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Delete Configuration Elements Using NETCONF

SUMMARY Delete configuration elements

You can use NETCONF to delete configuration elements, including hierarchy levels or configuration objects, from the Junos configuration. You can delete objects from the candidate configuration or the open configuration database (if the client application issued the Junos XML protocol <open-configuration> operation prior to executing the <edit-config> operation).

To delete an element, a client application emits the basic tag elements described in Change Individual Configuration Elements Using NETCONF. It also emits the <default-operation> tag element with the value none to change the default mode to no-change.

In no-change mode, existing configuration elements remain unchanged unless the corresponding element in the new configuration has the operation="delete" attribute or operation="remove" attribute in its opening tag. This mode prevents the NETCONF server from creating parent hierarchy levels for an element that is being deleted. We recommend that client applications only perform deletion operations when using no-change mode. When merging, replacing, or creating configuration elements, client applications use merge mode.

The delete and remove attributes both instruct the NETCONF server to delete the specified configuration element in the target configuration. However, the NETCONF server behaves differently for each attribute when the specified configuration element does not exist. If you use the remove attribute and the element does not exist, the server silently ignores the request. If you use the delete attribute and the element does not exist, the server returns an <rpc-error> element with an <error-tag> value of data-missing. We recommend that you use the remove attribute when you want to delete an element but are unsure if the element exists.

To represent each configuration element being deleted (either within the <config> tag element or in the file named by the <url> tag element), the application emits the tag elements representing its parent hierarchy levels, as described in Change Individual Configuration Elements Using NETCONF. The placement of the operation="delete" attribute or operation="remove" attribute depends on the element type, as described in the following sections.

Deleting a Hierarchy Level or Container Object

To delete a hierarchy level and all of its children (or a container object that has children but no identifier), a client application includes the operation="delete" attribute or the operation="remove" attribute in the empty tag that represents the level.

We recommend that the application set the default mode to no-change by including the <default-operation> tag element with the value none, as described in Set the Edit Configuration Mode in a NETCONF Session. For more information about hierarchy levels and container objects, see Map Configuration Statements to Junos XML Tag Elements.

The following example shows how to remove the [edit protocols ospf] hierarchy level of the candidate configuration:

Deleting a Configuration Object That Has an Identifier

To delete a configuration object that has an identifier, a client application includes the operation="delete" attribute or the operation="remove" attribute in the container tag element for the object. Inside the container tag element, it includes the identifier tag element only, not any tag elements that represent other characteristics. In the following, the identifier tag element is called <name>:

Note:

The delete or remove attribute appears in the opening container tag, not in the identifier tag element. You include the identifier tag element to delete the specified object, not the entire hierarchy level represented by the container tag.

We recommend that the application set the default mode to no-change by including the <default-operation> tag element with the value none, as described in Set the Edit Configuration Mode in a NETCONF Session. For more information about identifiers, see Map Configuration Statements to Junos XML Tag Elements.

The following example shows how to remove the user object barbara from the [edit system login user] hierarchy level in the candidate configuration:

Deleting a Single-Value or Fixed-Form Option from a Configuration Object

To delete either a fixed-form option or an option that takes just one value from a configuration object, a client application includes the operation="delete" attribute or the operation="remove" attribute in the tag element for the option. In the following example, the identifier tag element for the object is called <name>. (For information about deleting an option that can take multiple values, see Deleting Values from a Multi-value Option of a Configuration Object.)

We recommend that the application set the default mode to no-change by including the <default-operation> tag element with the value none, as described in Set the Edit Configuration Mode in a NETCONF Session. For more information about options, see Map Configuration Statements to Junos XML Tag Elements.

The following example shows how to remove the fixed-form option disable at the [edit forwarding-options sampling] hierarchy level:

Deleting Values from a Multi-value Option of a Configuration Object

As described in Map Configuration Statements to Junos XML Tag Elements, some Junos OS configuration objects are leaf statements that have multiple values. In the formatted ASCII CLI representation, the values are enclosed in square brackets following the name of the object:

The Junos XML representation does not use a parent tag for the object, but instead uses a separate instance of the object tag element for each value. In the following example, the identifier tag element is called <name>:

To remove one or more values for such an object, a client application includes the operation="delete" attribute or the operation="remove" attribute in the opening tag for each value. It does not include tag elements that represent values to be retained. In the following example, the identifier tag element is called <name>:

We recommend that the application set the default mode to no-change by including the <default-operation> tag element with the value none, as described in Set the Edit Configuration Mode in a NETCONF Session. For more information about leaf statements with multiple values, see Map Configuration Statements to Junos XML Tag Elements.

The following example shows how to remove two of the permissions granted to the user-accounts login class:

Change History Table

Feature support is determined by the platform and release you are using. Use Feature Explorer to determine if a feature is supported on your platform.

Release
Description
23.1R1 and 23.1R1-EVO
Starting in Junos OS Release 23.1R1 and Junos OS Evolved Release 23.1R1, the NETCONF server <rpc-error> response is changed when <edit-config> uses the operation="delete" operation to delete a configuration element that is absent in the target configuration. The error severity is error instead of warning, and the <rpc-error> element includes the <error-tag>data-missing</error-tag> and <error-type>application</error-type> elements.