NETCONF
NETCONF is an IETF network management protocol that provides an administrator or network engineer with a secure way to configure a firewall, router, switch or other network device.
The NETCONF protocol is based upon remote procedure call (RPC), a client/server protocol that allows one program to request a service from another program without having to understand network details. NETCOF was designed to make up for the short-comings of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and Command-Line Interface (CLI) protocols as they apply to the configuration of network devices.
NETCONF, which is an abbreviation for “network configuration,” was developed in the NETCONF working group and published in December 2006 as RFC 4741. The protocol was revised in June 2011 and published as RFC 6241.