MG-SOFT NETCONF Browser Professional Edition

Main features


MG-SOFT NETCONF Browser Professional Edition is a powerful and user friendly NETCONF client application that lets you retrieve, modify, install and delete the configuration of any NETCONF server device in the network. The software provides an intuitive GUI that lets you load any valid YANG or YIN module and represent it in form of a hierarchical tree, containing nodes on which NETCONF operations are performed (get, get-config, lock, unlock, edit-config, copy-config, delete-config, etc.).

The following is a brief list of the main features in MG-SOFT NETCONF Browser Professional Edition.

Runs on every Java(TM) enabled platform
MG-SOFT NETCONF Browser Professional Edition has been designed and developed in Java and as such it runs on every OS that has installed Java runtime environment, for example, on MS Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris operating systems (screen shot).
Performing NETCONF operations through the GUI.
NetConf Browser is an application with a modern and intuitive GUI interface that lets you carry out commands for performing all operations defined by the NETCONF protocol. This lets you, for example, select the desired node in the YANG tree and choose the corresponding <get> or <get-config> command from the context menu to easily retrieve the value of a leaf, leaf-list, list and container statements or entire subtrees from the selected datastore in the remote NETCONF device. Furthermore, NetConf Browser GUI contains dedicated toolbar buttons, dialog boxes and commands that let you quickly perform other NETCONF operations, such as <lock>, <unlock>, <copy-config>, <delete-config>, etc. (screen shot).
NETCONF version 1.1 and 1.0 over Secure Shell (SSH).
NetConf Browser provides full support for the NETCONF v1.1 over SSH specification (RFC 6241 and RFC 6242), as well as for NETCONF v1.0 (RFC 4741 and RFC 4742) for backward compatibility reasons. Therefore, the software lets you perform any NETCONF operation. Even if the operation is not actually available through the application’s GUI, it can be issued manually by typing the appropriate XML command and sending it to the NETCONF server (screen shot).
Browse YANG modules.
The software can load any standard or vendor-specific YANG or YIN module and display its contents in a visual manner, where module elements are represented in a hierarchical tree structure, containing nodes on which NETCONF operations can be performed. NetConf Browser also checks the syntax of every YANG module it loads. The hierarchy of YANG statements may be fully explored and a special property page viewed for each node. The software expands the YANG statement tree defined in the modules into an actual schema tree. This means that all uses statements are replaced with appropriate grouping contents and augment targets actually contain the augmented nodes (screen shot).
Edit configuration.
After retrieving the existing configuration from the NETCONF server, you can edit the configuration in the convenient and easy-to-use Edit Configuration window. This window incorporates a visual editor that guides you when editing a configuration instance XML document, ensuring it retains a proper XML structure (screen shot).
RFC 6110-compliant NETCONF Content Editor and Validator.
XML document editor with syntax coloring and auto-complete feature lets you easily compose any type of NETCONF XML document and validate it using the DSDL schemas, which are automatically generated from the selected YANG modules. The tool contains templates for composing typical NETCONF document types, such as RPC requests (get, get-config, edit-config,…), entire configuration datastores, RPC replies, etc. By default, the XML documents you are editing are being automatically validated in real-time. The NETCONF Content Editor window displays easy-to-understand error and warning messages if any inconsistencies are detected in the validated document. This way, one can quickly fix all syntax and semantic inconsistencies and send valid XML document to the connected NETCONF server, e.g., to apply a new configuration or perform any other NETCONF operation (screen shot).
Resolve YANG module dependencies.
NetConf Browser automatically scans all new YANG and YIN modules for dependencies (imported and included modules) and lets you scan user-specified locations for the matching modules. The entire information about the “registered” modules and submodules is stored in a single place and can be viewed in the Known Modules window. The latter also enables loading modules that have many dependencies with a single click of a button, as well as keeping and loading different revisions of the same modules (screen shot).
YANG Validation.
NetConf Browser checks the validity of all YANG and YIN modules it loads. In addition to the syntax checking, it also checks the semantics of YANG and YIN modules (screen shot).
Support for <commit> and <discard-changes> operations.
Users can quickly perform the NETCONF <commit> and <discard-changes> operations by clicking the respective buttons in the application’s toolbar (screen shot).
Support for <confirmed-commit> and <cancel-commit> operations.
The software lets you easily perform the NETCONF <confirmed-commit> and <cancel-commit> operations by using the dedicate dialog boxes. The application allows you to quickly start a new <confirmed-commit> operation and prolong or commit an existing one (screen shot).
Support for <get-schema> operation.
NetConf Browser supports the NETCONF get-schema operation (RFC 6022) that lets you download schema definitions (e.g., YANG and YIN modules) from remote NETCONF servers (screen shot).
Support for receiving NETCONF Notifications.
The software receives and logs NETCONF notifications (RFC 5277) after the user manually sends a valid create-subscription request to the NETCONF server. Received notifications may be reviewed in the Log panel of the main window (screen shot).
Support for receiving proprietary rpc-reply responses.
NetConf Browser accepts responses to manually sent proprietary RPC operations, which makes it suitable also for managing configurations of proprietary or non-standard NETCONF devices.