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Catalyst 4500 Series Switch, Cisco IOS Software Configuration Guide - Cisco IOS XE 3.9.xE and IOS 15.2(5)Ex
Chapter 6 Programmability
About Programmability
• Check to make sure that dependencies are satisfied before committing a change; and also easily
roll-back changes when they are not consistently compatible across the network.
To address configuration and monitoring issues, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined
these standards in network management:
• Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) data modeling—RFC 6020.
• Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)—RFC 6241
• Representational State Transfer Configuration Protocol (RESTCONF)–uses the same data models
as defined for NETCONF using YANG (https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-netconf-restconf-04).
On Catalyst 4500 Series Switches, the Programmability feature provides the use of NETCONF and
RESTCONF interfaces. They reside in a container on the switch and provide interfaces that enable
remote management. The YANG data models available with these interfaces determine the scope of
functions or actions that can be performed. See Figure 6-1.
Programmability Components
This section describes the components involved in the setup of the feature. See the Configuring
Programmability Components, page 6-4 for information about how to configure individual components.
• The Virtual Services Container—Also referred to as a virtual machine (VM), virtual service, or
container, is a virtual environment on the switch.
You can install an application within a virtual services container. The application then runs in the
virtual services container of the operating system of a switch. The application is delivered as an open
virtual application (OVA), which is a tar file with a .ova extension. The OVA package is installed
and enabled on the switch through the device CLI.
• The Data Model Interface (DMI)—A container solution that provides the NETCONF and
RESTCONF programmable interfaces. You must install and activate this container on the switch.
After you activate it, the YANG models and APIs are available for use.
• The Network Bootloader—Network boot loaders support booting from a network-based source.
On the Catalyst 4500 series switches, the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) feature, also called
PXE boot, enables the switch to retrieve the software image, configuration files, scripts, and ova
files from a remote server, without end-user intervention, that is, Zero-Touch Provisioning. The
remote server can be an HTTP or a TFTP server.
PXE boot requires the configuration of a DHCP server, and the boot field set to one of the autoboot
options in the ROMMON.
Throughout the document, PXE boot is used to refer to the method of booting from a network-based
source.
Protocols and Data Models for Programmatic Device Configuration
This section describes the protocols and modeling languages that enable a programmatic way of writing
configurations to a network device.
• NETCONF—An XML-based protocol that you can use to request information from and make
configuration changes to the switch. NETCONF Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) use
Secure Shell Version 2 (SSHv2).
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