Netconf on Cisco switches - Native vs IEFT - getting interface name

[ChrisMott30064]

I'm new to Netconf/YANG and am having difficulty with a simple script. This script will eventually allow the user to edit a User Interface to change the Description, the Access VLAN, and Port-security settings.

Using the IEFT model, I can get the interface name as "GigabitEthernet" pretty simply but using "xmltodict" and the below filter:

netconf_filter = """

<filter xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">

  <interfaces xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:yang:ietf-interfaces">

    <interface>

      <name/>

      <description/>

    </interface>

  </interfaces>

</filter>

"""

However, I need to use the Native model because I need to get the "access vlan" information and potentially change it. I've not gotten to the port-security yet, but that's also available only in the Native model.

Within the Native model, the interface name "seems" to be a key, not a value, but for the life of me I cannot seem to pull it out. For now, the script that leverages the Native model uses this filter:

desc_config = """

<config xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:netconf:base:1.0">

  <native xmlns="http://cisco.com/ns/yang/Cisco-IOS-XE-native">

    <interface>

      <GigabitEthernet>

        <name>{name}</name>

        <description>{desc}</description>

      </GigabitEthernet>

    </interface>

  </native>

</config>

 """

As with many Cisco shops, we have switches with various interface speeds on the same platform - Gigabit, Twogigabit, TenGigabit, etc. The script needs to gather this information to ensure when writing to a specific interface, it uses the correct interface name.

I've been searching for days and have examined probably 30-40 different blogs, but it's still not registering to me. I feel like I'm dancing around the answer but just haven't stepped the right way.

[Geevarghese Cheria]

Did you had chance to check this python notebook which could be helpfull in answering your question.

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/xr-netconf-lab/blob/master/workshop.ipynb