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Understanding the NETCONF API

The NETCONF API (application programming interface) is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) application that client applications use to request and change configuration information devices that run operating systems that are compatible with NETCONF API. Applications use the API to display, edit, and commit configuration statements (among other operations), just as administrators use CLI configuration mode commands such as show, set, and commit to perform those operations.

The NETCONF API is described in RFC 4741, NETCONF Configuration Protocol, available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4741.txt.

Client applications request or change information on a routing platform by encoding the request with tag elements from the NETCONF API and sending it to the NETCONF server on the routing platform. (The NETCONF server is integrated into the JUNOS software and does not appear as a separate entry in process listings.) The NETCONF server directs the request to the appropriate software modules within the routing platform, encodes the response in NETCONF API XML tag elements, and returns the result to the client application. For example, to request information about the status of a routing platform’s interfaces, a client application sends the <get-interface-information> tag element from the JUNOS XML API. The NETCONF server gathers the information from the interface process and returns it in the <interface-information> tag element.

For more information about NETCONF API, see the JUNOS Software NETCONF API Guide.

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