ConfD

ConfD is a software solution for on-device configuration management. By using ConfD, network equipment vendors can reduce development costs and speed time-to-market while supporting the most advanced network management capabilities in their products.

ConfD is the only data model driven toolkit that allows all critical northbound interfaces (NETCONF, CLI, SNMP and Web UI) to be rendered from a single data model.

Tail-f Systems customers can choose among different modules of ConfD depending on requirements of the managed applications. ConfD can be used either to extend an existing management system or to implement a new configuration management system from scratch.

Features and Benefits

The following are key capabilities available in ConfD:

  • Complete on-device management system, including northbound agents and integrated data store
  • Modular architecture with well-defined APIs between all components
  • Data model driven architecture
  • Full agent support for NETCONF, the IETF standard for network configuration management
  • Support for the draft status IETF data modelling language called YANG
  • Auto-rendered CLI with rich features for extensions and customizations
  • Web UI based on AJAX techniques for application-like look and feel
  • Fully featured SNMP agent with support for v1, v2c, and v3 including USM and VACM
  • Optional PAM-based AAA system across all management agents
  • Highly available (1:N hot-standby) data store with subscription interface and XPath query interface
  • Automatic update of the existing configuration database when installing a new version of the management software
  • Implemented as a lean daemon with few library dependencies and efficient use of RAM, and disk footprint

Technical Overview

NETCONF

This is a management agent for the IETF NETCONF protocol for manipulating configuration on network devices. NETCONF allows devices to expose an XML-based API to the network operator. It can be used to send and receive full or partial configuration data sets. The NETCONF interface provides an implementation of the NETCONF protocol, as well as a complete mapping from NETCONF operations to configuration database operations for either the integrated data store or a data store of your choice. For example, a complex NETCONF edit-config or copy-config operation is mapped to a minimal set of database read and write operations. NETCONF Event Notification support enables a NETCONF client to subscribe to receiving event information from a server.

SNMP

SNMP agent supporting SNMPv1, SNMPv2c, and SNMPv3. Includes a tool that compiles SNMP MIBs to YANG specifications. The SNMP agent runs on top the management backplane and uses the same instrumentation code as the other management agents.

Command Line Interface (CLI)

The ConfD CLI automatically renders a Command Line Interface (CLI) from the same underlying XML data model used to generate the NETCONF and Web UI Interfaces. This agent provides a complete mapping from CLI commands to configuration database operations for either the integrated data store (CDB) or the configuration database of your choice. Developers can also customize the CLI using an additional specification, for example, to group operations into a single command or to define wizards and help texts. This capability allows the CLI to mask-out the excess detail that is derived from the comprehensive underlying data model.

Web UI

This is a management agent that automatically renders a Web UI management interface from the same underlying XML data model used to generate the NETCONF and CLI. Because Web interfaces are often more task-oriented than a NETCONF data model, the web based management interface can be customized using an additional specification in order
to group operations into a single HTML form or to define wizards, to help texts and statistical Web widgets, etc. The Web UI is based on AJAX technology, improving responsiveness by exchanging small amounts of data with the web server on the device, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the displayed data changes. This increases the Web UI?s interactivity, speed, and usability.

Other Agents

This can be a custom-built management agent such as a GUI application or some other management protocol implementation. These other agents use the Management Agent API to talk to the Management Backplane.

Management Agent API

Using the Management API you can write your own management agents, such as your own CLI or Web UI, instead of using Tail-f Systems’ built-in components. The API is a clean C API with functions to read and write configuration parameters as well as subscribe to configuration changes. The API is transaction-oriented and you can apply a number of write operations with a single commit operation.

ConfD Core Engine

The ConfD Core Engine provides the logic that maps data model specifications to the data in the Embedded XML database (or another database) and provides the transaction manager used by all other ConfD components. The Management Backplane also handles the logic behind the API engines, such as the Management Agent API, External AAA API, and Database API. For more detailed information about the ConfD Core Engine look at the ConfD Core Engine page or read the datasheet.

Data Provider API

The Database API lets applications hook into the ConfD transaction machinery, thus allowing the applications to provide one or several data sources for either configuration data or operational statistics data. The API is a clean C API where the applications install callback functions for the different phases in a transaction.