NetOps Development Kit (NDK)#

Nokia SR Linux enables its users to create high-performance applications that run alongside native apps on SR Linux Network OS. These "on-box custom applications" can deeply integrate with the rest of the SR Linux system and therefore can perform tasks that are not feasible to perform with traditional out-of-the-box automation done via management interfaces.

The on-box applications (which we also refer to as "agents") leverage the SR Linux software development kit called NetOps Development Kit or NDK for short.

Applications developed with SR Linux NDK have a set of unique characteristics which set them aside from the traditional off-box automation solutions:

1. Native integration with SR Linux system
   SR Linux architecture is built in a way that let NDK agents look and feel like any other regular application such as BGP or ACL. This seamless integration is achieved on several levels:
   1. System integration: when deployed on SR Linux system, an NDK agent renders itself like any other "standard" application. That makes lifecycle management unified between Nokia-provided system apps and custom agents.
   2. Management integration: each NDK app configuration and state model automatically becomes a part of the global SR Linux management tree, making it possible to configure the agent and query its state the same way as for any other configuration region.
   3. Telemetry integration: an NDK agent configuration and state data will automatically become available for Streaming Telemetry consumption.
2. Programming language-neutral
   With SR Linux NDK, the developers are not forced to use any particular language when writing their apps. As NDK is based on gRPC, it is possible to use any¹ programming language that supports protobuf.
3. Deep integration with system components
   NDK apps are not constrained to only configuration and state management, as often happens with traditional north-bound interfaces. On the contrary, the NDK service exposes additional services that enable deep integration with the SR Linux system, such as listening to RIB/FIB updates or having direct access to the datapath.

Developers are welcomed to dig into the NDK Developers Guide to learn all about NDK architecture and how to develop apps with this kit.

Browse our Apps Catalog with a growing list of NDK apps that Nokia or 3^rd parties published.

NDK artifacts#

A list of links to various NDK artifacts:

• NDK Proto files: nokia/srlinux-ndk-protobufs
• Generated NDK Service documentation
• Go bindings for NDK: nokia/srlinux-ndk-go
• Python bindings for NDK: nokia/srlinux-ndk-py

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