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RESTCONF (RFC 8040) is an HTTP-based protocol for accessing network configuration and state data defined by YANG models. It brings the simplicity and familiarity of REST APIs to network management. Beyond RESTCONF, many network vendors and controllers offer their own REST APIs for automation.
RESTCONF is essentially NETCONF over HTTP. It uses the same YANG data models but replaces XML-over-SSH with HTTP methods and JSON or XML encoding:
| Feature | NETCONF | RESTCONF |
|---|---|---|
| Transport | SSH (port 830) | HTTPS (port 443) |
| Encoding | XML | JSON or XML |
| Operations | RPC-based | HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) |
| URL structure | XPath / subtree filters | RESTful resource URIs |
| Tooling | ncclient (Python) | Any HTTP client (curl, requests, Postman) |
| Ease of use | Medium | High — familiar to web developers |
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