Chapter 28: Foundational

Network Programmability
Concepts
Instructor Materials

CCNP Enterprise: Core Networking

Chapter 28 Content
This chapter covers the following content:
Command-Line Interface (CLI) - This section provides an overview of the pros
and cons of managing devices with the traditional command-line interface
approach.
Application Programming Interface (API) - This section describes what APIs
are, the different types of APIs, and how they are used.
Data Models and Supporting Protocols - This section describes some of the
most common data models and associated tools
Cisco DevNet - This section provides a high-level overview of the various Cisco
DevNet components and learning labs.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 2
Chapter 28 Content (Cont.)
GitHub - This section illustrates different use cases for version control and the
power of community code sharing.
Basic Python Components and Scripts - This section illustrates the components
of Python scripts and how to interpret them.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 3
Command-Line Interface
(CLI)
The biggest flaw with using the CLI to manage a network is misconfiguration.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 4
Command-Line Interface (CLI)
Command-Line Interface (CLI)
The most glaring and biggest flaws with using the CLI to manage a network is misconfiguration.
When businesses have increased complexity in their networks, the cost of something failing can
be very high due to the increased time it takes to troubleshoot the issues in a complex network.
There are tools that can assist in reducing the number of outages that are caused by human error
due to misconfigurations in the CLI.
Table 28-2 CLI PROs and CONs
PROs CONs
Well known and documented Difficult to scale

Commonly used method Large number of commands

Commands can be scripted Must know IOS command syntax

Syntax help available on each command Executing commands can be slow

Connection to CLI can be encrypted (using SSH) Not intuitive

Can execute only one command at time

CLI and commands can change between software versions and platforms
Using the CLI can pose a security threat if using Telnet (plaintext)
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 5
Application Programming
Interface
• Northbound and Southbound APIs
• Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs
• Introduction to Postman
• Data Formats (XML and JSON)
• Cisco DNA Center APIs
• Cisco vManage APIs

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 6
Application Programming Interface
Northbound and Southbound APIs
A method of communicating with and configuring a network is the use
of application programming interfaces (APIs).

The two most common APIs: the Northbound and Southbound APIs
which are used in network automation.

Northbound APIs are often used to communicate from a network

controller to its management software. Cisco DNA Center has a
software GUI that is used to manage the network controller.

The controller information that is being passed from the management

software is leveraging a Northbound REST-based API. This traffic
should be encrypted using TLS.
If a change to a switch’s configuration in the management software of
the controller, those changes are then pushed down to the individual
devices like routers, switches and WAPs using a Southbound API and Figure 28-1 Basic API Operations
programmatic interface.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 7
Application Programming Interface
Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs
HTTP Action Use Case
Function
An API that uses REST is often
GET Requests data from a description Viewing a website
referred to a RESTful API.
PPOST Submits data to a specific destination Submitting login credentials
RESTful APIs use HTTP
PUT Replaces data in a specific destination Updating an NTP server
methods to gather and
manipulate data. HTTP offers a PATCH Appends data to a specific destination Adding an NTP server
DELETE Removes data from a specific Removing an NTP server
consistent way to interact with destination
APIs from multiple vendors. Table 28-3 HTTP Functions and Use Cases
CRUD Action Use Case
HTTP functions are similar to Function

functions that most applications CREATE Inserts data in a database or application Updating a customer’s home address in a
or databases use to store or alter database
READ Retrieves data from a database or Pulling up a customer’s home address from a
data. These functions are called application database
“CRUD” functions: CREATE, UPDATE Modifies or replaces data in a database Changing a street address stored in a
READ, UPDATE, and DELETE. or application database

DELETE Removes data from a database or Removing a customer from a database

application

Table 28-4 CRUD Functions and Use Cases

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 8
Application Programming Interface
Introduction to Postman
One of the most important pieces of interacting with
any software using APIs is testing. Testing code helps
ensure that developers are accomplishing the outcome
that was intended when executing the code.
Many APIs require user authentication to gain access
to utilize the APIs.

If a REST API call is used to delete data, that data will

be removed just as if a user logged in via the CLI and
deleted it.

Postman is an application that makes it possible to

interact with APIs using a console-based approach.
Postman allows for the use of various data types and
formats to interact with REST-based APIs. Figure 28-2
shows the main Postman application dashboard.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 9
Application Programming Interface
Introduction to Postman
One of the most important pieces of interacting with
any software using APIs is testing. Testing code
helps ensure that developers are accomplishing the
outcome that was intended when executing the
code.

Many APIs require user authentication to gain

access to utilize the APIs.
If a REST API call is used to delete data, that data
will be removed just as if a user logged in via the
CLI and deleted it.

Postman is an application that makes it possible to

interact with APIs using a console-based approach. Figure 28-2 Postman Dashboard
Postman allows for the use of various data types
and formats to interact with REST-based APIs.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 10
Application Programming Interface
Introduction to Postman (Cont.)
The Postman application has various sections that you can interact with.
The focus here is on using the Builder portion of the dashboard.
• History - The history tab shows a list of all the recent API calls made.
• Collections - API calls can be stored in groups, called collections,
that are specific to a user’s needs.
• New Tab - Tabs provide another very convenient way to work with
various API calls. Each tab can have its own API call and parameters
that are completely independent of any other tab.
• URL Bar - Each tab has its own URL bar to be able to use a specific
API. Remember that an API call using REST is very much like an
HTTP transaction. Each API call in a RESTful API maps to an
individual URL for a particular function. This means every
configuration change or poll to retrieve data a user makes in a REST
API has a unique URL—whether it is a GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or
DELETE function.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 11
Application Programming Interface
Data Formats XML and JSON
XML and JSON are two of the most common data formats that are used with APIs. Extensible Markup
Language (XML) is commonly used when constructing web services.

XML is a tag-based language. For example, a start tag named interface is represented as <interface>
and the end tag for <interface> would be </interface>.
Inside the start tag and end tag, you can use different code and parameters. Example 28-1 shows a
snippet of XML output with both start and end tags as well as some configuration parameters.

Notice that each section of Example 28-1 has a

start tag and an end tag. The data is structured
so that it contains a section called “users,” and
within that section are four individual users:
- root
- Jason
- Jamie
- Luke
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 12
Application Programming Interface
Data Formats XML and JSON (Cont.)
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is much easier to work with than XML. It is simple to read and
create.

JSON stores all its information in key/value pairs.

JSON uses objects for its format. Each JSON object starts with a { and ends with a }.
Example 28-3 shows how JSON can be used to represent the same username example shown for
XML in Example 28-1. You can see that it has four separate key/value pairs, one for each user’s
name.

In this JSON code snippet, you can see that the first key is user, and the value for that key is a unique
username, root.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 13
Application Programming Interface
HTTP Status Codes
Now that the XML and JSON data formats have been explained, it is important to circle back to using the
REST API and the associated responses and outcomes of doing so.

First, we need to look at the HTTP response status codes. Most internet users have experienced the
dreaded “404 Not Found” error when navigating to a website.

Table 28-5 lists the most common HTTP status codes as well as the reasons users may receive each one.
HTTP Status Code Result Common Reason for Response Code

200 OK Using GET or POST to exchange data with an API

201 Created Creating resources by using a REST API call

400 Bad Request Request failed due to client-side issue

401 Unauthorized Client not authenticated to access site or API call

403 Forbidden Access not granted based on supplied credentials

404 Not Found Page at HTTP URL location does not exist or is hidden

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 14
Application Programming Interface
Cisco DNA Center APIs
The Cisco DNA Center controller expects all incoming data from the REST API to be in JSON format.
The HTTP POST function is used to send the credentials to the Cisco DNA Center controller.

Cisco DNA Center uses basic authentication to pass a username and password to the Cisco DNA
Center Token API to authenticate users. This API is used to authenticate a user to the Cisco DNA
Center controller to make additional API calls.
The key steps necessary to successfully set up the API call in Postman are as follows:

Step 1. In the URL bar, enter https://sandboxdnac.cisco.com/api/system/v1/auth/token to target the

Token API.
Step 2. Select the HTTP POST operation from the dropdown box.
Step 3. Under the Authorization tab, ensure that the type is set to Basic Auth.
Step 4. Enter devnetuser as the username and Cisco123! as the password.
Step 5. Select the Headers tab and enter Content-Type as the key.
Step 6. Select application/json as the value.
Step 7. Click the Send button to pass the credentials to the Cisco DNA Center controller via the Token
API.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 15
Application Programming Interface
Cisco DNA Center APIs (Cont.)
You can tell that the API call to the Cisco DNA Center controller completed successfully by receiving
an HTTP status code 200.

The Network Device API allows users to retrieve a list of devices that are currently in inventory that
are being managed by the Cisco DNA Center controller.
You need to prepare Postman to use the token that was generated when you successfully
authenticated:

Step 1. Copy the token you received earlier and click a new tab in Postman.
Step 2. In the URL bar enter https://sandboxdnac.cisco.com/api/v1/network-device
Step 3. Select the HTTP GET operation from the dropdown box.
Step 4. Select the Headers tab and enter Content-Type as the key.
Step 5. Select application/json as the value.
Step 6. Add another key and enter X-Auth-Token.
Step 7. Paste the token in as the value.
Step 8. Click Send to pass the token to the Cisco DNA Center controller and perform an HTTP GET
to retrieve a device inventory list.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 16
Application Programming Interface
Cisco DNA Center APIs (Cont.)
Within a few moments an API call can be used to gather
that data for the entire network.
When using APIs, it is common to manipulate data by
using filters and offsets. If a user wants to leverage the
Network Device API to gather information on only the
second device in the inventory. This is where the API
documentation becomes so valuable. Most APIs have
documentation that explains what they can be used to
accomplish.
In Postman, it is possible to modify the Network Device
API URL and add ?limit=1 to the end of the URL to show
only a single device in the inventory. It is also possible to
add the &offset=2 command to the end of the URL to state
that only the second device in the inventory should be
shown. These query parameters are part of the API.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 17
Application Programming Interface
Cisco vManage APIs
There are various APIs available in the Cisco SD-WAN and the vManage controller.
With a Cisco SD-WAN API you need to provide login credentials to the API in order to be able
to utilize the API calls.
Some key pieces of information are necessary to successfully set up the API call in Postman:
• The URL bar must have the API call to target the Authentication API
• The HTTP POST operation is used to send the username and password to Cisco vManage
• The Headers Content-Type key must be application/x-www-form-urlencoded
• The body must contain keys with the j_username devnetuser and thej_password Cisco123!

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 18
Data Models and Supporting
Protocols
This section provides a high-level overview of some of the most common data models and
tools and how they are leveraged in a programmatic approach:
• Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) modeling language
• Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF)
• RESTCONF

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 19
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
YANG Data Models
YANG uses data models. Data models are used to describe whatever
can be configured, monitored or executed on a device.

Data models create a uniform way to describe data across vendor

platforms.
YANG models use a tree structure. The tree structure represents how
to reach a specific element of the model, and the elements can be
either configurable or not configurable. Every element has a defined
type. For example, an interface can be configured to be on or off.

Example 28-5 can be read as follows: There is food. Of that food,

there is a choice of snacks. The snack choices are pretzels and
popcorn. If it is late at night, the snack choices are two different types
of chocolate. A choice must be made to have milk chocolate or dark
chocolate, and if the consumer is in a hurry and does not want to wait,
the consumer can have the first available chocolate, whether it is milk
chocolate or dark chocolate.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 20
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
YANG Data Models (Cont.)
The YANG model in Example 28-6 can be read as
follows:
There is a list of interfaces. Of the available
interfaces, there is a specific interface that has three
configurable speeds.
Those speeds are 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and auto, as
listed in the leaf named speed.
The leaf named observed-speed cannot be configured
due to the config false command. This is because as
the leaf is named, the speeds in this leaf are what was
auto-detected (observed); hence, it is not a
configurable leaf. This is because it represents the
auto-detected value on the interface, not a
configurable value.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 21
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
NETCONF
NETCONF is an IETF standard protocol that uses the YANG data models to communicate with the
various devices on the network. NETCONF runs over SSH, TLS, and (although not common) SOAP.

Some of the key differences between SNMP and NETCONF are listed in Table 28-6.

One of the most important differences is that SNMP can’t distinguish between configuration data and
operational data, but NETCONF can. Another key differentiator is that NETCONF uses paths to
describe resources, whereas SNMP uses object identifiers (OIDs).
A NETCONF path can be similar to interfaces/interface/eth0, which is much more descriptive than what
you would expect from SNMP. Feature SNMP NETCONF

• Resources OIDs Paths

Collecting the status of specific fields
Data Models Defined in MIBs YANG core models
• Changing the configuration of specific fields
Data modeling SMI YANG
• Taking administrative actions language
• Sending event notifications Management SNMP NETCONF
• Backing up and restoring configurations operations

• Testing configurations before finalizing the Encoding BER XML,JSON

transaction Transport stack UDP SSH/TCP

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 22
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
NETCONF (Cont.)
Figure 28-15 illustrates how NETCONF uses YANG data models to interact with network devices and
then talk back to management applications. The dotted lines show the devices talking back directly to
the management applications, and the solid lines illustrate the NETCONF protocol talking between the
management applications and the devices.

NETCONF exchanges information called capabilities when the TCP connection has been made.
Capabilities tell the client what the device it’s connected to can do. Furthermore, other information can
be gathered by using the common NETCONF operations shown in Table 28-7.

Information and configurations are stored in datastores. Datastores can be manipulated by using the
NETCONF operations listing in Table 28-7. NETCONF uses Remote Procedure Call (RPC) messages in
XML format to send the information between hosts.
NETCONF Description
Operation
<get> Requests running configuration and state information of the device
<get-config> Requests some or all of the configuration from a datastore
<edit-config> Edits a configuration datastore by using CRUD operations
<copy-config> Copies the configuration to another datastore
<delete-config> Deletes the configuration
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 23
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
NETCONF (Cont.)
Example 28-9 shows an example of an OSPF
NETCONF RPC message that provides the OSPF
routing configuration of an IOS XE device.

The same OSPF router configuration that would be

seen in the command-line interface of a Cisco router
can be seen using NETCONF.

The data is just structured in XML format rather than

what users are accustomed to seeing in the CLI. It is
easy to read the output in these examples because of
how legible XML is.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 24
Data Models and Supporting Protocols
RESTCONF
RESTCONF is used to programmatically interface with data
defined in YANG models while also using the datastore concepts
defined in NETCONF.

RESTCONF uses the same YANG models as NETCONF and

Cisco IOS XE. The goal of RESTCONF is to provide a RESTful
API experience while still leveraging the device abstraction
capabilities provided by NETCONF. RESTCONF supports the
following HTTP methods and CRUD operations:

GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS

The RESTCONF requests and responses can use either JSON

or XML structured data formats.

Example 28-11 shows a brief example of a RESTCONF GET

request on a Cisco router to retrieve the logging severity level
that is configured. This example uses JSON instead of XML.
Notice the HTTP status 200, which indicates that the request
was successful.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 25
Cisco DevNet
• Network operators who are looking to enhance or increase their skills with APIs,
coding, Python, or even controller concepts can find a wealth of help at DevNet.
• At DevNet it is easy to find learning labs and content to help solidify current knowledge
in network programmability.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 26
Cisco DevNet
DEVNET API Labs
This section provides a high-level overview of DevNet,
including the different sections of DevNet and some of
the labs and content that are available.

Figure 28-16 shows the DevNet main page.

The Discover page is where you can navigate the
different offerings that DevNet has available.

Under this tab are subsections for guided learning

tracks, which guide you through various technologies
and the associated API labs. • Discover

Some of the labs you interact with are: Programming • Technologies

the Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA), ACI
• Community
Programmability, Getting Started with Cisco WebEx
Teams APIs, and Introduction to DevNet. • Support
• Events
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 27
Cisco DevNet
DEVNET API Labs (Cont.)
The Technologies page allows you to pick relevant content
based on the technology you want to study.

The Community page is where users have access to many

different people at various stages of learning. This is also
the place to read blogs, sign up for developer forums, and
follow DevNet on all major social media platforms.

The Support section of DevNet is where users can post

questions and get answers from some of the best in the
industry. You can ask questions about specific labs or the
overarching technology (for example, Python or YANG
models).

The DevNet Events page provides a list of all events that

have happened in the past and that will be happening in
the future. This is where a user can find the upcoming
DevNet Express events as well as conferences.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 28
GitHub
• One of the most efficient and commonly adopted ways of using version control.
• The ability to share your code and collaborate with an online community of
programmers and developers.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 29
GitHub
GitHub Repositories and Version Control
One of the most commonly adopted ways of using version control is by using GitHub.
GitHub is a hosted web-based repository for code.
Using GitHub offers: easiest ways to track changes in your files, collaborate with other
developers, and share code with the online community.
GitHub provides a guide that steps through how to
create a repository, start a branch, add comments,
and open a pull request.
Projects are repositories that contain code files.
GitHub provides a single pane to create, edit, and
share code files.
Figure 28-21 shows a repository called ENCORE
that contains three files: ENCORE.txt,
JSON_Example.txt, README.md
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 30
GitHub
GitHub Repositories and Version Control (Cont.)
GitHub gives a summary of commit logs, so when
you save a change in one of your files or create a
new file, GitHub shows details about it on the
main repository page.
In the JSON_Example.txt, for example, GitHub
shows its contents and how to edit the file in the
repository.
Figure 28-22 shows the contents of the
JSON_Example.txt file and the options available
with the file.
This editor is very similar to any text editor.
Other GitHub users and developers can contribute
to this code or add and delete lines of code based
on the code that was originally created.
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 31
Basic Python Components
and Scripts
• Python has become one of the most common programming languages in terms of
network programmability.
• This section leverages the new knowledge you have gained in this chapter about APIs,
HTTP operations, DevNet, and GitHub.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 32
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts
When you understand the basics of interpreting Custom - This is used in the event that there is
what a Python script is designed to do, it will be already a Cisco DNA Center installed either in a
easier to understand and leverage other scripts lab or another facility, and it needs to be
that are available. accessed using this script.

Example 28-12 shows a Python script that sets

up the environment to log in to the Cisco DNA
Center sandbox. It uses the same credentials
used with the Token API earlier.

Sandbox - The line that says ENVIRONMENT

IN USE=“sandbox” corresponds to the selection
of the sandbox type of lab environments
available through DevNet.

Express - This is the back end that is used for

the DevNet Express Events that are held
globally at various locations and Cisco office
locations. © 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 33
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
Variables are used to target the DevNet Cisco DNA Center sandbox specifically. Table 28-8 describes
these variables.

The variables shown are in the JSON data format that was discussed earlier in this chapter.
Remember that JSON uses key/value pairs and is extremely easy to read and interpret.

In Example 28-13, you can see the key/value pair “username”: “devnetuser”. The structure used to
hold all the key/value pairs in this script is called a dictionary. In this particular Python script, the
dictionary is named dnac. The dictionary named dnac contains multiple key/value pairs, and it starts
and ends with curly braces ({})

Variable Value Description

host sandboxdnac.cisco.com Cisco DNA Center sandbox URL

port 443 TCP port to access URL securely (HTTPS)

username devnetuser Username to log in to Cisco DNA Center sandbox (via API or GUI)

password Cisco123! Password to log in to Cisco DNA Center sandbox (via API or GUI)

Table 28-8 Python Variables for Cisco DNA Center Sandbox in Env_Lab.py
© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 34
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
In the get_dnac_device.py script.
The first section of code tells the Python
interpreter what modules this particular
script will use.
Think of a module as a collection of
actions and instructions. To better explain
the contents in this script, comments are
inserted throughout the script to help
document each section.
Example 28-17 shows the first section of
the get_dnac_devices.py with comments.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 35
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
Modules help Python understand
what it is capable of.
If a developer tried to do an HTTP
GET request without having the
Requests modules imported, it
would be difficult for Python to
understand how to interpret the
HTTP call. Although there are other
ways of doing HTTP calls from
Python, the Requests modules
greatly simplify this process.
Example 28-18 shows the second
section of the get_dnac_devices.py
script.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 36
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
Functions are blocks of code that are built to perform specific actions. Functions are very structured in
nature and can often be reused later on within a Python script.

Some functions are built into Python and do not have to be created. The print function, which can be
used to print data to a terminal screen. You can see the print function at the end of the
get_dnac_devices.py script.

In order to execute any API calls to Cisco DNA Center, you must be authenticated, using the Token
API.

Example 28-19 shows the use of the Token API within a Python script. (Recall that you saw this API
used with Postman earlier in the chapter.)

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 37
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
The script shown in Example 28-20 ties the Token API to the Network Device API call to retrieve
the information from Cisco DNA Center.
The line that says header [“x-auth-token”] = token is mapping the JSON response from the
previous example, which is the token, into the header called x-auth-token. In addition, the URL
for the API has changed to network_device, and the response is sending a requests.get to that
URL.
This is exactly the same example used with Postman earlier in this chapter.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 38
Basic Python Components and Scripts
Interpreting Python Scripts (Cont.)
The final section of get_dnac_devices.py shows code that ties the dnac dictionary that is in the
Env_Lab.py script to the dnac_login function covered earlier. In addition, the print function takes
the response received from the response.get that was sent to the Network Device API and puts it
into the table format that was specified earlier in the script with the name dnac_devices.
Example 28-21 shows the final lines of code in the script.

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 39
Prepare for the Exam

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 40
Prepare for the Exam
Key Topics for Chapter 28

Description
HTTP Functions and Use Cases
CRUD Functions and Use Cases
HTTP Status Codes
Steps to authenticate to Cisco DNA Center using a POST operation and basic
authentication
Steps to leverage the Network Device API to retrieve a device inventory from Cisco DNA
Center
Using the offset and limit filters with the Network Device API when gathering device
inventory

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 41
Prepare for the Exam
Key Terms for Chapter 28
Key Terms
Application Programming Interface (API)
command-line interface (CLI)
DevNet
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
GitHub
Java-Script Object (JSON)
NETCONF
Python
RESTCONF
Yang Model

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 42