In some examples, administrators 12 use network management system 10 or a local workstation to interact with network devices 14, e.g., through telnet, secure shell (ssh), or other such communication sessions. That is, network devices 14 generally provide interfaces for interaction, such as command line interfaces (CLIs), web-based interfaces, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), or the like, by which a user may interact with the devices to issue text-based commands. For example, these interfaces typically allow a user to interact with the device, e.g., through a telnet, ssh, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), or other network session, to enter text in accordance with a defined syntax to submit commands to the managed device. In some examples, the user initiates an ssh session over link 15 with one of network devices 14, e.g., device 14F, using network management system 10, to configure device 14F. In this manner, a user may provide commands in a format for execution to network devices 14.

Further, administrators 12 may also create scripts that may be submitted by network management system 10 to any or all of network devices 14. For example, in addition to a CLI interface, network devices 14 also provide interfaces for receiving scripts that specify the commands in accordance with a scripting language. In a sense, the scripts may be output by network management system 10 to automatically invoke corresponding remote procedure calls (RPCs) on the managed network devices 14. The scripts may conform to, e.g., extensible markup language (XML) or another data description language.