Replicating data stored in NSO to an external database for offline analysis : Methods for replicating varied data sets, synchronisation, and database backend

Abstract: There is no specific tool to copy data from NSO to an external database continuously. NSO is a system which is used to handle settings on multiple devices using one interface. By providing the option to mirror NSO to an external database, information becomes more accessible and opens ups for the possibility of analyzing historical data. This research investigates how an extension to NSO that exports data can be designed and implemented. The research was done by exploring, and comparing, different techniques to find the most suitable technology. NSO is a tool sold by Cisco, used to configure network devices. This thesis/report tests the following three different technologies: are Kicker, Subscriber, and YANG-Push. To test the hypothesis that the Kicker technology is the fastest alternative, different packages were created and tested for test instances with a different number of transactions ranging from 600 to 3000. The packages were tested with two different external databases, one simple, and one heavy alternative. The results showed that the Kicker technology was the fastest alternative out of the packages that could be fully tested. However, YANG-push was fastest for the two most minor instances but hung for all others. It was also clear that the different external databases had significant impact on the speed. The results suggest that it is possible to create a package to export data to an external database and that the Kicker technology would be the best option. The best option for the database depends on the intended use case.