-in transactional rollback mechanism.
- C. RESTCONF can interact with a candidate datastore (if supported by the device), but transactional behavior is not as inherently guaranteed across multiple operations as with NETCONF's explicit commit.
- D. SNMP is primarily for monitoring and basic configuration, but it does not support transactional operations.
NETCONF Transactional Configuration
NETCONF enables transactional configuration management using a 'candidate' configuration datastore. Changes are first staged in the candidate, then atomically committed to the 'running' configuration, ensuring all changes succeed or are rolled back.
- Uses candidate datastore for staging changes.
- Changes are committed atomically using the `<commit>` operation.
- Supports validation and rollback mechanisms.
- Ensures configuration consistency and integrity.
Memory trick: NETCONF is the network's ACID transactions.