Chapter 5 of 5 · Cisco CCNP 350-501 SPCOR

Automation and Assurance

REST, NSO, YANG, Ansible, ZTP, gNMI, NETCONF, RESTCONF, NetFlow and SNMP for provider networks.

  • 7topics
  • 36 minfast track
  • 2diagrams and exhibits
  • 15%of the exam
Start with Programmable APIs and Reading a REST Script

Topics in this chapter

Take them in order, or jump to the one you need.

  1. 1Programmable APIs and Reading a REST ScriptCompare the programmable APIs for Cisco devices, such as NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI and REST, and learn to read a Python script that…5 min
  2. 2Network Services Orchestration and YANG Data ModelsDescribe the role of Cisco NSO in service orchestration with NEDs, CDB and FASTMAP, and the principles and benefits of the YANG…5 min
  3. 3Ansible, Terraform and Secure ZTPDescribe Ansible and Terraform, their agentless model, playbooks and state, and how secure zero touch provisioning onboards a…4 min
  4. 4gRPC and gNMI Telemetry with TLS and mTLSConfigure model driven telemetry with gRPC and gNMI, compare dial-in and dial-out, and secure the session with plain TCP, TLS and…Diagram6 min
  5. 5NETCONF and RESTCONFConfigure and verify NETCONF over SSH port 830 and RESTCONF over HTTPS, and compare datastores, operations, encodings and HTTP…5 min
  6. 6NetFlow and IPFIXConfigure and verify Flexible NetFlow and IPFIX with flow records, exporters, monitors, sampling and cache timers on XE and XR…6 min
  7. 7SNMP v2c and v3Configure and verify SNMP versions 2c and 3, including community strings, traps and informs, SNMPv3 users, groups and views, and…5 min

About this chapter

What this chapter covers

Automation and Assurance is about changing the network with software, and watching it afterwards.

The automation half covers the APIs and tools that configure devices at scale: REST, NETCONF, RESTCONF, NSO, Ansible, Terraform and secure ZTP. The assurance half covers the data a device sends back: gNMI streaming telemetry, NetFlow and IPFIX, and SNMP.

YANG sits between them, because it describes the data that both halves use.

How the topics fit together

Automation pushes intent down to devices, and assurance brings measurements back up.

OrchestrationNSO Ansible TerraformAPIsDeviceNETCONF RESTCONF gNMIYANG modelsDataconfig and stateDevicecounters and flowstelemetryCollectorgNMI NetFlow SNMPfeedsOperationsdashboards and alerts

The topics build on each other in this way:

  • Programmable APIs introduce the options, and how to read a script that uses REST.
  • NSO and YANG show how services are modelled once and applied to many devices.
  • Ansible, Terraform and ZTP show the tools that configure devices and onboard new ones.
  • gNMI and NETCONF and RESTCONF are the model driven protocols in detail.
  • NetFlow and IPFIX and SNMP are the classic ways to watch traffic and device health.
Note

Many commands here differ between IOS XE and IOS XR. The pages say which platform each example uses.

How to use these pages

Each topic page has the same shape, so you can skim for what you need.

  • What it is: the idea in plain words.
  • How it works: the mechanism, with diagrams and example commands.
  • What to remember for the exam: the facts to memorise.
  • Common mistakes: the classic traps.
  • Check yourself: three questions to test your understanding.

Try the examples against a lab device or a sandbox, and read the Python and YAML carefully. A script question is easier when you can name the method, the path, the headers and the body.

Ready for more practice?

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