NETCONF and RESTCONF

Roque Gagliano
Origins of NETCONF and YANG (the
Beginning)
• Several meetings at events in 2001 (NANOG-22, RIPE-40, LISA-XV,
IETF 52)
• Operators expressing opinion that the developments in IETF do not really
address requirements configuration management.
• June of 2002, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) held invitational
workshop on Network Management [RFC3535] to
• Identify a list of technologies relevant for network management with their
strengths and weaknesses
• Identify the most important operator needs.

2
RFC 3535: Results from IAB Workshop
RFC3535: Operator requirements for a new
configuration protocol
• Ease of use
• Separation between configuration and state data
• Ability to compare across-devices, across-vendors
• Service and network management, not device management
• Network-wide transactions
• Devices figure out order of commands(ACID…anyways)
• No unnecessarily changes
• Backup/restore configuration
• Validation of configuration
• Standardized data models
• Support for multiple configuraiton sets
• Delayed, orchestrated activation
• Role-based access control
Implications of RFC 3535, legacy situation

OSS

NMS

EMS

Information leakage
Cost and complexity Cost

• Lack of atomicity
• Ordering problem
Implications of RFC 3535, with transactions

OSS

NMS

EMS

Reduced
Require Cost/
Cost and
transactions Value
complexity
Best Practices Coming Together
CLI Best Practices

Operator Requirements
SNMP Experience

NETCONF and
YANG
7
YANG – A Data Modeling Language for
Networking Why you should care:
YANG is a full, formal contract
language with rich syntax and
• Human readable, and easy to learn representation semantics to build applications on
• Hierarchical configuration data models
• Reusable types and groupings (structured types)
• Extensibility through augmentation mechanisms
• Supports definition of operations (RPCs)
• Formal constraints for configuration validation
• Data modularity through modules and sub-modules
• Well defined versioning rules

8
YANG standard models
• Base document: RFC 6020
• YANG + NETCONF: RFC 6241
• IETF approved documents: • Standard content library still small
• Common types (RFC 6991) but rapidly growing
• IANA Interface types (RFC 7224)
• Interface management (RFC 7223) • Most foundational models are in place
• IP management (RFC 7277)
• Complement “top-down” definitions with models that
• System management (RFC 7317)
• IPFIX configuration (RFC 6728)
are synthetically generated (think Google Translate)
• SNMP configuration (RFC 7407)
• In the making:
• Syslog configuration
• ACL configuration
• Network topology, L3 topology
• BGP, OSPF
• Netconf monitoring, Netconf access control (NACM)
• L2VPN, PIM, MPLS-LDP,
NETCONF Protocol Introduction
NETCONF – A Protocol to Manipulate
Configuration
• IETF network management protocol
• Distinction between configuration and state data
• Multiple configuration data stores (candidate, running, startup)
• Configuration change validations
Why you should care:
• Configuration change transactions NETCONF provides the fundamental
• Selective data retrieval with filtering programming features for
comfortable and robust automation
• Streaming and playback of event notifications of network services
• Extensible remote procedure call mechanism
• NETCONF Notifications support
• New work on pushing pub/subs to expand NETCONF into telemetry
11
 Self-service
portal Call center Service Fulfillment and related
parts of OSS/BSS (except
Order Product
CPQ Service Assurance)
Customers & capture configuration
accounts engine

Products &
Price Catalog Customer Knowledge Contracts &
care base SLAs

Order Installed
Management assets
Field Service
Service
Supply Chain
provisioning
Billing

Service Resource
activation inventory
 What is NETCONF?
NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol) is an IETF configuration management protocol
not only config access, also operational state data
NETCONF uses XML (as you are going to see)

Why NETCONF?
Easy to Use

Requirements
Management
Next-Gen Configuration
Separates Config and Operational Data

RFC3535
Lots of Tooling

Accessible Format

Error Checking

Backup/Restore Capability

Human and Machine Friendly

What is an ACID transaction
• Atomicity:
• Transactions are indivisible, all-or-nothing
• Consistency:
• Transactions are all-at-once
• There is no internal order inside a transaction, it is a set of changes, not a sequence
• Independence:
• Parallel transactions do not interfere with each other
• Transactions appear to happen always-in-sequence
• Durability
• Committed data always-sticks, i.e. remains in the system even in the case of a fail-
over, power failure, restart, etc
NETCONF IETF Standard Information

V 1.0 V 1.1 Extension

RFC 6535 RFC 6241 RFC 5277

Background and Requirements 1.1 Base NETCONF Protocol Notifications
RFC 4741 RFC 6242 RFC 5717
1.0 Base NETCONF Protocol NETCONF over SSH Partial Locking
RFC 4742 RFC 6243
NETCONF over SSH With defaults
RFC 6244
NETCONF + YANG Architectural
Overview
NETCONF Protocol Stack
Client initiated session

Content Server

SSH
Client

Operations
Reason:
• Connection-oriented (TCP)
Messages • Authenticated
• Reliable
• Secure
Transport
NETCONF Protocol Stack
<rpc>

Content
<rpc- Server
reply>
Client
Operations
NETCONF Messages:
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Messages

RPC Client’s Request Methods:

Transport • Controller
• NMS
• Script
• Manual
 OPERATION DESCRIPTION

NETCONF Protocol Stack <get-config> Retrieve data from the running

configuration

<get> Retrieve running configuration or device

statistic

<edit-config> Modify a configuration database

- operation = merge (default), delete,
create, replace, remove
- test-option (:validate), error-option
Content
<copy-config> Copy a configuration database
<delete-config> Delete a configuration database
Operations Commit candidate configuration to the
<commit>
running db

<lock>/<unlock> Lock or unlock a configuration datastore

Messages system

<close-session> Terminate this session

Transport <kill-session> Force Termination of session
<create- event notification subscription
subscription>
<notification> asynchronously message from server
to client when an event of interest
has occurred
NETCONF Protocol Stack <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capabilities>
<capability>
urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0
Content </capability>
<capability>
urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:candidate:1.0
</capability>
Operations <capability>
urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:notification:1.0
</capability>
</capabilities>
Messages
<session-id>285212672</session-id>
</hello>
]]>]]>
Transport
NETCONF Configuration Data Stores
Startup Running Candidate Files… / URLs…

• Named configuration stores

• Each data store may hold a full copy of the configuration

• Running is mandatory, Startup and Candidate optional

(capabilities :startup, :candidate)
• Running may or may not be directly writable (:writable-running)
• Need to copy from other stores if not directly writable
 NETCONF Call Flow (1)
1) Client sends HELLO message to Server. It includes its Capabilities.

>>>>out 16-Dec-2016::14:25:02.051 device=pe2

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capabilities><capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0</
capability><capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.1</capability></capabilities>
</hello>
NETCONF Capabilities exchange
• Allows extensibility of the protocol
• Are transmitted in the ”hello” message and set what each party is
capable of:
• Some from NETCONF standards
• Each YANG modules supported by the server is also a capability. YANG modules
include revision number
• Other extensions
• The manager uses the capabilities to determinate what operations can
send to the server
 NETCONF Capabilities
Optional Capabilities (RFC 6241) Other Capabilities
:notification, :interleave (RFC
:writable-running! 5277)
:candidate! :partial-lock (RFC 5717)
:confirmed-commit! :with-defaults (RFC 6243)
:rollback-on-error! :ietf-netconf-monitoring (RFC
:validate! 6022)
:startup!
:url (scheme=http, ftp, file, …) And you can define your own, like
:xpath (filters) :actions (tail-f)
:inactive (tail-f)
NETCONF Call Flow (2): Hello from server
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<hello xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">
<capabilities>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:base:1.1</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:candidate:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:confirmed-commit:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:confirmed-commit:1.1</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:xpath:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:validate:1.0</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:validate:1.1</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:rollback-on-error:1.0</capability>
<capability>http://tail-f.com/ns/netconf/with-defaults/1.0</capability>
<capability>http://tail-f.com/ns/netconf/actions/1.0</capability>
<capability>http://tail-f.com/ns/netconf/extensions</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:with-defaults:1.0?basic-mode=explicit&amp;also-supported=report-all-tagged</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-with-defaults?revision=2011-06-01&amp;module=ietf-netconf-with-defaults</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:netconf:capability:yang-library:1.0?revision=2016-06-21&amp;module-set-id=c9f8a470ce0ddaa46d30ed57fae7d5bb</capability>
<capability>http://xml.juniper.net/xnm/1.1/xnm?module=junos</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:iana-crypt-hash?module=iana-crypt-hash&amp;revision=2014-08-06&amp;features=crypt-hash-sha-512,crypt-hash-sha-256,crypt-hash-md5</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-monitoring?module=ietf-netconf-monitoring&amp;revision=2010-10-04</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-netconf-notifications?module=ietf-netconf-notifications&amp;revision=2012-02-06</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-restconf-monitoring?module=ietf-restconf-monitoring&amp;revision=2016-08-15</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yang-library?module=ietf-yang-library&amp;revision=2016-06-21</capability>
<capability>urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-yang-types?module=ietf-yang-types&amp;revision=2013-07-15</capability>
<capability>urn:juniper-rpc?module=junos-rpc</capability>
</capabilities>
<session-id>13</session-id></hello>]]>]]>
NETCONF Call Flow (3): Lock in candidate
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
message-id=”1">
<lock><target><candidate/></target>
</lock>
</rpc>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0"
message-id=”1"><ok/></rpc-reply>
 NETCONF Call Flow (4): Edit Config
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”2">
<edit-config xmlns:nc='urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0'><target><candidate/></target><test-option>test-
then-set</test-option><error-option>rollback-on-error</error-option><config>
<configuration xmlns="http://xml.juniper.net/xnm/1.1/xnm"><system><host-name>curso_mvdeo</host-name></
system></configuration></config></edit-config>
</rpc>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”2"><ok/></rpc-reply>
 NETCONF edit-config

nc:test-option (:validate)! nc:operation!

test-then-set (default) merge!
set! replace!
test (:base:1.1)! create!
delete !  Error if item does not exists
remove (:base:1.1)!  No error if item does not exists

nc:error-option!
stop-on-error (default)
continue-on-error!
rollback-on-error (:rollback-on-error)!
NETCONF Call Flow (5): Confirmed commit
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”3">
<commit><confirmed/>
</commit>
</rpc>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”3"><ok/></rpc-
reply>
NETCONF Call Flow (6): Commit

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”4">
<commit/></rpc>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”4"><ok/></rpc-
reply>
 NETCONF Call Flow (7): Close session

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-id=”5">
<close-session/></rpc>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rpc-reply xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0" message-
id=”5"><ok/></rpc-reply>

Note: You can also “kill” a session (not that polite)

 NETCONF Protocol Stack Summary

Content Config data, Notification (XML)

Operations <get>, <get-config>,<edit-config> etc

Server
Client

Messages <rpc>, <rpc-reply>

Transport SSH
NETCONF Opensource tools
• Python NETCONF Client library: https://github.com/ncclient/ncclient
• Java NETCONF Client library: https://github.com/tail-f-systems/JNC
• C NETCONF Client library: https://github.com/CESNET/libnetconf

• More: http://www.netconfcentral.org/
ResTful:Representational state transfer
• Characteristics
• Stateless operations: server does not keep any state between requests
• Textual representation: typically JSON or XML
• Resources specified in URI
• Pre-defined Verbs: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, …

• ReSTful gained popularity because:

• Performance
• Scalability
• Simplicity
• Portability
ResTful does not mean “standard API”
And “documented” is not “open”
• Vendors are now exposing ResTful configuration APIs
• The problem is that every API differs on:
• HTTP options
• Authentication
• Verbs interpretation
• Encoding
• Etc.
• The conclusion is that a “Driver” is still needed for every configuration devices
• In general, the Swagger Specification (from OpenAPI project) is addressing the
documentation problem
• For CRUD operations, the IETF defined RESTCONF using YANG modeling language
RESTCONF - Standard HTTP-based
configuration protocol
• Still an emerging story (at IETF queue)
• RESTful protocol to access YANG defined data
• Representational State Transfer, i.e. server maintains no session state
• URIs reflect data hierarchy in a Netconf datastore
• HTTPS as transport
• Data encaded with either XML or JSON
• Operations
NETCONF and RESTCONF are not equal
• RESTCONF does not have concept of transaction across calls and
therefore cannot implement “network wide transactions”

• Some operations missing:

• There is no “Validate” call in RESTCONF
• Missing “copy-config”

• NOTIFICATION support in RESTCONF depends on W3C event

streaming recommendation (not widely available)
Some RESTCONF features
• MUST support TLS and MUST NOT be used without TLS support
(mandatory security)
• Authentication: password (HTTP auth.) or client-certificate
• Resources:
• Root Resources Discovery available (for exampel /restconf)
• Media types: JSON and XML encoding supported
• API Resources ({+restconf}/…):
Child Resource Description
data Contains all data resources
operations Data-model-specific operations
yang-library-version ietf-yang-library module date
Example DATA Operations
Retrieving Server capabilities

GET /restconf/data/ietf-restconf-monitoring:restconf-state/\ capabilities HTTP/1.1 Host:

example.com Accept: application/yang-data+xml

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2016 17:02:00 GMT Server: example-server Cache-Control: no-cache Last-
Modified: Sun, 22 Apr 2016 01:00:14 GMT Content-Type: application/yang-data+xml Bierman, et al. Expires
April 30, 2017 [Page 115] Internet-Draft RESTCONF October 2016 <capabilities
xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-restconf-monitoring"> <capability>\
urn:ietf:params:restconf:capability:defaults:1.0?\ basic-mode=explicit\ </capability> <capability>\
urn:ietf:params:restconf:capability:with-defaults:1.0\ </capability> <capability>\
urn:ietf:params:restconf:capability:depth:1.0\ </capability> <capability></capabilities>
Example DATA Operations
Creating a new resource
module example-jukebox {
namespace "http://example.com/ns/example-jukebox";
prefix "jbox"; YANG
container jukebox {
list artist {
key name;
leaf name { type string { length "1 .. max"; }
}
}}

POST /restconf/data/example-jukebox:jukebox/library HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com Content-Type: application/yang-data+json

RESTCONF
{
"example-jukebox:artist" : [ Query
{
"name" : "Foo Fighters"
}]
}

HTTP/1.1 201 Created Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2016 17:02:00 GMT Server: example-server Location: RESTCONF
https://example.com/restconf/data/example-jukebox:jukebox/library/artist=Foo%20Fighters Last-Modified: Mon, 23 Apr 2016 Response
17:02:00 GMT ETag: "b3830f23a4c"
Example Operation Resource
module example-ops {
namespace "https://example.com/ns/example-ops";
prefix "ops";
rpc reboot {
input {
leaf delay { units seconds; type uint32; default 0; }
leaf message { type string; }
leaf language { type string; } }
}
rpc get-reboot-info {
output {
leaf reboot-time { units seconds; type uint32; }
leaf message { type string; }
leaf language { type string; }
}
}
}
Example Operation Resource
POST /restconf/operations/example-ops:reboot HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com Content-Type:
application/yang-data+json
{ "example-ops:input" :
{
"delay" : 600,
"message" : "Going down for system maintenance",
"language" : "en-US"
}
}

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 11:01:00

GMT Server: example-server
Example Operation Resource
POST /restconf/operations/example-ops:get-reboot-info HTTP/1.1 Host: example.com Accept:
application/yang-data+json

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 11:10:30 GMT Server: example-server Content-Type:
application/yang-data+json
{
"example-ops:output" : {
"reboot-time" : 30,
"message" : "Going down for system maintenance",
"language" : "en-US"
}
}