.. vim:noswapfile:nobackup:nowritebackup: .. highlight:: console Backend ======= SuPA uses a plugable backend interface to communicate with different NRMs or network elements. Please refer to the API documentation on :ref:`supa.nrm.backend` for more details. At a minimum the ``activate()`` and ``deactivate()`` methods of the backend should be implemented, and optionally the ``topology()`` method to automate topology updates. If the backend interfaces to a NRM that also can reserve network resource, any of the other backend methods, that match the NSI primitives, like ``reserve()`` and ``reserve_commit()``, can be implemented. Backends are just regular Python modules. The name of the module to be used as backend can be specified with the ``backend`` configuration option, without the ``.py`` file extention of course. Just make sure that the the python module can be found somewhere on the `PYTHONPATH `_.