Yet Another Next Generation (YANG, /jæŋ/, which rhymes with "hang")[1][2][3] is a data modeling language for the definition of data sent over network management protocols such as the NETCONF[4] and RESTCONF.[5] The YANG data modeling language is maintained by the NETMOD [6] working group in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and initially was published as RFC6020 in October 2010, with an update in August 2016 (RFC7950). The data modeling language can be used to model both configuration data as well as state data of network elements. Furthermore, YANG can be used to define the format of event notifications emitted by network elements and it allows data modelers to define the signature of remote procedure calls that can be invoked on network elements via the NETCONF protocol. The language, being protocol independent, can then be converted into any encoding format, e.g. XML or JSON, that the network configuration protocol supports.
YANG is a modular language representing data structures in an XML tree format. The data modeling language comes with a number of built-in data types. Additional application specific data types can be derived from the built-in data types. More complex reusable data structures can be represented as groupings. YANG data models can use XPATH expressions to define constraints on the elements of a YANG data model.
Many network management protocols have associated data modeling languages. The first widely deployed Internet standard for network management was the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The data modeling language associated with SNMP was called the Structure of Management Information (SMI). The SMI language itself was based on the 1988 version of the Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1). The current version of the SMI language, SMIv2 defined in RFC2578, 2579 and 2580, has developed into an extended subset of ASN.1.
In the late 1990s, a project was started to create a replacement for SMIv2, which was called SMIng. One motivation was to decouple SMIng from the management protocol SNMP and to give SMIng a syntactic structure that is both easy to parse for computer programs and easy to learn for people familiar with programming languages that use a C-like notation. While the SMIng project did not succeed in the IETF, the SMIng specifications were published as experimental documents in May 2004 (RFC3780, 3781).
Soon after the development of the NETCONF protocol in the IETF, it became clear that a data modeling language was needed to define data models manipulated by the NETCONF protocol. A design team created a proposal that became the basis of the YANG language.[7] The syntactic structure and the base type system was essentially borrowed from SMIng. However, based on the lessons learned from the SMIng project, no attempts were made to make the YANG protocol neutral. Instead, YANG ties into concepts of the NETCONF protocol, such as the assumption that data model instances can be serialized into XML. Standardization of YANG started with the formation of the NETMOD working group in April 2008. The YANG 1.0 specification was published as RFC6020 in October 2010. Recently, the NETMOD working group has been working on YANG 1.1, which has been published in August 2016 in RFC7950.[2]
Example
The following YANG module example-sports shows a data model for team sports. The module declares a namespace and a prefix and imports the type library module ietf-yang-types before defining the type season. It then defines a container sports that includes a list of persons and a list of teams. A team has a list of players that reference persons via the leafref type and its path restriction.
module example-sports {
namespace "http://example.com/example-sports";
prefix sports;
import ietf-yang-types { prefix yang; }
typedef season {
type string;
description
"The name of a sports season, including the type and the year, e.g,
'Champions League 2014/2015'.";
}
container sports {
config true;
list person {
key "name";
leaf name { type string; }
leaf birthday { type yang:date-and-time; mandatory true; }
}
list team {
key "name";
leaf name { type string; }
list player {
key "name season";
unique number;
leaf name { type leafref { path "/sports/person/name"; } }
leaf season { type season; }
leaf number { type uint16; mandatory true; }
leaf scores { type uint16; default 0; }
}
}
}
}
JSON encoding
The code block below shows the JSON representation of an instantiation of the example-sports data model.
RFC8531: Generic YANG Data Model for Connection-Oriented Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Protocols
RFC8532: Generic YANG Data Model for the Management of Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Protocols That Use Connectionless Communications
RFC8533: A YANG Data Model for Retrieval Methods for the Management of Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) Protocols That Use Connectionless Communication
RFC8542: A YANG Data Model for Fabric Topology in Data-Center Networks
RFC8561: A YANG Data Model for Microwave Radio Link
RFC8575: YANG Data Model for the Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
libyang is a YANG parser and toolkit written in C and providing API in C
pyang is an extensible YANG validator and converter written in Python
pyangbind is a pyang-based Python binding generator
Sysrepo is a YANG-based configuration and operational datastore for Unix/Linux applications.
yangbuilder is a builder for YANG, implemented in Apache Groovy (generate yang data models with Apache Groovy, maintain similar models with one source code base)
yang-ide is an Eclipse plugin for editing and visualizing YANG models
yang-js is a YANG parser and evaluator written in CoffeeScript/JavaScript for Node.js and the web browser
yang-express is a yang-js based Express.js web framework generator
yang-swagger is a yang-js based Swagger/OpenAPI specification generator
yangson is a Python 3 library for working with JSON encoded configuration and state data modeled using the YANG data modeling language.
Yang-Explorer - is a pyang-based Yang Browser and RPC Builder Application
ydk-gen is a YANG-to-API compiler generating APIs in multiple languages (e.g. Python, C++)
yuma123 is netconf/YANG toolchain written in C providing: libyuma - API for development of applications supporting runtime compilation of YANG modules, netconfd - modular server, yangcli - interactive command line tool
Closed source implementations (sorted by name):
confd is a commercial management agent toolkit including a YANG compiler
MasterYANG is a YANG model designer, visualizer, and editor for Windows
Visual YANG Designer is a YANG definition file creator/editor/modeler/builder/designer and YANG compiler implemented in Java
yumapro is a commercial management agent toolkit including a YANG compiler