Verifying a Configuration Before Committing It

During the process of committing the candidate configuration or a private copy, the NETCONF server confirms that it is syntactically correct. If the syntax check fails, the server does not commit the candidate configuration. To avoid the potential complications of such a failure, it often makes sense to confirm the candidate’s correctness before actually committing it. A client application includes the <validate> and <source> tag elements and <candidate/> tag in an <rpc> tag element:

<rpc>
    <validate> 
        <source> 
            <candidate/> 
        </source> 
    </validate> 
</rpc>
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The NETCONF server confirms that the candidate configuration is valid by returning the <ok/> tag in the <rpc-reply> tag element:

<rpc-reply xmlns="URN" xmlns:junos="URL">
    <ok/>
</rpc-reply>
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If the candidate configuration is not valid, the <rpc-reply> tag element instead encloses an <rpc-error> tag element explaining the reason for the failure.