Cisco ENCOR Practice Exam 2025 – All-in-One Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Enterprise Network Core Technologies!

NETCONF primarily uses SSH (Secure Shell) for configuration management purposes. SSH is favored in this context due to its ability to provide a secure channel over an unsecured network. It establishes a secure connection between clients and servers, ensuring that configuration data is transmitted safely without the risk of interception by unauthorized parties.

NETCONF, designed specifically for network device management, employs SSH to facilitate the remote configuration, audit, and management of network devices, enabling commands to be sent securely. This aligns well with the requirements for managing modern network infrastructures, where security is paramount.

In comparison, other protocols like HTTP and FTP, although capable of transferring data, do not inherently provide the same level of security as SSH. HTTP can be secured with HTTPS but is not utilized by NETCONF directly. Similarly, FTP lacks encryption by default and is therefore less suitable for sensitive configuration data. TFTP is a simple file transfer protocol that does not include authentication or encryption, making it even less appropriate for securely managing device configurations.