While SNMP can perform configuration via SET operations, it is not designed for transactional, model-driven configuration management like NETCONF. NETCONF’s strength lies in its ability to lock, edit, validate, and commit complete configuration datastores using standardized YANG models. SNMP is primarily focused on monitoring and piecemeal variable changes, making it less reliable and structured for full, automated configuration deployment.

The `requests` library is a de facto standard Python library for making HTTP requests in a simple and elegant way. In the context of device automation, it is used to send GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE requests to the REST API endpoints exposed by modern network devices like IOS XE, in order to retrieve data or apply configuration.

NETCONF with YANG Push (defined in RFC 8641) is specifically designed for this use case. It allows an application to subscribe to a stream of event notifications from the device. When the subscribed event (like an interface state change) occurs, the device immediately pushes the notification to the subscriber, enabling real-time awareness without the delay and overhead of periodic polling.

In YANG models for networking, `admin-status` typically represents the intended, configured state of an interface—whether an administrator has explicitly enabled (`up`) or disabled (`down`) the interface. This is distinct from `oper-status`, which reflects the actual, current operational state of the interface, which could be down due to a physical layer problem even if the `admin-status` is up.

RESTCONF resources are mapped directly to YANG modules. An HTTP 404 (Not Found) error when accessing a specific YANG module path usually indicates that the device’s software does not implement that particular YANG model. The device might use a vendor-specific model (e.g., `Cisco-IOS-XE-native`) for its interfaces instead of the standard `ietf-interfaces` model.

Intent-Based Networking (IBN), as implemented in Cisco DNA Center, shifts the focus from imperative (how-to) commands to declarative business outcomes. An ‘Intent’ is a high-level policy (e.g., “Ensure all video conference traffic has priority”). The controller’s job is to translate this intent into the necessary device-specific configurations and verify the network is continuously in compliance with it.

An Ansible Playbook is a YAML file that defines a list of ‘plays’ and ‘tasks’. Tasks are the units of action in Ansible—they are the individual steps that execute modules (like `ios_command` or `nxos_config`) to perform operations such as retrieving configurations, updating settings, or validating state on the target devices listed in the inventory.

Paramiko is a Python implementation of the SSHv2 protocol. A script using Paramiko establishes an SSH connection to the device, opens a channel, and executes CLI commands as if a human were typing them in a terminal. This is a form of screen-scraping automation and is distinct from model-driven APIs (like NETCONF/RESTCONF) which use structured data models.

In YANG terminology, a ‘leaf’ is a node that contains a single value and has no child nodes. A simple key-value pair like `”hostname”: “value”` is directly mapped from a YANG `leaf` statement. A ‘container’ is a node that organizes related leafs/lists but holds no value itself. A ‘list’ is a sequence of nodes, typically for multiple instances (like a list of interfaces).

While SNMP can perform configuration via SET operations, it is not designed for transactional, model-driven configuration management like NETCONF. NETCONF’s strength lies in its ability to lock, edit, validate, and commit complete configuration datastores using standardized YANG models. SNMP is primarily focused on monitoring and piecemeal variable changes, making it less reliable and structured for full, automated configuration deployment.0