NETCONF is the Network Configuration Protocol, a network management protocol developed and standardized by the IETF. It allows a network management system (NMS) to deliver, modify, and delete configurations of network devices using standard application programming interfaces (APIs).
NETCONF uses Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based data encoding for the configuration data and protocol messages, and uses a simple remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism to implement communication between a client and a server. A client can be a script or an application running on an NMS. A server is typically a network device.
NETCONF is used for network automation, as it overcomes the disadvantages of command-line interface (CLI) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), such as complexity, inconsistency, unpredictability, lack of transaction mechanism, and low configuration efficiency. NETCONF supports more flexible, reliable, and interoperable network configuration and management across different vendors and platforms.