Automating Network and Service Configuration Using NETCONF and YANG

Network providers are challenged by new requirements for fast and error-free service turn-up. Existing approaches to configuration management such as CLI scripting, device-specific adapters, and entrenched commercial tools are an impediment to meeting these new requirements. Up until recently, there has been no standard way of configuring network devices other then SNMP and SNMP is not optimal for configuration management. The IETF has released NETCONF and YANG which are standards focusing on Configuration management. We have validated that NETCONF and YANG greatly simplify the configuration management of devices and services and still provide good performance. Our performance tests are run in a cloud managing 2000 devices. Our work can help existing vendors and service providers to validate a standardized way to build configuration management solutions.