Connecting to the NETCONF Server

Before a client application can connect to the NETCONF server, you must satisfy the requirements described in Prerequisites for Establishing a Connection.

When the prerequisites are satisfied, applications written in Perl use the NETCONF Perl module to connect to the NETCONF server. A client application that does not use the NETCONF Perl module uses one of two methods:

• It uses SSH library routines to establish an SSH connection to the NETCONF server, provide the username and password or passphrase, and create a channel that acts as an SSH subsystem for the NETCONF session. Providing instructions for using library routines is beyond the scope of this document.
• It issues the following ssh command to create a NETCONF session as an SSH subsystem:

  ssh -p 32000 -s user@hostname netconf

  The -p option defines the port number on which the NETCONF server listens. This option can be omitted if you enabled access to SSH over the default port in NETCONF Service over SSH Is Enabled.

  The -s option establishes the NETCONF session as an SSH subsystem.

  The application must include code to intercept the NETCONF server’s prompt for the password or passphrase. Perhaps the most straightforward method is for the application to use a utility such as the expect command. The NETCONF Perl client uses this method, for example.

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